As Gears of War: Reloaded gets ready to hit PS5 day one, PlayStation reveals Xbox probably made Phil Spencer’s mouth water by dominating its console’s April best-sellers

Well, wouldn’t you know it. Microsoft’s strategy of deploying a whole bunch of big Xbox games onto PS5 last month looks to have had the exact result the green brand was looking for, with top of the console’s April best-seller list featuring Forza Horizon 5, Minecraft, and Oblivion Remastered.

As we pointed out at the time, it seemed like Xbox might well have nailed its timing with this bout of cross-platform pushing before it’d even deployed the games I just mentioned, as well as the likes of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and the heavily Xbox-pushed Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. After all, there wasn’t going to be that much competition for them in terms of imminent Sony-published stuff.

Cue the list of PlayStation Store’s most downloaded titles for April 2025 that Sony’s shared. At the top of the ranking for Europe, Forza led home Oblivion Remastered, while Minecraft rounded out the podium places, making it an all Xbox-affiliated top three.

US-wise, Oblivion Remastered led the way, with Minecraft P2, and Forza P3. Indy, meanwhile, was eighth on the EU list, and eleventh on the US one, which is a bit surprising to me given its name value. I guess most of the uber-interested people played it on Xbox back in December or January. Also, Clair Obscur came fourth in Europe and sixth in the US.

Days Gone Remastered, arguably the biggest PlayStation-backed game to hit the platform last month, ended up eleventh in the EU chart, and twelfth on the US one. Pretty solid for a remaster I don’t think many people were anticipating taking off like wildfire.

So, Xbox’s multi-platform strategy – the one it has to make work in order for the hit of turning what would previously have been straight-up console exclusives into timed exclusives that’ll hit other platforms not that long after release be worth it – looks to be going well for now.

Speaking of, we’ve just learned of another title that’ll be joining in on that fun this year. Gears of War: Reloaded – a remaster of an Xbox classic in the original Gears of War – will be hitting PS5 and Steam as well as Xbox Series X/S and Game Pass when it releases on August 26, 2025.

It’s been developed by The Coalition along with Sumo Interactive and Disbelief, will cost $39.99, and it features all the content you get from the game’s Ultimate Edition. “From faster frame rates to deeper visual fidelity, every detail has been tuned to bring the original game into the present with clarity, smoothness, and immersion that matches the power of today’s hardware,” reads Xbox’s announcement/sales pitch for it.

Have you or will you be grabbing any of these quite Xboxy games on PS5? Let us know below.