Two shooters, two consoles, two communities. Gears of War Reloaded and Helldivers 2 will soon be released on their respective competitors, and gamers are happy.
It’s a dispute as old as gaming itself. Even when the first children were throwing Pokémon cards at each other in school playgrounds, an epic battle was raging in living rooms around the world: Xbox vs PlayStation – a war of the consoles.
The discussion about whether Sony or Microsoft has the better hardware on the market usually hinges on one big question: Who has the better exclusives?
However, we may soon no longer have to ask ourselves this question: Helldivers 2 and Gears of War: Reloaded show how to unite two communities.
August 26, 2025 – ceasefire in console war
Gears of War: Reloaded has already been set to make its debut on the competition for two months. The series was Xbox-exclusive for years and is sending Marcus Fenix and his comrades into Sony’s realm for the first time with the remaster. You will be able to battle the Locust horde for the first time on PlayStation from August 26, 2025.
Now it has been announced that the end-time shooter will not be traveling alone. Also on August 26th Sony’s Helldivers 2 will plant its flag in Microsoft territory. This was announced by Arrowhead in a livestream (1:01:43).
On Reddit, people are taking this coincidence as an opportunity to lay down their (imaginary) arms for a day:
“Today we are all brothers, tonight we are all friends,” writes someone in a comment below. In a other thread people are happy about the newly rekindled bromance:
Helldivers II and Gears of War Reloaded both came out on the same day. August 26, 2025
Sony: Take my game, HD2
Xbox: No, take my game, GoWR
The studio behind Helldivers 2 is also aware of the appeal behind the Xbox release. Speaking to Xbox Wire Game Director Mikael Eriksson discussed what this release means to him and the team.
We know players have been asking for this for a long time and we’re really excited to add more Helldivers to our game. We have a lot more planned for the coming months and years – and the more players we have, the more stories we can tell! The battle for Super Earth has only just begun.
This also makes Helldivers 2 the first game published by Sony to be released on Xbox. Although the once PlayStation-exclusive Death Stranding found its way onto Microsoft’s console in 2024,
Kojima Productions first had to take over the rights to the brand from Sony and have the game published by 505 Games. Helldivers 2, on the other hand, will continue to be released under Sony’s flag on the Xbox.
