Xbox’s Indiana Jones and Forza Horizon 5 are currently reigning atop PlayStation’s PS5 preorder charts, and you can see why Phil and co have opted to deploy them now

You know how both Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Forza Horizon 5 are set to arrive on PS5 next month, as part of Xbox’s ongoing efforts to turn everything including your toaster into an Xbox? Well, they’re currently reiging right at the top of the PlayStation Store pre-order charts, having valiantly outdueled, er, Days Gone Remastered.

Ok, so I’m maybe being a bit facetious towards motorbike guys that’ve been given a new coat of paint with that last bit, but you can see why Phil Spencer and his gang of people dressed in green have opted to put out these two games that’d almost certainly have been big deals regardless onto PS5 within a couple of weeks of each other.

As a ResetEra user’s spotted, heading to the best selling pre-order randings of a while bunch of regional variants of the PlayStation Store will serve you some combination of Indy and FH5’s various editions either locking out the top spots, or all pretty close to them.

For instance, on the UK version of the store, Indy’s standard edition currently leads the way, followed by its premium edition, with Forza’s premium edition sitting third, while its standard edition sits fifth, behind Atomfall – which isn’t an Xbox exclusive, but is hitting Game Pass day one. In the US, it’s Indy premium ruling the roost, then regular Indy, with Forza premium anmd Forza regular following directly on to lock out the top four spots. That post I’ve linked also cites a fair few more countries where the rankings are similar, including Germany, France, and Canada.

So, what does this mean? Well, that a bunch of people want to play these big games when they arrive on a new console as of April 17 (Indy) and April 29 (Forza). However, as I mentioned, it’s also likely the result of Phil and co having great timing.

In terms of PlayStation studio-developed stuff, the next couple of months are pretty damn quiet, with Days Gone Remastered being the sole exception on April 25. Meanwhile, the big releases that’re aiming to dominate the summer on the console – your Doom: The Dark Ages, Elden Ring Nightreign and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach – are all currently at least a month and a bit away from release.

So, while those games do feature heavily in these pre-order rankings just behind or in and around the Indys and Forzas, they’re not quite at the point where they’re gathering full pre-order steam right before dropping. So, Xbox’s big stuff’s more immediate competition right now is games like the aforementioned Atomfall, The First Berserker: Khazan, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 alongside Days Gone. All popular games you’ve almost definitely heard of, but not great big oxygen-soaking monsters at this point.

That said, even with that being the case, Forza and Indy wouldn’t be top without PS5 players having a serious appetite to play them, and why wouldn’t they? F**k, how do I close this out without just sounding like I want to give Phil Spenny a cringey high-five? Ah well, bring your sweaty mitts here, big Phillip.