Australian developer House House has confirmed it will not release its co-operative puzzle hit Big Walk on Xbox, citing solidarity with the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign against Microsoft over its cloud and AI contracts with the Israeli military.
The decision keeps the acclaimed title limited to computers, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch 2 following its release earlier this year. House House, the Melbourne studio widely known for Untitled Goose Game, addressed questions about an Xbox version by pointing directly to the BDS movement’s designation of Microsoft Games and Xbox as priority boycott targets.
House House Explains the Xbox Boycott Decision
In a statement posted to social media channels, House House acknowledged that bypassing Microsoft’s console runs counter to the game’s core design. Big Walk is built around multiplayer cooperation, and the studio admitted that missing the Xbox ecosystem means some players will miss out on playing with friends.
Big Walk won’t be coming to Xbox, and the developers have now explained why.House House says the decision was made in support of the BDS movement, which stands for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. BDS is a Palestinian-led campaign that uses boycotts and other forms of… pic.twitter.com/3iKEN9TKel
— https://x.com/Pirat_Nation/status/2110679588749619589
We have made the decision not to release Big Walk on Xbox, in accordance with the Palestinian-led BDS movement’s call to boycott Microsoft, and their designation of Microsoft Games (and Xbox) as a priority boycott target.
House House, Developer
The studio added that it would love for Xbox owners to play the game but will hold off until Microsoft and Xbox are removed from the boycott target list. Big Walk has otherwise found strong commercial success, selling over one million copies in its first week on sale after arriving on August 4.
Broader Industry Pressures and Microsoft’s Defense Contracts
House House is part of a wider wave of independent developers taking action against Microsoft due to the tech giant’s ties to the Israeli government. The BDS movement initiated its Microsoft campaign in April 2025, pressing the company to sever ties with the military in response to the conflict in Gaza.
Other studios have taken similar steps. Ice Water Games pulled Tenderfoot Tactics from Xbox in 2025, while developer Dan Dilorio asked players not to buy Luck be a Landlord on the platform and donated $10,000 to The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. Meanwhile, Speculative Agency weighed leaving a developer acceleration deal for its upcoming title All Will Rise, citing the financial risks of breaking contracts against the urgency of the No Games for Genocide movement.
Internal friction has also surfaced within Microsoft itself. More than 2,000 Microsoft workers signed the No Azure for Apartheid petition demanding an independent audit of company services. In May 2025, Microsoft acknowledged providing Azure and AI services to the Israel Ministry of Defence but stated its internal review found no evidence those technologies were used to target people.