During the Business Update podcast on February 15, Xbox boss Phil Spencer revealed that four platform exclusives would be heading to rival platforms. The podcast was also used to address claims that Microsoft plans to stop making consoles. Barely a week after that announcement, Xbox has now officially announced the games and the platforms they will be launched.
In a blog post published on Xbox Wire on Wednesday, February 21, 2024, Matt Booty, Microsoft gaming division’s Game Content and Studio president revealed the games that the company plans to bring to rival platforms. Booty reiterated Microsoft’s commitment “to meeting players where they are, by bringing more games, to more people, and on more devices”.
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“Today we are announcing that four fan-favorite Xbox games will be coming to Nintendo Switch and Sony platforms this spring,” Booty wrote. “The studios that built these celebrated games have drawn on their multi-platform experience to open the worlds they created to even more players and communities.”
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Pentiment from Obsidian Entertainment, a truly unique, critically acclaimed, and award-winning narrative adventure game with a striking visual style inspired by history itself will be coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch on February 22.
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Hi-Fi RUSH, the award-winning and beloved rhythm-based action game where the world syncs to the music from Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks will be coming to PlayStation 5 on March 19 at midnight UTC, with pre-purchase available on PlayStation 5 digital storefronts on February 22.
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Grounded – also from Obsidian Entertainment – a co-op survival adventure phenomenon that has welcomed 20 million players into the backyard, will be coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch on April 16. Cross play will be supported across Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
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Sea of Thieves, the shared world adventure game from Rare, will be coming to PlayStation 5 on April 30 – and will be available to wishlist by PlayStation 5 players starting tomorrow, February 22. Having built a passionate community of more than 35 million players from around the world, the support of cross-play for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC will allow players to experience epic pirate adventures with friends on more platforms.
Xbox arguably has more games on rival platforms than any other platform
Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush, Grounded, and Sea of Thieves will now join Minecraft, Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Diablo to become Xbox first-party titles that are available to play on rival platforms. Booty said, “We’re excited for more players to experience these worlds and stories on more platforms”.
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Grounded and Sea of Thieves, the two live service games that will be coming to rival platforms, will also support crossplay. What this means players on one platform can band together with players on another platform and enjoy the game together as a team.
PlayStation conducted a similar experiment recently by launching Helldivers 2 on PC, making it the first Sony’s first-party title to be launched on a platform other than PlayStation. It turned out to be a great decision. So far, Helldivers 2 has garnered 457,649 concurrent players on Steam.
Some Xbox fans did not like the idea of bringing first-party titles to rival platforms. However, from a business perspective, Xbox may have found a way to continue earning from its old titles by bringing them to rival platforms. This is a strategy that other console makers will likely emulate in the coming years.
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Tango Gameworks has announced that it will be collaborating with Limited Run Games, a studio that publishes physical games, to bring the physical copies of Hi-Fi Rush to Xbox Series X|S and PS5. In a similar collaboration, Obsidian has partnered with Limited Run Games to bring physical copies of Pentiment to Xbox, Switch, and PS5. The physical copies of Pentiment will be available for pre-order from February 22 to March 24.
In the business update podcast last Thursday, Spencer said the four games coming to rival platforms is a one-off thing. However, the success of their little experiment may inspire Xbox to bring more first-party titles to rival platforms—regardless of what their community may think. It is a game of numbers rather than a game of emotions.
