Microsoft announced some surprising decisions in the latest episode of the Official Xbox Podcast, as the Redmond-based giant confirms it will be bringing a number of Xbox exclusive titles over to hardware rivals the Sony PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. This seems to be the latest in Microsoft’s move to grow their gaming division beyond just their own Xbox consoles and PC.
In the Official Xbox Podcast, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, Xbox President Sarah Bond and Microsoft Gaming Content & Studios President Matt Booty came together to reveal more about the future of Microsoft and Xbox, in particular their shift towards bringing more games to more players around the world. According to them, Microsoft will be bringing four yet-unnamed Xbox exclusives to other platforms as part of their way to evolve and ensure long term success for both the Xbox platform and the industry as a whole.
Curiously, they did not name what four titles these will be, only noting that these titles are games that have been available to Xbox players for at least a year now, will include ‘hidden gems’ that deserve more attention and live service games that will benefit from reaching a bigger player base. Oh, and Spencer also double confirms during the podcast that Starfield and Indiana Jones will not be going cross platform for now; rumours on social media had previously falsely claimed that Bethesda’s latest two major titles would no longer be going exclusive.
That being said, speculation is rife that these four games will be Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves and Grounded. This would mostly line up with Spencer’s statement of these games being older hidden gems and live service games.
Spencer goes on to add that they believe the age of platform exclusive games are beginning to end. He says that he believes games exclusive to just one hardware platform will become a smaller part of the industry within the next decade, though for the time being Microsoft will continue to do Xbox exclusive titles still. With these four titles though, it seems that Microsoft will be testing the waters and considering making more Xbox titles appear on rival consoles depending on its reception.
