It took Microsoft a little time to clarify the situation regarding the Xbox brand strategy. Pressed by the rumors that had been circulating since the beginning of January, the firm waited until mid-February to communicate on the subject. This is enough to clarify (a little) certain points about Xbox exclusives.
4 Xbox games are coming to other platforms
If you haven’t been following all the rumors and what led to this communication, here’s a quick summary. At the beginning of January, the rumor of the arrival of Hi-Fi Rush on Nintendo Switch surfaced, quickly followed by that of Sea of Thieves on PS5 and Switch. Several weeks then passed, but the rumors returned with a vengeance at the beginning of February when some spoke of the arrival of Starfield and Indiana Jones on PS5.
It is these latest rumors that forced Microsoft to break its silence. Thus, Phil Spencer, the boss of Xbox, had promised an “update” on the strategic plans of the brand and during which he was “looking forward to sharing more details on our vision for the future of Xbox”.
Asked if the Xbox exclusives will be released on competing consoles, Phil Spencer simply indicated that four games will arrive on other platforms:
So we made the decision that we were going to put four games on the other consoles… Four games only, without changing our exclusivity strategy.
The boss of Xbox, however, did not name the games concerned, and indicates that he will leave it to the studios to do so when the time comes.
Starfield and Indiana Jones are not affected
To clarify things a little, Spencer nevertheless specifies that neither Starfield nor Indiana Jones are among these four games. We also know that two of them are community games and that the other two are more “modest” titles, and that they have been available on Xbox for at least a year.
According to our sources, we can say that Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment are the games chosen by the company which will soon be released on other consoles.
For his part, Phil Spencer also clarified that these four games are for the moment the only ones planned and that the teams will “learn”. However, this is not a promise that other titles will then arrive on other platforms and we should have more details on the subject soon.