Microsoft took some time to clarify the situation regarding the Xbox brand strategy. Overwhelmed by the rumors that had been circulating since early January, the firm waited until mid-February to discuss the topic. This is enough to clarify certain points about Xbox exclusives.
4 Xbox games coming to other platforms
If you haven’t been following all the rumors and what led to this communication, here’s a quick summary. In early January, rumors surfaced of the arrival of Hi-Fi Rush on Nintendo Switch, which was quickly followed by Sea of Thieves on PS5 and Switch. Then a few weeks passed, but the rumors returned with a vengeance in early February when some talked about the arrival of Starfield and Indiana Jones on the PS5.
It is these latest rumors that forced Microsoft to break its silence. As such, Xbox boss Phil Spencer promised an “update” on the brand’s strategic plans and meanwhile was “looking forward to sharing more details on our vision for the future of Xbox”.
Asked if the Xbox exclusives would be released on competing consoles, Phil Spencer only hinted that four games would be coming to other platforms:
So we made the decision that we were going to put four games on other consoles… just four games without changing our exclusivity strategy.
The Xbox boss, however, did not name the games involved, suggesting that he would leave it to the studio to do that when the time comes.
Starfield and Indiana Jones are not affected
To clarify things a bit, Spencer does clarify that neither Starfield nor Indiana Jones are among the four games. We also know that two of them are community games and the other two are more “modest” titles, and they’ve 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 to be released on other consoles soon.
For his part, Phil Spencer also clarified that these four games are only for the planned moment and that the teams will “learn”. However, this is not a promise that other titles will come to other platforms later and we should have more details on this topic soon.