There have been numerous rumors regarding Xbox exclusives coming to other platforms, particularly consoles, and the recent Microsoft update podcast has finally shed light on the matter. With details on which games might soon become multiplatform, there are a couple of guesses as to what they might be.
Xbox Exclusives Going Multiplatform
Microsoft Gaming executives Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond, and Matt Booty have finally revealed details about the Xbox exclusives that are arriving on other consoles, but they did not exactly specify which games these will be.
In the announcement, all that was said was Microsoft would be sharing four games with other platforms. More specifically, Xbox head Phil Spencer said that they are "over a year old" and are "first iterations of a franchise."
In addition to that, two titles were also described as "smaller games that were never really meant to be built as kind of platform exclusives," which helps narrow down which four video game titles we'll be seeing outside Xbox consoles soon.
While that does not reveal which games are coming to other consoles, it does say which ones are not. This confirms that the rumor about Starfield coming to the PS5 is not happening, considering that the space-faring game was released on September 6th, 2023.
According to sources who are familiar with Microsoft's plans, the four speculated video games that will be released from exclusivity are Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded, as reported by Ars Technica.
Microsoft's Exclusivity and Strategy
After stating that they have made the decision to take four games to other consoles, Spencer clarified that it won't be a change to the company's "fundamental exclusive strategy," meaning that Microsoft will still produce games that can only be played through its console.
"We're making these decisions for some specific reasons," says the Xbox head, with the long-term health of Xbox in mind. One of those reasons is getting players on other platforms to be more interested in Xbox.
Microsoft has already shared many of its games with other consoles. Considering its acquisition of both Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax Media, as well as the game Minecraft, Spencer said that the company has become one of the biggest publishers across platforms.
With that said, the Xbox head said that it's "not something we want to back away from" and that they want to continue building great games that "millions and millions of people can love," where they can play the games where they want to play.
There's also the belief that in the next five or ten years, "games that are exclusive to one piece of hardware are going to be a smaller and smaller part of the game industry," and so releasing Xbox exclusives to other platforms is framed as a way for Microsoft to grow in the gaming business.
Companies used to build and launch games to accelerate the hardware, which is what mainly game exclusives are about, but Xbox Game Studios Head Matt Booty expressed that the developments in hardware are now "all in service of making those games bigger."
