It's been a long few weeks for everyone involved at Microsoft as constant leaks suggested they had thrown the towel against Sony and PlayStation by going multiplatform, with the head of Xbox Phil Spencer confirming that four titles will be heading to other consoles, but not the likes of Starfield or the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
There were leaks surrounding Starfield, one of the most popular games on Xbox, would be available on PlayStation. However, those rumours were later corrected by the insiders, stating that their information was incorrect
Another leak suggested that Indiana Jones would only be a console-exclusive for mere months before heading to PlayStation 5. Now, we finally have confirmation via the official Xbox podcast that this won't be the case.
Without going into specifics, Spencer did confirm that Xbox will put out four different titles on more platforms, but neither of them are Bethesda's Sci-Fi RPG nor Indiana Jones' upcoming adventure. He was very coy but did give some hints as to which games we could see, with Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded as prime candidates according to The Verge.
Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment are two single-player experiences that could benefit from reaching new audiences on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5. Similarly, Sea of Thieves and Grounded are multiplayer games that can see a boost in their online communities by going multiplatform.
Hi-Fi Rush was one of the first games that popped up during the leaks, with insiders claiming the Tango Gameworks colourful rhythmic action game was set to release on Switch and PlayStation 5.
While Xbox isn't moving away from exclusives, Phil Spencer did mention during the podcast that exclusivity will be slowly phased out as a widespread trend and not only at Microsoft.
I do have a fundamental belief that over the next five or ten years exclusive games, games that are exclusive to one piece of hardware, are going to be a smaller and smaller part of the game industry
So as it stands, don't expect the flagship Xbox titles to be headed to PlayStation or Nintendo Switch soon, but as Phil said, there is potential for more and bigger games to jump ship as well, just don't get your hopes up. In an interview with The Verge, he stated:
I don’t think we should as an industry ever rule out a game going to any other platform. We’re focused on these four games and learning from the experience. But I don’t want to create a false expectation on those other platforms that this is somehow the first four to get over the dam and then the dam’s going to open and that everything else is coming
While it appeared to be the end of the road for Microsoft in the gaming space, it seems rumours of Xbox's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Now, it's only a matter of time before Xbox confirms the four titles that will be going multiplatform.