Many more Xbox games are planned to go multi-platform, according to a new report that emerged from the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2024. Microsoft's ongoing multi-platform push is understood to be coinciding with some third-party publishers losing faith in the Xbox ecosystem.
Following weeks' worth of rumors that stirred up quite a lot of drama among its fans, Microsoft confirmed that it's bringing four Xbox games to other platforms in mid-February. Those titles were promptly revealed to be Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Pentiment, and Hi-Fi Rush. The latter duo already had their multi-platform debuts, while the former pair is scheduled to reach select Xbox rival platforms in April. Some industry watchers also count As Dusk Falls in this wave of releases, because while it wasn't developed by a Microsoft subsidiary, it was published by Xbox Game Studios in 2022 before making its way to PlayStation consoles in March 2024.
'Majority' of Xbox Games Are Reportedly Coming to the PS5
Those titles won't be the end of Microsoft's plans to strengthen its competitors' content catalogs, according to Christopher Dring of GamesIndustry.biz (via VGC). During the latest episode of the GI Microcast podcast, Dring said he understands that "the majority" of modern Xbox games will be coming to the PS5 "at some point." The company's commitment to more platform-inclusive publishing arrives at a time when its own ecosystem is falling behind its rivals. Dring said that Microsoft appears to be particularly struggling on the Old Continent, having characterized Xbox sales as "flatlining" in Europe, citing two publishers who chimed in on the matter during GDC 2024.
Some third parties are now understood to be becoming disillusioned with the entirety of the Xbox ecosystem as a result of its ongoing struggles to grow its installed base. Looking to illustrate that point, Dring recalled a GDC conversation with a "major company who released a big game" on Xbox in 2023, stating that its representative bluntly said "I don't know why we bothered supporting it" in reference to Microsoft's consoles. In a rare official update offered during the Best International Games Festival in June 2023, Microsoft revealed that both the PS5 and Switch have been outselling the Xbox Series X/S two to one.
All Xbox Games That Recently Went Multi-Platform Or Are About To
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Game | PC/Xbox Release | Multi-Platform Release | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Pentiment | November 15, 2022 | February 22, 2024 | Ported to the Switch, PS4, and PS5. |
As Dusk Falls | July 19, 2022 | March 7, 2024 | Not developed by Microsoft, but originally published by Xbox Game Studios. Ported to the PS4 and PS5. |
Hi-Fi Rush | January 25, 2023 | March 19, 2024 | Ported to the PS5. |
Grounded | September 27, 2022 | April 16, 2024 | Coming to the Switch, PS4, and PS5. |
Sea of Thieves | March 20, 2018 | April 30, 2024 | Coming to the PS5. |
While the early February reports of many Xbox games going multi-platform only turned out to be partially true, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer already hinted that more are on the way. During a subsequent episode of The Official Xbox Podcast, the executive noted that platform exclusives are gradually eroding, pointing to the fact that many of today's most successful games like Fortnite are available on essentially every device that can run them.
Both that statement and the context in which it was made alluded to Microsoft planning to go along with this trend instead of fighting it, especially from the position that it's in. The conglomerate has long stopped mincing words about its current situation, having flat-out proclaimed that "Xbox has lost the console wars" during its 2023 legal battle with the FTC over the fate of the now-concluded Activision Blizzard acquisition.
