In an official Xbox podcast today addressing rumors and the future of the gaming giant’s business, head Phil Spencer confirmed that four previously exclusive Xbox titles will be heading to other consoles.
Spencer did not name the titles but did confirm that both the Bethesda flagship title Starfield and the yet-to-be-released Indiana Jones game are not coming to other consoles. According to Xbox insider Tom Warren of The Verge, the four titles are reportedly Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded, most of which were previously reported on.
In the podcast, Spencer referred to two of the games as “community-driven, service-based games” that are part of franchises that Xbox wants to continue investing in, likely referring to both Sea of Thieves and Grounded. Spencer referred to the other two as “smaller games that were never really meant to be built as kind of platform exclusives,” likely referring to Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment. Head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty added that Xbox is working on making sure “cross-play and cross-save” will work for these titles.
Regarding exclusivity as a concept, Spencer drove home the point that the decision to bring these four titles to other platforms is “not a change to our kind of fundamental exclusive strategy.” But he also noted that he fundamentally believes that over the next five to 10 years, exclusive games “are going to be a smaller and smaller part of the game industry.”
Spencer also attempted to quell a wave of anticipation from Switch and PS5 players that more games will eventually come to their platforms. “Four games, no promise beyond that,” Spencer said. “So if you’re on those other platforms and you see these four games coming, please don’t take it as some signal that everything’s coming. It’s not.” Booty also said that “Game Pass will only be available on Xbox,” confirming earlier statements made by Spencer.
During the presentation, the Xbox leads also finally announced that Activision Blizzard titles will soon be coming to Game Pass.
