Microsoft’s Xbox has been making several headlines online recently. Plenty of unsettling rumors suggested Microsoft was dropping exclusivity when it came to their line of franchises. As a result, Xbox fans were uncertain what the future would hold for the brand. But that’s not necessarily the case, as the Xbox team quickly took to the web and provided a business update that clarified what the plans are for the future of Microsoft’s gaming division.
First off, we learned that Xbox is not bowing out. There will still be Xbox consoles, and the games coming to rival platforms will not be heavy-hitting. So those of you who were thinking we’d see Halo, Starfield, and Gears, to name a few, on the PlayStation 5 are out of luck. Instead, you’ll need to rely on either an Xbox console, PC, or their cloud gaming streaming service. With that said, at the time, we were only told that four games would be coming to rival platforms.
We knew that two of those games were community-driven games and the remaining two would be smaller scoped games. Today, all of the games confirmed that are leaving Xbox exclusivity have been unveiled. While Microsoft’s Xbox team wasn’t particularly interested in revealing these games at the business update event, the wait to find out what all was being removed from exclusivity was only about a week. The games were once again highlighted on the official Xbox Wire.
Former Xbox Exclusives Coming Soon
- Pentiment – PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch February 22
- Hi-Fi Rush – PlayStation 5 February 21
- Grounded – PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch April 16
- Sea of Thieves – PlayStation 5 February 22
It’s worth noting that the community-drive titles Grounded and Sea of Thieves would receive support for cross-play on the supported platforms. That should open up a wider audience of players to enjoy these games. With that said, this seems to be the only set of games coming to rival platforms at the moment. Meanwhile, those of you who are playing on Xbox platforms might be interested to know that just yesterday, we received the official announcement of Game Pass titles for the second wave of this month. Furthermore, we know Activision Blizzard titles are coming to the service starting at the end of next month with the arrival of Diablo IV.
