There’s an incredibly curious rumor out now about a game coming to Xbox. The thing is, our source refuses to name the game.
On the latest episode of the XboxEra podcast, Nick Baker, AKA Shpeshal_Nick, received a DM about this game, with the leaker seemingly expecting Nick to reveal it live on the air. And that’s immediately where it gets interesting.
As you can see in this timestamp of the podcast, Nick refuses to discuss the rumor at all. No clues, no fancy language around it, nothing. Instead, all that he will say is that this is the one rumor that he needed to field immediately if he was sharing game rumors ‘for clout’, because this one is such a sensational get.
Nick’s co-host Sikamikanico apparently knows what this rumor is. He and Nick did not discuss it beforehand, so he kept asking Nick to confirm what this game is on his DMs. We don’t actually know if Nick shared the rumor with Sikamikanico on his DMS, since the cameras are pointed on their faces but not on their screens, and Sikamikanico didn’t verbally confirm he did.
The whole podcast then made a fun little dare, that if enough people joined in to subscribe, they would share the rumor. They then went through a separate little trivia game segment. After the segment, Nick still refused to discuss this rumor.
As Nick talked about refusing to talk about it one last time, Sikamikanico mumbled some last comments. If this title was revealed, it would, in Sikamikanico’s words, “set the internet on fire” and “cause drama,.”
In spite of the vagueness, it’s easy to guess what kind of game they are talking about here, even if we can’t confirm the game itself. This must be a game that was on PlayStation, that is now debuting on Xbox. It may fall into one of several categories of being a PlayStation exclusive too.
For example, as unlikely as it may seem, it could be a first party title that PlayStation paid development for themselves, and was made by one of their own studios. On the other end, it could be a third party game that is fully owned by another company, but was made PlayStation exclusive, either because Sony paid for development, or exclusivity. And there is an in-between, of a game that may have been partially paid for by Sony, but made by a non-Sony owned company.
We understand why Nick and Sikamikanico are hesitant to name the game too. On one end, it can ruin the marketing plans for the game, and may have a real adverse effect to how much money it can make. On the other hand, they may not be capable of handling the actions Microsoft or other companies could theoretically lobby at them if they share it.
I’ll throw out a guess since you, dear reader, know I don’t know anything and have no sources for this myself. This could be Final Fantasy XVI, the PlayStation 5 exclusive that is just now getting a Windows port made. Final Fantasy XVI should have been a marquee title for the console. While it sold and was reviewed well, the company told investors in public that it did not meet the higher end of company expectations.
So there’s your credible game rumor right there. Square Enix is rekindling their relationship with Xbox, so making this port after promised exclusivity makes sense. On the flip side, Nick and Sikamikanico definitely know PlayStation fans are going to be all over them if this, or a game like it, gets revealed for Xbox. It could be a different game too, but the fact that XboxEra’s hosts hesitate to get into it stands for something.
