Earlier this month, a barrage of rumors hit the web, giving a grim outlook on Xbox’s future in the console wars. The thoughts going around were that Microsoft was exiting out of consoles and would be bringing their first-party video game titles to competitor platforms. This turned out not to be exactly true, but we are finding out games like Grounded and Pentiment are heading to the Nintendo Switch.
Microsoft’s Xbox team took to the internet shortly after the slew of rumors hit the web to clarify future plans. They are not leaving consoles behind, and their line of first-party games won’t all be heading to a competitor platform. Instead, Microsoft’s Xbox executives noted that just four games are planned to land on other consoles. At the time, these games were noted to be either community-driven titles or smaller niche experiences. All of these games were said to have run their course on Microsoft’s Xbox and PC platforms.
Essentially, bringing these games to other platforms would allow another means to gain a wider audience. However, the Xbox team wouldn’t unveil the games coming to these competitor platforms. Instead, it was noted that there were marketing plans in place for some of the games already. Today, during the special Nintendo Direct focused on partner showcases, we received confirmation that Grounded and Pentiment are coming to the platform.
That leaves two other games yet to be officially confirmed for competitor platforms. Meanwhile, Nintendo Switch users can expect Pentiment to be first on the platform as it’s set to launch on February 22, 2024. For Grounded, this community-driven title will be available on April 16, 2024, just as long as no unexpected delays push the game development process back.
Both titles are from the talented folks at Obsidian Entertainment. Currently, Obsidian is working on Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2. Both of those games are slated to be released only on Xbox Series X/S and PC platforms. It’s not expected to see too many games from the Xbox first-party catalog land on competitor platforms. We already know that games such as Starfield and the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will remain exclusive to Microsoft. So it looks like we might only get titles that are smaller in scope or can thrive with a wider audience of players.
As mentioned, this announcement came through the Nintendo Direct presentation this morning. If you missed out on the video as it aired online, then you’re in luck. The entire Nintendo Direct video showcase can be viewed below.
