Microsoft Gaming is expanding further beyond the borders of the Xbox ecosystem than ever before. By the time we begin counting down the days to the 2024 Xbox Summer Showcase in June, four of the best Xbox Series X games will have renounced their exclusivity in search of new audiences – Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, Grounded and Pentiment will be available for purchase and play on PS5, with the latter two titles also landing on PS4 and Switch. I can't say that I'm all that surprised.
Xbox has pursued a multiplatform strategy for some time now, and further expansion always felt like an inevitability. It's been a decade since Microsoft acquired Mojang Studios, and pledged that Minecraft would retain its multiplatform status – something which remained in place for the wide releases of Minecraft Dungeons and Minecraft Legends. Xbox Game Studios PC games started circumventing the Xbox ecosystem to land on Steam in 2019, while Psychonauts 2 and Wasteland 3 arrived on other platforms even after Double Fine and inXile were brought into the first-party fold. And then there's the Call of Duty of it all, which effectively has court-mandated multiplatform protections in place following the completion of the Activision Blizzard acquisition.
