An ‘acclaimed’ Xbox game will go multiplatform this year, it’s claimed

Microsoft is planning to bring one of its “more acclaimed” first-party games to competing platforms this year, it’s claimed.

That’s according to the Nate the Hate podcast, a show which often breaks stories involving the games industry.

The show did not name which title is allegedly coming to competing platforms, but noted that it was “in the game of the year conversation” in the year that it was released.

“In the calendar year of 2024, Microsoft will bring one of their more acclaimed first-party games to a competitor’s system,” the show claimed.

“The title I’m referring to was met with high critical acclaim. Fans loved it and it was in the game of the year conversation in the year that it released.”

‘Nate’ added: “When the announcement comes I think it will be met with a lot of excitement because it’s a quality game.

“I think this is a smart move for Microsoft… from a business perspective, if you’re bringing select games to multiplatform, to Switch and PlayStation, you’re doing so because you see the quality of the IP and the franchise and you want to expand its reach beyond just the Xbox.”

Some fans on social media have speculated that the unnamed title could be Tango Gameworks‘ Hi-Fi Rush, the action game that was shadowdropped this time last year, and which received strong critical praise.

Microsoft has dabbled in multiplatform releases in the recent past, including ports of the Ori games for Nintendo Switch, and continued support for Minecraft on PlayStation and other platforms.

It also honoured multiplatform agreements for Bethesda titles Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Double Fine’s Psychonauts 2. However, some games, most notably Starfield, were made exclusive to Xbox consoles after Microsoft acquired their developers.

Speaking in 2019, Xbox’s then first-party studios boss, Matt Booty, said the platform holder would determine if it made sense to put future games on PlayStation and Nintendo Switch on a per-franchise basis.

“I think that the question is less binary about, ‘should it be on Switch, should it be on PlayStation?’ and more, ‘does it make sense for the franchise?’” he said.

“In other words, is it a kind of game where it would benefit from the network effect of being on a bunch of different platforms, or is it a game where we can best support it by putting resources and making sure that our platforms, things like xCloud and Game Pass and Xbox Live, are really leaning in to support the game?”