2024’s gaming news cycle has already gotten off to a weird, yet wonderful start – at least if you’re on PS5 and Switch. According to separate reports, Xbox exclusives Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves are heading to Nintendo and Sony’s consoles, indicating that we may be in for a tectonic shift when it comes to cross-platform support for first-party titles over the coming years.
In the latest episode of Game Mess Mornings, industry insider Jeff Grubb says that one of the best multiplayer games in Sea of Thieves “could come to Switch and PlayStation” in the future. This has also been supported by journalist Stephen Totilo in his Game File newsletter, who has also heard from a source that Sea of Thieves is hitting these rival platforms.
Although we don’t have player stats for Xbox, Rare’s swashbuckling adventure game has seen a steady decline in popularity among PC players on Steam over the past year, as per Steam Charts. Live service is a cruel mistress to those who don’t continuously prosper – something we’ve seen from Destiny 2 and the subsequent layoffs at Bungie towards the end of 2023. Getting live service titles off the ground is also proving troublesome nowadays, as evidenced by Sony’s cutting of several titles it had in development as well as Naughty Dog’s announcement that it would be canning The Last of Us Online back in December.
As for Hi-Fi Rush, insider ‘Nate the Hate’ recently teased that one of the Xbox exclusives that was met with “high critical acclaim” would be making its way to a rival platform on his podcast. In a discussion post over on ResetEra, trusted leaker ‘lolilolailo’ added fuel to speculation that Tango Gameworks’ breakout hit would be coming to the Switch, though has since noted that a PS5 version has also been in development.
Hi-Fi Rush heading to both competitor platforms wouldn’t be surprising. As spotted by ‘Hunter’ over on Twitter, the Australian Classification Board had already rated developer Tango Gameworks’ latest for PS4 (as well as all other major platforms, including mobile) back in December 2022. While The Loadout Awards 2023’s “surprise of the year” went by ‘Project 2022A’ back then, we know that it’s referring to Hi-Fi Rush thanks to a title change filed in February last year.
Both titles represent very different rationales behind their prospective moves. Hi-Fi Rush was seemingly always destined for a multi-platform release before it landed on Microsoft’s console as an exclusive, following the acquisition of Tango’s parent company ZeniMax Media. Meanwhile, the prospect of Sea of Thieves casting a wider net in the console space makes perfect sense for its long-term success. What Xbox may lose in a long-term exclusive that it can plaster over its marketing materials is potentially regained in long-term stability. Though it seems bleak for Xbox fans at a surface level, finally being able to form a crew with pals on PS5 and Switch is a more than worthy trade-off.
Additionally, according to Grubb “we should expect more of this” sort of crossover in the future. The concept of console manufacturers expanding their horizons isn’t new, after all. Even Sony is vying for a larger slice of the pie in the PC and mobile space – the former being something Xbox has naturally excelled at. The long-rumored Horizon MMO is currently slated only for release on those platforms (though we’d be surprised to see PS5 miss out by the time we get to launch).
Of course, this isn’t quite the same as a console-exclusive going multiplatform, though we can imagine Xbox will be strict with which properties it’ll let go – don’t expect to see Master Chief in blue Spartan armor. If we were betting folk over here at The Loadout, then the likes of Rare Replay and Grounded are games we could realistically see cross the Rubicon should this encapsulate part of Microsoft’s long-term strategy.
Should these reports materialize then PS5 and Switch players are in for a treat. We absolutely adored Hi-Fi Rush, branding it the “ultimate hack-and-slash-rhythm game” in our 9/10 Hi-Fi Rush review. Sea of Thieves, meanwhile, has gone from strength to strength when it comes to content thanks to its post-launch support. Needless to say, two of the best games on console could be added to the list of new PS5 games – be it in 2024 or beyond.