When it comes to exclusive games, Microsoft has always struggled to compete with the likes of Sony and Nintendo. That said, there have been several highlights, including Rare’s pirate-centric action-adventure game Sea of Thieves. Six years after its debut on Xbox One and PC, the game is still going strong with a dedicated community and regular updates from the developer. It is one of the crown jewels of Microsoft’s lineup, but according to recent reports, the next major step for Sea of Thieves could involve bringing it to PlayStation 5 and Switch.
In his latest Game File newsletter, game journalist Stephen Totilo cites a source who claims that Microsoft has “looked into” launching Sea of Thieves on PlayStation. As he notes, this would be the first big-name Xbox exclusive to be ported to a Sony console.
Totilo also points out that rumors of a significant Xbox title going multiplatform began spreading on Friday when scooper NateDrake claimed the following on his podcast: “Yes, Microsoft will be dabbling in bringing a first-party game to [a competitor’s] platform in 2024. At least one game. I know of one — don’t know if there will be additional.”
“The title I am referring to was met with high critical acclaim. Fans loved it, it was in the GOTY conversation the year it released,” he added. “When the announcement comes I think it’s going to be met with a lot of excitement because this is a quality game.”
On Monday morning, Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb seemingly corroborated this report on his Game Mess Mornings podcast while breaking some news of his own:
In addition to PlayStation, Microsoft might also be considering porting Sea of Thieves to Switch. Microsoft already released previous exclusives Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps on Nintendo Switch, so the precedent has been set.
It’s clear that Xbox isn’t as concerned about hardware sales as Sony or Nintendo. You can play Xbox games via the cloud on half of the devices you own, even if you don’t own an Xbox Series X. This would be yet another step in that direction for Team Xbox.
Microsoft has yet to make any announcements concerning Sea of Thieves launching on any new platforms, but we’ll be on the lookout in the coming weeks.
