Sarah Bond will explain Xbox games coming to other platforms this Spring, it’s claimed – WGB

This spring, Xbox may be set to offer an explanation about why its previously exclusive games are coming to PlayStation and Switch.

X user Idle Sloth, a typically very reliable source for inside information claims to have spoken to a Zenimax employee who said Sarah Bond, Xbox Director, will address the company’s change of strategy this Spring regarding bringing the likes of Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves to other consoles.

“(FYI) According to Zenimax employee, Sarah Bond (Xbox Director), will speak in Spring to explain the change in Xbox’s strategy regarding Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, and other games going multi-platform.” said Idle Sloth.

This comes after weeks of speculation that Hi-Fi Rush might be making the jump to both the Nintendo Switch and PS5. Sea of Thieves has also been heavily rumoured to potentially do the same thing.

(FYI) According to Zenimax employee, Sarah Bond (Xbox Director), will speak in Spring to explain the change in Xbox’s strategy regarding Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, and other games going multi-platform.

“Wait for springtime, Sarah Bond will say something, you guys will be fine.”… pic.twitter.com/w0V45ZyA4L

— Idle Sloth💙💛 (@IdleSloth84_) February 3, 2024

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

There is, of course, no way of verifying what Idle Sloth says, so take it all with a pinch of salt.

But with the Xbox struggling to shift consoles, there has been a lot of discussion surrounding whether Xbox could go from being a console manufacturer to a multiplatform publisher.

There’s understandable worry among fans that a move like this would spell the end for Xbox as a piece of hardware, though it is possible they would use a system wherein first-party Microsoft games come to Xbox first and only make the transition to other platforms at a much later date, kind of like what PlayStation currently does where things like God of War get released on Steam a year or two after they appear on Sony’s device.

On the other side of the fence, perhaps Xbox views this as its best chance of survival. Sales of Xbox consoles have been lagging behind the PlayStation 5 quite drastically, with the PS5 outselling Xbox at a ratio of 3 to 1 in 2023, and they are only expected to get worse. 

On top of that, the head honchos at Microsoft might be looking to begin recouping all the money they threw at buying up Activision-Blizzard, and going multiplatform might just be the way to do it. After all, Xbox hasn’t been subtle about trying to put Game Pass on everything, so is it really that crazy that they might shift their entire focus to Game Pass and publishing, rather than selling exclusives on their own declining hardware?

Speaking of which, though, Jez Corden did say they Microsoft and Xbox recently greenlit several pieces of Xbox related hardware, which would seemingly go against speculation that Microsoft wants out of the console space.

If there’s any truth to what Idle Sloth has said, this year could represent a monumental shift in our beloved industry

And if it isn’t true, Xbox still need to be clearer with their marketing as there is a growing number of people within the Xbox fandom that feel like the message isn’t clear.

Personally, I think Xbox fully intends to stay in the console manufacturing business, at least for now. I also do think some of their games will be coming to other platforms as the mounting evidence is hard to deny, but I don’t think that means everything will make the leap, at least not yet. This might be Microsoft dipping their toes into the water and staying true to their prior message when they stated every game was taken on a case-by-case basis. By the time the next-generation comes around, though, I do believe there’s a decent chance that Xbox will be a publishing label rather than a console maker.