It's official: Validating recent press reports, Microsoft announced Thursday that it will bring some previously exclusive Xbox games to competing consoles, which would likely include Sony PlayStation and Nintendo consoles.
Xbox head Phil Spencer confirmed in an official podcast that four games will be brought to competing consoles, and said that those titles will not include Starfield or the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, despite reports claiming otherwise.
Spencer clarified that the four games in question are all at least a year old, but would not name the titles, suggesting that official announcements are coming from each game's team on the horizon. The Verge reports that the games will be Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded, according to sources familiar with Xbox's plans.
According to Spencer, Microsoft will not release all of its typically exclusive games on other consoles, but is using this effort as an experiment to help spread original franchises to more places and onboard more players.
“I do have a fundamental belief that over the next five or 10 years, exclusive games, games that are exclusive to one piece of hardware, are going to be a smaller and smaller part of the game industry," said Spencer.
There's "no promise" that additional Xbox games will be released on other consoles after these four, he added. On top of that, there's no indication that Microsoft will stop producing Xbox hardware. In fact, a sizable leak last year showed that Microsoft is in fact working on a new console platform tentatively planned to release in 2028.
On the podcast, Microsoft also clarified that Xbox Game Pass will not be expanded to other game consoles, despite comments last November from Xbox Chief Financial Officer Tim Stuart that suggested the company was considering bringing the subscription service to rival consoles. Microsoft does offer the service through smartphones, tablets, and other devices, but not via competing game consoles.
Also on the Xbox Game Pass front, the company announced that games published by Activision Blizzard—the mega-publisher that Microsoft acquired last year—will start coming to the service next month. The effort will begin with the release of Diablo IV on March 28.
Editor's note: This story was updated after publication with additional details.