Microsoft announces four Xbox video games will be available on rival consoles

The battle of the consoles is as old as time. So the latest news from Microsoft, Xbox's parent company, is huge.

Four Xbox games will no longer be exclusive and will be available on what have traditionally been considered 'rival consoles' like PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.

The announcement was made on Thursday by Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer during a special edition of the Official Xbox Podcast.

INA FASSBENDER / Contributor / Getty

While Spencer didn't provide a timeframe or the specific four titles, he did say that two will be “community-driven” games and two will be smaller titles.

“The teams that are building those games have announced plans that are not too far away,” he told the podcast.

“I won’t be talking about the titles specifically, but I think when they come out, it’ll make sense.”

Players will now be able to access the four titles on other company platforms, which marks a huge shift.

What we do know is that Bethesda titles Starfield and Indiana Jones are not among the four.

American technology news website The Verge reports that sources have told them the titles could be Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment, followed by Sea of Thieves and Grounded.

But this hasn't come from official sources.

INA FASSBENDER / Contributor / Getty

Microsoft has insisted this isn't a change to its approach to exclusivity, but Spencer did note that games tied to one piece of hardware “are going to be a smaller and smaller part of the game industry” within the next few years - this move could be Microsoft's way of testing the waters for multiplatform games.

“I don’t think we should as an industry ever rule out a game going to any other platform,” Spencer told The Verge.

"We’re focused on these four games and learning from the experience. We don’t have work going on, on other franchises. But for anybody to stand up and say something’s never going to happen, I think it feels like creating more certainty in a world of gaming where you really want to respond to what customers want and what our players and creators are looking for.”

Last month, Microsoft announced it was cutting around 1,900 jobs in its gaming division, including within its Xbox team.

And competition is stiff in the gaming industry - in 2023, Sony's PlayStation reportedly outsold Xbox nearly three-to-one.

Microsoft completed its 69 billion US dollar (£54 billion) takeover of Activision Blizzard, the maker of Call of Duty, late last year.

Last night's podcast was obviously action-packed, as Xbox President Sarah Bond also revealed the first Activision Blizzard game that will be available on Xbox Game Pass - a subscription service that works a bit like Netflix for video games.

The first game will be Diablo IV - the fourth main instalment in the hugely popular dungeon crawling Diablo series - and it'll be available from March 28.

Activision Blizzard has plenty of blockbuster franchises in its stable - including Call of Duty, Warcraft and Overwatch - so we'll be keeping a keen eye on any future announcements that might mean they'll also be coming to the Xbox Game Pass.