Report: Microsoft is Considering Porting Xbox-Exclusive Sea of Thieves on PlayStation

Microsoft is exploring releasing its Xbox-exclusive game Sea of Thieves on PlayStation consoles, according to multiple reports. Jeff Grubb from VentureBeat mentioned in a podcast recorded yesterday that he heard about Sea of Thieves possibly coming on PlayStation 5 and Switch, and video games journalist Stephen Totilo also reported that Microsoft has been exploring porting the game to PlayStation in early 2024.

Totilo said that he was unable to verify if this PlayStation port of Sea of Thieves is still in the pipeline. However, the report comes after rumors of more Xbox-exclusive games, including the criticially-acclaimed Hi-Fi Rush, possibly coming to other platforms in the near future. Windows Central’s Jez Corden also said that according to his sources, “Microsoft has been exploring bringing some of its back catalog to other platforms, although some of the details remain vague and unconfirmed.”

Of course, it wasn’t long before these recent rumors fueled an existing atmosphere of uncertainty regarding the future of the Xbox platform. As you may remember, we’ve already seen Microsoft release some of its games on other platforms in the past: Ori and the Blind Forest came to the Nintendo Switch a couple of years ago, while Minecraft Legends shipped on all platforms including PlayStation and Nintendo Switch last year.

However, Microsoft porting a game like Sea of Thieves on PlayStation would be a different story. The game crossed over 30 million players two years ago, but if Microsoft decides to release it on PlayStation to grow its community and earn more revenue, why should the company stop there? What about other Xbox-exclusive live service games like Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5?

Even though Microsoft said repeatedly in recent years that it’s now aiming to reach billions of gamers with Xbox Cloud Gaming, Microsoft is still in the console business, and consoles do need exclusive games to attract consumers. That’s still how the console market works today and why you don’t see Nintendo port their exclusive games to other consoles.

If Microsoft starts releasing its back catalog on other consoles, the company risks alienating Xbox fans and eroding the brand loyalty it built over the past two decades. And Xbox consoles becoming less attractive to consumers also means that they will be less attractive to game developers. Xbox gamers are already missing on big third-party games like Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XVI and Final Fantasy VII Remake, and things could only get worse if Xbox gamers start to lose faith in the future of the platform.

However, the console business is changing. With ballooning development costs for AAA games, it becomes increasingly difficult for developers to make money from exclusive games. The recent hack of Insomniac Games revealed that the PlayStation exclusive Marvel’s Spiderman 2 had a $300 million budget, and the game has yet to break even. That explains why Sony has started releasing its games on PC in recent years.

If Microsoft no longer shares data about Xbox console sales, an internal presentation from Microsoft Brazil revealed that Xbox Series X|S sales had crossed 21 million units last year. In comparison, Sony has now sold over 50 million PlayStation 5 consoles since the beginning of this generation. Worse, according to Ampere Analysis, Xbox Series X|S consoles were outsold by the PS5 by almost 3:1 last year.

It’s pretty clear that Microsoft is not going to beat Sony and Nintendo on console sales, so the Redmond giant has to find another strategy. Game Pass probably remains the real killer feature on Xbox consoles today, but we haven’t had an update on the number of Game Pass subscribers since the 25 million number Microsoft back in January 2022. Growth opportunities for Game Pass on Xbox may have now dried up. Last year, Microsoft actually stopped tying the compensation of CEO Satya Nadella to Game Pass growth.

If the growth of Microsoft’s Game Pass service may be slowing down, Xbox exclusive games launching day one on the service may also no longer be enough to drive engagement. Even though the Xbox-exclusive game Hi-Fi Rush got 5 nominations at The Game Awards 2023 and won the award for Best Audio Design last month, this apparently didn’t move the needle in terms of engagement.

According to Circana’s Player Engagement tracker, fewer than 1% of US players on Xbox Series consoles played Hi-Fi Rush in December 2023, and the game ranked 207th in the list of most played Xbox games in the US. This low engagement, despite the critical acclaim, may well justify releasing the game on other platforms.

According to Circana's Player Engagement Tracker, in December 2023 17.5% of all US active players on Xbox Series consoles played Grand Theft Auto V at least once, ranking 3rd overall behind only Fortnite and Call of Duty HQ. Hi-Fi Rush ranked 207th, with fewer than 1%.

— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) January 8, 2024

During the FTC v. Microsoft trial last summer, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that he was against console exclusives. “If it was up to me I would love to get rid of the entire exclusives on consoles, but that’s not for me to define especially as a low share player in the console market. The dominant player there [Sony] has defined market competition using exclusives, so that’s the world we live in. I have no love for that world,” Nadella said.

Microsoft is already a very important third-party publisher on other platforms thanks to its acquisitions of Bethesda/Zenimax and Activision Blizzard King. The company also managed to complete its $68 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition by convincing regulators that it was going to make these games available to more players.

Overall, Microsoft is now uniquely positioned to become one of the leading video games publishers in the industry. But while it could make economic sense for the company to start releasing more of its first-party games on other consoles, Microsoft definitely risks pushing its most loyal Xbox fans away.