Sea Of Thieves Might Be Coming To PlayStation, According To Insiders
09.01.2024 - 01:21
/ thegamer.com
/ Jeff Grubb
/ Stephen Totilo
Over the past few days, rumors have been flying about Microsoft considering porting some of its more prestigious Xbox exclusives to other platforms. No titles were mentioned at the time, leaving many to speculate that the recently released Hi-Fi Rush could be the one to make the leap, but it appears as though several insiders are tipping Sea of Thieves as the first Xbox exclusive to hit other platforms.
The first insider to claim this was Jeff Grubb, who explained on the most recent episode of his podcast series Game Mess Mornings that he heard that Sea of Thieves was "one that might be coming to other platforms" such as PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. Grubb also believes that Xbox might potentially be "rejiggering" its strategy and that we should probably expect more Xbox exclusives to be released on rival platforms.
Grubb's word is fairly reliable on its own, but his claim was then backed up by Game File reporter Stephen Totilo, who claims that certain sources familiar with the port plans have told him that Microsoft has considered releasing Sea of Thieves on other platforms. Totilo claims that these sources provided a potential release date of Early 2024 for the port, but has been working to source that claim "more extensively", and claims he's unable to verify whether the plan is still active for Microsoft.
In terms of pure business, porting Sea of Thieves to other consoles makes sense. Microsoft has been lagging behind its rival in console sales for quite a while now, and that trend looks set to continue throughout the current generation. Sea of Thieves is a live service title that lives and dies on the health of its player base, and porting the game to more consoles would give it a significant boost.
The latest console sales figures have suggested that Xbox Series X/S sales have dropped by 52 percent between October 2022 and 2023, with Sony enjoying a 143 percent rise in PS5 sales over the same period.
Microsoft already has Minecraft on PlayStation and Nintendo platforms too, which will also shortly be joined by a new Call of Duty title. At this time next year, Microsoft will have more than a few Xbox-owned titles available to purchase on PlayStation, and that's without mentioning the likes of Psychonauts 2, Deathloop, and Ghostwire: Tokyo. Adding Sea of Thieves to the pile isn't too hard to imagine.
However, if Microsoft does go ahead with these plans, it would be the first time the publisher made a current Xbox exclusive multi-platform. That would represent a major shift in strategy, like Grubb suggested, and it could potentially open the door to more previous and upcoming Xbox titles we assumed to be exclusive becoming standard releases. Only time will tell what Microsoft and Xbox's plans