At the February 2024 Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, the first two of four planned Xbox Game Studios games releasing on other consoles have been revealed. And it’s the two games from Obsidian most fans have speculated: Grounded and Pentiment.
Grounded, the co-op survival game with over 20 million players where you are kids shrinked into being really, really tiny and must survive against insects, will be releasing on Switch, as well as PS4 and PS5. It will feature cross-play, so you can play with anyone on any platform. The game will receive update 1.4 on all platforms simultaneously when it launches on April 16.
Pentiment is the narrative adventure set in 16th century Bavaria where you play as artist Andreas Maler, who found himself in the many social machinations of the era including murder and scandals. It also features a befitting art style that matches the art style of the arts produced in that period of time in European history. Pentiment will be out on February 22, today, on PS4, PS5 and Switch. And for the physical collectors, the game will have a limited run physical release for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5 and Switch until March 22.
As hinted by Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer previously, Grounded is from the “community-driven games” bucket, so to speak, whereas Pentiment fits the description of “smaller games” that won’t dilute the Xbox brand should they go multi-platform.
Obsidian, pre-Microsoft acquisition, already had experience shipping multi-platform games so it makes sense for this development team being able to transition (back) to releasing games on different consoles. Obsidian is also working on Avowed, the first-person RPG, releasing this year, though that remains for now an Xbox Series X|S console exclusive. So gamers on a different console should either get that game on PC, or wait a few more years in hopes that Xbox considers releasing in on other platforms, like Pentiment and Grounded have.
Source: Obsidian