Nintendo used Nintendo Direct to confirm the release of two Xbox Game Studio games on the Switch.
And one and two! Nintendo announced the release of the game Grounded on Nintendo Switch on April 16, 2024 and Pentiment on February 22. These are the first two of four Microsoft games available across platforms.
An ideal game for the Nintendo Switch
Summary of previous episodes. After several days of rumors, Microsoft confirmed on February 15 that four of its Xbox Game Studios/Bethesda games released exclusively for its Xbox consoles would be coming to PlayStation 5 or Nintendo Switch. However, the company refused to validate the names of the four games in question. Grounded was one of the favorites for such a competition visit.
And for good reason: since its release in Early Access in 2020, Obsidian's little game has managed to find its audience on PC and Xbox consoles. It's a survival game that takes the idea of ”Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” by miniaturizing you in the garden of a house. By working with a few other players, up to four, you must survive and return to your original size.
Grounded is a smaller game that was released on Xbox more than a year ago and has a service and online component that would require new players. It ticks all the boxes for the ideal candidate to get started on PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.
Penment arrives tomorrow
The second surprise from Nintendo Direct this Wednesday, February 21st: the game Pentiment, also developed by Obsidian, will be released on Nintendo Switch this Thursday, February 22nd. This is the second of four Xbox games to lose its exclusive status. This time it's a purely single-player game, but again, its caliber as an indie game and its release in 2022, over 12 months ago, certainly persuaded Microsoft to give it another chance to sell.
The identities of the two remaining Xbox games that will soon move to the competition have yet to be clarified. With Nintendo well served, we can expect one of the next contenders to land on PlayStation. Press favorites include Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves.