Psychonauts 2 PS4 PlayStation 4

It's common knowledge that Microsoft has been busy snapping up developers to add to its roster of first party studios. Teams like Ninja Theory, Obsidian Entertainment, and Double Fine have all been acquired by the platform holder fairly recently as it bolsters its ranks heading into the next generation. All games produced by these developers going forward will be exclusive to Xbox hardware -- or so it was presumed.

As part of its weekly podcast, Game Informer held an interview with head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty, and one quote in particular is very interesting indeed. The publication asked Booty whether Microsoft would be open to studios such as Double Fine releasing multiplatform games in the future, and the answer isn't as cut and dry as you might think.

"Yeah, I think we would," he says. "I think that the question is less binary about ‘Should it be on Switch? Should it be on PlayStation?’ And more ‘Does it make sense for the franchise?’ In other words, is it a kind of game where it would benefit from the network effect of being on a bunch of different platforms? Or is it a game where we can best support it by putting resources [into it] and making sure that our platforms, things like xCloud, Game Pass, and Xbox Live are really leaning in to support the game."

It sounds like this open minded approach applies to all the studios that historically have launched games on multiple platforms. We don't expect this will mean Microsoft will launch a bunch of games on PlayStation 4 and 5, but it's clearly open to the idea that certain titles may perform better on a broader spectrum of hardware. Booty cites Minecraft as an example of a game that's been heavily supported on multiple platforms since it was made a Microsoft property.

What do you think of Microsoft's leniency on first party teams making multiplatform games? Do you want more PS4 and PS5 games from Double Fine, or Ninja Theory? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

[source gameinformer.com]