In a seismic shift for the gaming industry, Microsoft has announced that it will be bringing four of its previously Xbox-exclusive games to rival platforms PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. This move signals a broader strategy for the tech giant to expand its gaming presence beyond its own Xbox consoles.

The unexpected news was delivered by none other than Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer during a recent episode of the official Xbox podcast. “We’ve made the decision that we’re going to take four games to the other consoles,” he revealed, though bizarrely, the company is refusing to name the specific titles.

According to Spencer, two of the games are “community-driven,” while the other two are described as “smaller titles.” Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans have confirmed that the first two titles will likely be the critically acclaimed Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment, followed by the popular multiplayer pirate adventure Sea of Thieves and the survival game Grounded.

Despite this unprecedented move, Spencer insists there hasn’t been a fundamental change in Microsoft’s approach to Xbox exclusives. “I do have a fundamental belief that over the next five or ten years, exclusive games, games that are exclusive to one piece of hardware, are going to be a smaller and smaller part of the game industry,” he explained.

Microsoft is framing this decision as a learning experience, a way to “test the waters” and gather insights into the potential for multiplatform releases. However, rumors have suggested that the company’s ambitions in this arena go much deeper. Starfield, the highly anticipated sci-fi RPG from Bethesda, was rumored to be coming to PlayStation 5 and reports earlier this month indicated that Microsoft has been considering launching the upcoming Indiana Jones game on Sony’s console months after its Xbox debut.

Spencer confirmed that neither Starfield nor Indiana Jones is part of the initial four titles, but he left the door open for future multiplatform releases. “I don’t think we should as an industry ever rule out a game going to any other platform,” he said. “We’re focused on these four games and learning from the experience. We don’t have work going on, on other franchises. But for anybody to stand up and say something’s never going to happen, I think it feels like creating more certainty in a world of gaming where you really want to respond to what customers want and what our players and creators are looking for.”

So, while not every Xbox exclusive will suddenly appear on rival consoles, Microsoft is clearly considering the potential for more widespread multiplatform releases in the future.

The question remains: why does Microsoft feel the need to bring its exclusives to competing platforms? The company has spoken of a desire to “ensure long-term success for both Xbox and the industry as a whole.” With the recent acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s gaming division has grown to surpass even the company’s venerable Windows division in size. Yet, the Xbox business as a whole still lags behind Sony’s PlayStation 5 in console sales, and Spencer previously admitted that Xbox Game Pass subscription growth has slowed down. Content revenue, then, could be a key driver of future growth for the gaming division.

Microsoft appears to be seizing an opportunity to put its games in front of a wider audience, a strategy the company refers to internally as “Xbox Everywhere.” “We’re making these decisions for some specific reasons,” Spencer explains. “We make every decision with the long-term health of Xbox in mind, which means a growing platform, our games performing, building the best platform for creators, reaching as many players as we can. We’re always looking to learn as a leadership team and to grow, and we think this is an interesting point in time for us to use what some of the other platforms have right now to help grow our franchises.”

The reactions of Xbox fans to this initial wave of multiplatform releases will undoubtedly inform Microsoft’s next steps. “I always take the feedback from our most ardent fans very seriously,” Spencer admits, though he seems unconvinced that exclusive games are the primary driver of console sales in the modern gaming landscape. “We know today when people are playing, their affinity for their platform is as much about their friends and where their games library is as it is any kind of one exclusive game. I know there’s this fictitious world where people think that one exclusive game kind of kicks off the sales of a platform, but the industry just doesn’t really work that way today.”

Fans have also expressed concerns about the future of Xbox hardware, prompting Microsoft to tease a next-generation console to help reassure them. “There’s some exciting stuff coming out in hardware that we’re going to share this holiday, and we’re also invested in the next-generation road map,” says Xbox president Sarah Bond. “What we’re really focused on there is delivering the largest technical leap that you will have ever seen in a hardware generation.”

Bond hints at “more console and controller options” for Xbox fans this holiday season, and speculation has even arisen about the possibility of an Xbox handheld device in the future.

“Xbox is our gaming platform and content business. It’s the number one consumer business that Microsoft has,” Spencer emphasizes. “It’s an important business, it’s a consumer category that is driven by technology and creativity.“

Notably, Spencer never refers to Xbox as a console or a single piece of hardware, because in Microsoft’s eyes, it clearly isn’t anymore. The company’s gaming division has grown far beyond the confines of the Xbox console, and now, Microsoft is beginning to show the world what its “Xbox Everywhere” vision truly entails. If successful, this strategy could fundamentally change the way the entire game industry thinks about making games. But if it falters, you can bet that Microsoft will be back to the drawing board, searching for new ways to take Xbox into every corner of the gaming world.