Two Xbox Games Get Nintendo Switch Release Dates

Grounded honestly looks pretty cool. Pentiment though I don’t know about that.

That's some good news for today, alongside Star Wars: Battlefront I & II announcements...

So......no Hi-Fi Rush?

Grounded is awesome, I just hope the performance is decent on Switch.

The Devs put in the work to optimize Grounded for Steam Deck and it runs really well there, so hopefully it will be an alright outing on Switch.

@ClickBrick maybe later.

How is the Pentiment announcement not larger? It got some of the highest reviews when it released.

Grounded is a terrific game, unfortunately it spent so long in preview stage on Xbox that it didn’t get much traction when they released the 1.0 version, so I hope it gets some love on Switch.

Pentiment is pretty unique, a basic knowledge of the Protestant Reformation is helpful, you can’t say that about many games…

now THIS is interesting to me, and i think it's worth a look. We basically already know that hi-fi rush is coming to switch due to all the leaks and such. So why wasn't it here? could it signal an actual first party direct, cause i dont see them just shadow dropping one of the best games of 2023 overnight. Nah, they would totally milk this! So either theyre waiting for an xbox presentation or nintendo has got a direct planned. I mean MAYBE it could just be a june announcement, but idk. For a port, that seems like a pretty long wait. Perhaps they're not following their usual schedule and have got something in the works soon? idk this is all just me bs-ing but i digress

@Greatluigi Pentiment is great if 16th century ecclesiastical murder mysteries are your thing!

I enjoyed Grounded when I tried it, but I do prefer these persistent games on the Switch so may well retry it.

Of all the games to pick from Microsoft, I'm glad Pentiment is coming first. It's the game I'm most interested in. I'm sure Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, & Rare Replay are inevitable.

I've clocked almost 70 hours into Grounded with a friend on PC, it's a really great survival game.

Pentiment is incredible. Rare game that I will actually replay

@Axecon I personally doubt Rare Replay will come to Switch. First talking about the collection, Xbox/X360 games that need to be ported, the others also dont emulate Nintendo consoles, is not as complicated as the case of Xbox/X360 games, but they also require a port.
But that's not the main point, Nintendo is slowly putting out the games it released on their consoles on their subscription, and this is much more profitable than selling the games individually.

Can we get Xbox to bring Psychonauts and Binx: The Time Sweeper to Switch next? Would feel right at home.

Pentiment always had a bad case of Gravity Rush Syndrome. "You are a great game with a great dev team, but you are at the WRONG publisher on the WRONG platform." Hopefully now that it's on Switch like Ori it'll get a physical release.

@Not_Soos Psychonauts feels like a Super Switch launch window port along with Hi-Fi. Blinx... well we're probably going to get Voodoo Vince and Pitfall Harry before him.

Im glad Grounded is coming. But the visual in the traillers are kinda blurred

Pentiment was amazing! One of my fav. Xbox games over the past few years. Tempted to go back and enjoy it again, as there's multiple ways you can craft the journey.

Very surprised these two were first. I figured Grounded was coming later and we'd get Hi-Fi Rush, today.

How did I miss Pentiment? I will puck that up

@anoyonmus Maybe never on Switch. Playing a rhythm game with 27 fps is maybe no big pleasure.

Definitely look like they have promise and presumably have been reviewed well on the XBOX "whatever you call it now". Though I think I'll wait for reviews to accumulate more knowledge and understanding of the games.

I always wanted a Honey, I Shrunk the Kids game, glad that it took them this long to finally give us one.

Surprising both of these are coming so soon, especially considering Sea of Thieves and Hi-Fi Rush had more official mention and info that 100% confirmed they were jumping ship, but hey both of these games are seeming great as well. Pentiment seems more up my alley so I'll have to maybe check it out in the future

I'd not heard of Pentiment until these rumors started, so consider me curious. I get Honey, I Shrunk The Kids vibes from Grounded. Not sure the latter is quite my thing unless I find others to play with though.

Hopefully one of the remaining two is Hi-Fi Rush.

@Zeebor15 To clarify, I'm talking about the first Psychonauts game, specifically. I agree the second one would be a challenge to get it running on current Switch hardware. I'm not counting on Binx either, but it's a game I'd like the opportunity to play someday without having to buy an Xbox.

@MaikonCSGarcia Finally someone who know that the each of the Xbox 1 and Xbox 360 have to be ported too, and is not worth the effort to release it on Switch. The collection is not one port, but many ports since Switch doesn't run on Xbox hardware.

And as you say, the Rare N64, SNES and NES games is to attract more people to the expansion sub.
Ignoring all Xbox games, the rest of the games will probably be on NSO.

@Not_Soos In that regard there might be some legal trouble. Majesco is still around, despite it all, and they might still claim some ownership of it. Like how Sega has nothing to do with Bayonetta now, but still controls everything to so with the first game. That, or the source code could just straight up be missing.

Pentiment is a brilliant graphic adventure and one of the best games I've played in recent years, but it is definitely not for everybody. It definitely helps to have an interest in history and art history to appreciate it. Regardless, it's also just a solid mystery story.

The title refers to "Pentimento," which is the phenomena where paint gets more transparent with age, revealing the layers underneath which were painted over.

@MaikonCSGarcia But that's not the main point, Nintendo is slowly putting out the games it released on their consoles on their subscription, and this is much more profitable than selling the games individually.

I don't see how that's profitable though, not all people who own Switch had NSO account, most don't even play games online and those same people could still play NSO stuff for free through share account with their other family member's account. It's not profitable but it is a good way to entice newer Switch owners to sign up for NSO, the fact that those are just license release means they won't stay on NSO for long thus when that happens a decrease in subscribers will also happen too. If anything they should had just released Rare Replay for Switch instead, at least with that it would give Switch owner a better experience enough to entice them to give the Xbox brand a try.

Bringing the worst Xbox experience to Switch and expecting those same audience to be entice to Xbox ain't gonna work, NSO is nothing like GamePass. If it's worst on Switch why would they want to try the Xbox version? To entice consumers from the other side to your side you had to give them a taste of that wonderful flavor, not your worst kind. You give them your best flavor and if they like it then they make the switch. If you give them your worst flavor and they try and was disgusted by it, you bet they ain't going to want to try yours anymore. At that point you ruin your chances.

Both are great games, while one is a live service that must be very entertaining coming from Obsidian. Now in the same platform as Pikmin lol
Now we just need the other two games. Hi-Fi Rush could certainly come to Switch, but I hope there's a possibility for Sea of Thieves too, even if it's small.

Hi Fi Rush has been announced for the PS4/PS5 and considering the file size of Sea of Theieves I'd say that's the other game going to playstation but missing the Switch. So two xbox games for each of them which is a strange strategy tbh.

@Zeebor15 The first Psychonauts can actually be downloaded on the PlayStation Store, so it's still out there and they evidently have been willing to negotiate the rights. I believe it's also on PC if I'm not mistaken.

@JohnnyMind Yeah, I was so bummed that a Switch version wasn’t announced. But then I found out recently that it’s coming to PS5. So thankfully I’ll be able to play it on at least one of the consoles I own.

@ClickBrick Hi Fi rush is supposedly going to PS5.

@Ryu_Niiyama I just saw. Kind of weird that it's announced for PS5 but not Switch...I guess it was too much for Switch to handle.

@UltimateOtaku91 Xbox confirmed that Pentiment and Grounded are coming to PlayStation too. So Switch is just missing out on Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves. Probably Switch 2 launch titles

Welp ill test grounded on my series x. Will buy on switch if i like it.

@Serpenterror Let's not pretend that Microsoft wants to convince users to migrate to their console, they are just killing the console in disguise.

Accurate title:

"2nd largest publisher of Switch games releases two PC games on Switch."

But who's clicking on that!

@Zeebor15 @Not_Soos

Double Fine bought the publishing rights to the game in 2011, and fully owned the rights to both the IP and the publishing rights to the first game when they were acquired by Microsoft.

So the rights to publish the first game are with Microsoft. They can port it freely. It's currently on OS X, Linux and Windows.

On windows, it requires a Pentium 4 and an 11 year old video card, so it's pretty accessible, even for notebooks with integrated graphics. So you can play it on TONS of things that are not an Xbox.

ps5&4 get all 4 xbox games switch so far only gets 2..

@MaikonCSGarcia @Axecon

Building on what MaikonCSGarcia, there are something like 170 total rights holders for Rare Reply that would need to agree to any port. There is literally a feature, on the disk, where they talk about how lawyers, not developers, made the game possible and it's unlikely it will ever get a re-release on port. That was confirmed again after release. It sold much better then expected, but MS publicly stated that porting it, even to PC, was next to impossible. That's actually a really good yardstick for MS studios ... if it's not on PC, they likely do not hold the full publishing rights.

And as I've said before to the "mention rare replay literally every time MS gets brought up" crowd before ... just buy the game. You can get an Xbox One and the game used for around $90-$100 and a Switch release, if their was one, would be $79.99. Just buy it. Go play it. You have THE POWER.

Also of the Xbox games have already been ported and are part of Game Pass Cloud, and the XR spectrum games have been released to free achieves. There are tons of options for playing the NES and N64 games. Battletoads Arcade is on MAME.

So go play it. Stop talking about it and go play it. You have options!

@HeadPirate Honestly I don't really care if Rare Replay makes it outside Xbox or not. I just needed a third example of a game for my argument post, guess it was not the best choice. I didn't grow up in the N64 era so I don't have nostalgia for many of Rare's classic titles but they are solid games.

Honestly my bigger hope is to see a revival of Rare IPs on modern hardware. I'd much rather see a brand new Banjo Kazooie or Conker game.

@Axecon

Don't get me wrong, whatever it is you're looking for, I hope they do it at some point. I'm just not really sure what "Rare's IPs" on modern hardware looks like.

3D platformers are not overly popular right now, and if they just skin a game in another genre around the IPs that's going to face a ton of backlash. Didn't most rare fans absolute pan Nuts and Blots for that reason, even though it was a pretty staller game? And it's not like the got any good will from the incredibly faithful Battle Toads 2020. Again, that reviewed well among most gamers, but rare fans hated it. At some point, you just have to accept a given fanbase is hostile to you and that's never going to change. Why keep trying?

And seeing you can pop the Rare Reply, Live and Reloaded, or Nuts and Bolts CDs into an Xbox Series X and they all play on that system, or you can buy the ports on Xbox Store ... from MS's perception they are absolutely available on modern consoles.

So other then their old games (which are already there) or games that, because of the reality of how genres have shifted over time, would be pretty unfaithful to the originals, I don't see how Microsoft moves forward with any of the Rare IPs.

@HeadPirate as I said on PureXbox it’s been almost 9 years since Rare Replay released and people are still begging for it instead of just playing it. Life is too short - just play it on Xbox!

I can’t even remember where I was in life 9 years ago. Oh wait yes I can - I was playing Rare Replay and it was awesome.

It’s an incredible experience and some of the most fun i’ve had with achievements as well.

Also Perfect Dark is a Rare IP coming back so let’s see how that plays out. Even if it is under a new studio.

I wanted Hi-Fi Rush.

@FoxyDude

I still think you'll get it. They likely are just taking their time because if you can't lock the game at 60fps, it's unplayable ... by design.

They should be able to do that on Switch though, because the game was built around low specs. At a point, it was targeting 120fps on the Series S.

Grounded is a buy for me if we get a physical release.

Everyone loves Pentiment but I do not think the game is something for me, sadly.

I wonder why we did not got Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves? Maybe on the Switch 2?

If Microsoft really want to bring games to the biggest audience possible, I don't understand it why we don't get Psychonauts 1 and 2, Rare Replay and some other games what would fit perfectly on Nintendo Hardware.

@heisnbrg

It's because Microsoft isn't interested in doing that. Even a little.

If you watched the Xbox podcast, Phil was very clear that at this point he is only considering ports of two types of games.

The first is live service, where every player represents endless potential spending, and server health is important to longevity. Grounded and Sea of thieves fit this bill.

The second is small projects from passionate first party teams. Games that were never meant as system sellers, but will be good ways to expose players to what some of the smaller teams at Xbox are doing. This is Hi-fi Rush and Pentiment.

He was extremely clear they are not looking at a greater shift toward releasing 1st party games or their back catalog on other platforms, and that "every screen is an Xbox" means smart screens and phones that can run cloud gaming, and how all first party games go on PC. It's not that every console will get Xbox games.