The rumor

@elextrov I don't see it that way, Xbox exclusives are not the main factor in the console's sales, I didn't buy it myself for that reason, Microsoft is better at services than the PS in my opinion, and that's enough to maintain current sales of consoles.
Few people choose an Xbox for exclusives, as they aren't even exclusive as they can be played on PC. In this case, if Microsoft opened all exclusives to the PS, console sales probably wouldn't decrease so much.

In the current scenario, it makes sense for Microsoft to release its exclusives but it doesn't make sense for PS to do the same.

I hope its true, more players means longer game support and sot is almost 6 years already so it would be very positive for the game a new influx of players.

Fingers crossed it actually happens.

@elextrov said in The rumor:

@granty012 it's the exclusives because if xbox has no exclusives people would play on Playstation because of more options it's as simple as that

The platform with the most options is PC.

@elextrov said in The rumor:

@d3adst1ck pc is so different from consoles that it wouldn't be a competitor but don't get me wrong pc is equal to console if not better

The XBox is literally a PC though. It runs a version of Windows 10 Core. If anything, players who have gamed on XBox and aren't purchasing consoles any longer are more likely to migrate to PC due to Play Anywhere and GamePass availability on Windows.

@elextrov Steam Deck is pretty portable and comparably affordable.

@elextrov said in The rumor:

@d3adst1ck and its a handheld so a competitor to the switch not xbox or ps

You have weird definitions and I suspect this is simply so you can "win" this discussion.

The Steam Deck is held in your hand, however it has access to the same library as a PC. It is definitely competing with all of the consoles, including PS and XBox.

At the moment I see this as just a rumor and I will only believe it, once Rare & Xbox announce it officially. I welcome the idea of Sea of Thieves being released on other platforms and the player base being expanded. It's a great fun game, and with it's live-service model the game's health benefits from a larger player base ensuring more/bigger updates in the future. The game turned out to be my favorite game over the last 3 years and I would love to play it with my friends who play games on PlayStation if it supported cross-play.

If a Nintendo platform is indeed getting the game then I expect it to be the Switch 2 (or whatever the next Nintendo system is called). The experience on Xbox One isn't perfectly smooth and the weaker Switch hardware might require some dramatic compromises.

@craftergames706 said in The rumor:

We need to understand that a LOT of people on the PS4 and 5 will want to try Sea of Thieves.
How will that impact the servers? I’m no software engineer, so correct me if I’m wrong but… wouldn’t a large influx of players damage server stability? That would need to be addressed before the port occurs.

Another issue is simple: cheating. We already have a problem, but adding a whole new system may equal more cheaters?

Yet another problem is the customer support department: will they be able to handle the influx of support tickets?

While those are some valid concerns I think it's something for Rare and Microsoft to solve. If they don't account for the player influx then the experience will get worse and people will complain & bounce off the game which is not what they want.

@elextrov said in The rumor:

@lleorb I'm going to give a short reason to why xbox exclusives on Playstation is a bad idea which is that it would ruin the balance in video game console sales the long explanation is that without exclusive games on xbox people would move over to Playstation because they have exclusive games on top of the once xbox exclusive games and xbox will die giving Sony no competition because it would be the only console of its type left letting Sony price the Playstation and Playstation games at absurd prices.

I think there are additional values of owning a console/platform apart from just exclusive games. Things like, where is the majority of your friends, which eco system & services (GamePass, PS Plus) you prefer, where do you have your digital / physical library, backwards compatibility, the price of the console, portability, console specific features (DualSense, Quick Resume), graphical performance. It's actually sad if the only quality of a console/platform is the exclusive games - like the Epic Games Store that has several exclusive games, yet most PC gamers prefer Steam.

In case of Sea of Thieves, the game is now almost 6 years old. At this point most likely no one will buy an Xbox console just for Sea of Thieves, those who wanted probably already did.

Also just because PlayStation's and Nintendo's business strategy is built on exclusivity it doesn't mean that Xbox needs to follow the same strategy if it doesn't benefit them. Microsoft Xbox is already a 3rd party publisher with games like Minecraft (including Dungeons and Legends), Ori and several Bethesda games (Fallout, Elder Scrolls Online, Quake) being released and supported on competing console platforms even after they acquired Bethesda. They've been releasing games on Steam (a competing platform) since 2019. That doesn't mean that Microsoft Xbox needs to abandon the console market, according to estimates they've sold a respectable number of 25+ million consoles. In a similar sense Samsung and Apple are outselling Google when it comes to smart phones, yet they still continue producing and selling their Pixel smartphones.