One of the worst-kept secrets in gaming is now official. Former Xbox exclusive Hi-Fi Rush is coming to PS5 on March 19. Many expected the announcement to come during Wednesday’s Nintendo Direct, which focused on third-party games, but Bethesda confirmed the news a few hours later.
It emerged during the Direct that Pentiment and Grounded were Switch-bound. Both titles are also coming to PS4 and PS5 on February 22 and April 16, respectively. Grounded will have cross-play support between Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and PC.
Meanwhile, Microsoft revealed that the fourth game making the jump to other platforms is Sea of Thieves, which is coming to PS5 on April 30. It will support cross-play between PS5, Xbox and PC.
Hi-Fi Rush debuted in early 2023 when Microsoft announced and released the game on Xbox and PC on the same day. The rhythm-based beat-’em-up quickly found a fan base in large part thanks to its killer visuals and soundtrack — the fact it was immediately available on Game Pass at no extra cost helped too.
The PS5 version will include all content, including the two extra modes from the Arcade Challenge update. A digital deluxe edition will include more cosmetics and grant you additional Gears to splurge on upgrades.
Microsoft is looking to improve the bottom line of its gaming division. In recent months, the company has carried out mass layoffs and folded in Activision Blizzard revenue to help it do that.
Perhaps in line with that strategy, Xbox leaders recently confirmed rumors that they were going to release some more first party games on “the other consoles.” They revealed earlier this month that four games would cross the great divide but declined to mention their titles, other than to confirm Starfield and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle would not be among them.
The four games have all been out on Xbox and PC for at least a year and have reached their “full potential” on those platforms, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said. Two (Grounded and Sea of Thieves) are community-driven/multiplayer games. The others are “smaller games that were never really meant to be built as kind of platform exclusives.” Hi-Fi Rush fits in the latter category, given that it was in development long before Microsoft bought ZeniMax Media, the parent of both studio Tango Gameworks and publisher Bethesda Softworks.
