Grounded and Pentiment are coming to the Nintendo Switch later this year, as the first two former console exclusives that Xbox Game Studios plans to publish for competitors’ platforms.
The announcements were part of the latest Nintendo Direct broadcast on Wednesday morning that focused exclusively on games that other companies are publishing for the Switch in the next couple of months.
The Xbox team at Microsoft announced last week that they planned to publish four former Xbox console exclusives for competitors’ platforms, but didn’t specify titles.
The Direct opened with a trailer for Grounded, which spent two years in early access on Xbox and Windows before getting a full release in 2022. Grounded is a first-person survival game about a bunch of kids who’ve been shrunk to the size of insects, which traps them in the now-dangerous environment that used to be their own backyard. (Think Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, but with more improvised weaponry and base-building.) The Switch version of Grounded is scheduled for release on April 16.
Pentiment, which was announced in passing in a montage at the end of the Direct, is a little harder to explain. Directed and written by long-time game developer Josh Sawyer (Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity), Pentiment is an interactive murder mystery set in 16th-century Bavaria. It might be most notable for its graphics, which deliberately resemble illuminated manuscripts from the late medieval period. Pentiment debuted on Xbox, Game Pass, and PC in Nov. 2022, and is scheduled to launch tomorrow, Feb. 22, on Switch.
Both games were developed by Obsidian Entertainment, based in Irvine, Calif., which is known for making cult-favorite RPGs like The Outer Worlds and Alpha Protocol. Microsoft purchased Obsidian in Nov. 2018. Its next game, Avowed, is scheduled for release later this year on Xbox, PC, and Game Pass..
Other news out of today’s Direct included:
- Microsoft also technically released five games for Nintendo’s Switch Online, via its subsidiary Rare Ltd. As of today, Rare’s Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll, Battletoads in Battlemaniacs, R.C. Pro-Am, Blast Corps, and the Super Nintendo version of Killer Instinct have all been released for Nintendo’s retro streaming library, which is available for Switch Online subscribers. Microsoft bought Rare in 2002.
- Seattle studio Aggro Crab will release its oceanic action game Another Crab’s Treasure on Switch on April 25. As seen at last year’s Penny Arcade Expo, ACT is about a hermit crab on a quest to reclaim his lost shell, which takes him on a trip across the heavily polluted ocean floor.
- European conglomerate THQ Nordic has revived the 2010 Wii exclusive Epic Mickey. A new version, Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed, is planned for release on Switch later this year.
- A new Star Wars retro compilation will arrive on Switch on March 14. The Battlefront Classic Collection includes the original 2004 Battlefront and its 2005 sequel, which offer massive multiplayer brawls as both heroes and villains from the Star Wars franchise.
- The Direct ended with the announcement of the first new Endless Ocean game in 14 years. Endless Ocean Luminous, by Nintendo and the Japanese studio Arika, is a non-violent game about scuba diving and undersea exploration.
Update, 10:00 AM: In a post on Xbox Wire, Xbox president Matt Booty announced that the other two games that will go cross-platform are Rare’s Sea of Thieves and Tango Gameworks’ Hi-Fi Rush.
Pentiment will arrive on PlayStation 4 & 5 on Feb. 22, at the same time as the Switch port, while Booty confirmed that Grounded will also appear on PS4 & 5 on April 16, with cross-play enabled across all platforms.
Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves will debut on PlayStation 5 on March 19 and April 30, respectively.
