2023 will be the right year for the arrival of Stray on Xbox and Xbox Game Pass? Hard to say, at the moment everything is silent but as GamesRadar points out, the game of Annapurna has been presented from the beginning as an exclusive PlayStation console time.
This clearly does not mean that Stray is bound to come out for sure on Xbox platforms and arrive on Game Pass, the game as mentioned is exclusive to Sony consoles “for a limited period of time” but we don’t actually know the terms of the agreement and once the latter has expired, Stray could be released on Nintendo Switch but not on Xbox and Game Pass, for example.
It is true that Annapurna Interactive has a very good relationship with Microsoft (as it has them with Nintendo and PlayStation) but everything clearly depends on the clauses of the contractual agreements signed between the independent publisher and PlayStation, with the latter pushing to include Stray in the PlayStation Plus Extra library since launch occurred last July.
Stray was received positively by audiences and critics and also earned a nomination for the GOTY Game of the Year award, later won by Elden Ring, a real pop and cultural phenomenon of the year. Stray was awarded Best Indie Debut at The Game Awards on December 9th.
