February has arrived, which means the video game publishing mill will really start turning again in the coming weeks. One of the games that will kick it back up is Nioh 3, which will be released later this week on February 6th. A PS5 console exclusive at launch, but its latest trailer has given hope to Nioh fans eager to play the game on other platforms.
The splash screen at the end of the trailer confirms that Nioh 3 will launch on PC at the same time as PS5 – a first for the series, but something we already knew. What's notable is that in the second part of the fine print, PlayStation confirmed that the next Nioh game will only be tied to its platform console-wise for the first six months.
There is hope for Xbox-owning Nioh fans
Of course, there's no mention of PlayStation's rivals, but it does mean that Team Ninja is free to put Nioh 3 on the Xbox Series X|S starting August 6, 2026. That would be a pretty big milestone for the series, as neither Nioh nor Nioh 2 have ever been made available on a non-PlayStation console. PlayStation only at launch and then PC later, or in this case, a split PS5/PC launch.
Nioh 3 is shaping up to be the first must-have game of 2026
Nioh 3's amazing new mechanics and vastly expanded levels make it feel like a true evolution of an already great formula.
In fact, despite Team Ninja's close relationship with Xbox, when Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty was released on Game Pass, studio head Fumihiko Yasuda told VGC that there was “not really too much opportunity to have Nioh on Xbox platforms”. He then quickly steered the conversation back to Fallen Dynasty.
Maybe Team Ninja is considering Nioh 3 For The Switch 2
Those comments were made in 2022, and maybe things have changed since then. Or the six months of exclusivity could mean that Team Ninja is free to put Nioh 3 on the Nintendo Switch 2 this summer. The original Switch was almost certainly not capable of running the first two Nioh games, while the Switch 2 is very likely capable of handling Nioh 3.
I can imagine that Team Ninja is keen to get Nioh games on as many platforms as possible as the decision to launch the next installment on PS5 and PC at the same time is already paying dividends. The Nioh 3 demo reached a concurrent player peak of more than 39,000 people on Steam late last week. That's almost more than Nioh 2's player peak of 41,000.
That bodes well for the game's sales, and makes it almost certain that Nioh 3's top players will surpass its predecessor's best efforts, probably within days of launch. It seems likely that Nioh 3 will review well as well, but even though we're only a month into the year, it might not quite have what it takes to be the best-reviewed game of the year thanks to Cairn's strong score.
