Microsoft has released Ori and the Will of the Wisps for Nintendo Switch

Microsoft has announced Ori and the Will of the Wisps for Nintendo Switch – and it’s available to purchase digitally from today.

The platformer is available on the Nintendo eShop for $29.99 / €29.99.

In addition, a physical Collector’s Edition of the game will be released via publisher IAm8Bit for Switch, Xbox One and PC and is available for pre-order now. It includes physical editions of both Ori games, a “stained glass style” art piece, Sketchbook Zine and more.

The sequel to Ori and the Blind Forest first released in March of this year for Xbox One and PC.

The game was widely praised by critics as a worthy sequel and a standout Metroidvania. VGC’s Ori and the Will of the Wisps review called it “a gorgeous platformer that builds on the original without ruining what made it so special.”

In a post on the Resetera forum, Ori’s director Thomas Mahler said Moon Studios had been “optimizing the hell out of [the Switch version] for almost half a year – and yes, it’s 60fps and it’s glorious!”

Xbox has dabbled in collaborating with Nintendo over the past 18 months. It published the first Ori game for Nintendo’s platform in September 2019 as well as another former Xbox One exclusive, Cuphead. Xbox already publishes Minecraft on Switch and PlayStation 4.

Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty previously said the platform holder would determine if it makes sense to put its games on PlayStation and Nintendo Switch on a case-by-case basis.

“I think that the question is less binary about, ‘should it be on Switch, should it be on PlayStation?’ and more, ‘does it make sense for the franchise?’,” he said.

“In other words, is it a kind of game where it would benefit from the network effect of being on a bunch of different platforms, or is it a game where we can best support it by putting resources and making sure that our platforms, things like xCloud and Game Pass and Xbox Live, are really leaning in to support the game?”