House House, the developer of "Walking Together," announced that it will respond to the call from the Palestinian-led BDS movement to boycott Microsoft by temporarily withholding the game's Xbox release. The title has already launched on PS5, PC, and Switch 2, while the Xbox version has been absent so far.
In its statement, House House noted that Microsoft's gaming division and Xbox are listed as priority targets for boycott by the movement, leading the studio to decide against releasing "Walking Together" on the Xbox platform for now. The studio expressed that it had hoped friends could play together, acknowledged that the lack of an Xbox version prevents some players from joining their friends, and understood their disappointment.
The studio still hopes to release an Xbox version in the future, but only if Microsoft or Xbox is no longer a target of the BDS movement's boycott. Currently, House House has stated its conditions for release and has not announced a launch date for the Xbox version.