Xbox’s new chief strategist has said this week’s announced console exclusives are “not a one-off” and that players can expect a “reliable pipeline” of Xbox-only games in the future.
Speaking at The Game Business Live event at Summer Game Fest, Xbox’s CSO, Matthew Ball, said the announcement of Gears of War E-Day and Clockwork Revolution as console exclusives is the start of a program at Microsoft.
In recent years, Xbox has pushed towards a multiplatform release model, putting nearly all of its biggest releases on rival consoles. However, according to Ball, this weekend’s announcements signal that this strategy has now changed.
“So I can tell you how we are thinking about it,” he said. “We have an internal framework and strategy that we are using to approach exclusives on and off the platform.
“We announced yesterday that there were two titles, one coming this year, one coming next year. Doing two titles was important. We could have announced Clockwork was going to be exclusive later at the end of the year, when we got closer and closer to the 25th anniversary. We could have kicked off 2027 by talking about that as an exclusive.
“It was important for us to include two titles so that people understood this was not a one-off, it was not commemorative. We were not saying it’s our 25th anniversary, it’s Gears’ 20th anniversary, we’re returning to Xbox, here’s an exclusive. This is the start of a program.”
He continued: “Players can expect a reliable pipeline that validates their historical investment in the Xbox platform, keeps them as Xbox players going forward. And everyone in the industry understands that exclusives are important to the growth and branding of that platform.”
Ball reiterated Microsoft’s public statement that it will continue to put its large live service games, like Call of Duty, onto other console platforms.
“We have a third bucket of titles, those titles that we have previously announced or previously committed with our partners, with players, with teams, that we’ve decided to maintain those commitments,” he added, referencing Fable and Halo: Campaign Evolved, which are both coming to PS5.
The Xbox strategist then went on to reference comments made by Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, who said last week that she needed to “reset” the Xbox business and return it to growth, following recent decline in hardware and subscriber numbers.
“Asha has been clear that our business today is not healthy. She’s been clear that we are turning around the business,” Ball said. “Every day we are going to come more and more outwards about what we’re doing, why we’re doing it. And the reason why I say that is, today I should give you a more comprehensive answer. Here are all the titles that players can expect this year, next year, and thereafter that are going to be exclusive.
“We know what those are going to be. We know how we’re going to make those decisions. We know how we’re going to be evaluated against those decisions. But what’s important there is that framework has to be external eventually.
“Everyone in this audience is an expert, an aficionado of the field, and I understand why they are saying we still don’t quite get it. We have to communicate that internally. We have to communicate that to our partners.
“But then most of all, at the end of the day, the average player, the average current Xbox player, and the player that we want but don’t have today, have to understand it very simply. And that’s where we’re going. We’re just not ready to do it yet.”
Ball claimed Xbox shed “millions of subscribers” when the price of Game Pass increased late last year. Since recent price cuts were introduced, subscribers have “returned to growth”, according to Xbox.
