With XBOX having recently announced that Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution will be console-exclusive to its own platforms, fans are now looking forward to seeing whether the company announces more Xbox Series X/S-exclusive titles. According to division CEO Asha Sharma, however, these fans might have to wait for a bit before XBOX can more fully commit to having console-exclusives.
In an interview with Fortune, Sharma spoke about the company’s position as the number two publisher in the world. As such, she brought up the fact that these run ambitions are at odds with XBOX becoming “more of a platform”, since that would require more exclusive content. Currently, however, Sharma said that the company’s business “isn’t particularly healthy”, so it is essentially testing the waters with a couple of exclusive releases.
“Look, I think that we are the number two publisher in the world, and when you do that, you want your games to be everywhere,” she said. “You’re stronger when the world plays with you. At the same time, we’re increasingly becoming more of a platform, and it’s hard to find examples of platforms out there that don’t have exclusive services and content.”
“And so, this is a journey for us. Our business isn’t particularly healthy. So, we’re starting by introducing 1-2 signature exclusives. As the business gets healthy, we will look to try and do more.”
Interestingly, her point about being the number two publisher in the world echoes what she had said about releasing XBOX-exclusive games earlier this month. During a Bloomberg Live event, she had spoken about the subject, and the tightrope that the company had to walk when it came to being not only a platform owner, but also a publisher.
“Look, we’re the number two publisher in the world, and in order to be a great publisher, you must have your games reach large audiences to play,” she said at the time. “At the same time, we’re increasingly becoming a platform, and in order to become a platform, you must have exclusive content and services. And so, we’re looking at that very closely.”
Of course, this statement came before the official confirmation that Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution would only be coming to PC and Xbox Series X/S, skipping releases on PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2 altogether.
As for XBOX’s plans going forward, the division’s chief strategist, Matthew Ball, said earlier this week that this is just the beginning. He revealed that the company now has an internal framework and strategy that it uses to decide which games should be exclusive, and which should be released on more platforms.
“It was important for us to include two titles so that people understood this was not a one-off; it was not commemorative,” he said, referring to Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution. “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 also spoke about exclusive releases helping by making sure that players who have bought into the XBOX hardware and software ecosystem find more value in their investments.
