Xbox exclusives are back and more complicated than ever

Two years ago, when Microsoft first revealed that it was bringing four Xbox-exclusive games to the PS5 and Nintendo Switch, it made the announcement far more complicated than necessary. That’s not likely to improve anytime soon. In fact, things now seem more confusing than ever as the company tries to appease both fans and the bottom line.

When making the experimental move away from exclusives in 2024, Microsoft initially refused to name the games — Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded — going cross platform, but was happy to shoot down rumors of Starfield and Indiana Jones coming to the PS5. Some Xbox fans thought the announcement meant “just four games,” others worried it was more, setting the stage for two years of confusion over what other titles would or would not be released on rival platforms. Eventually, Starfield and Indiana Jones both arrived on the PS5, only adding to the uncertainty.

With a new Xbox CEO in charge, hardcore fans have been ramping up the pressure on Microsoft to bring back Xbox-exclusive games, and the company finally relented during the Xbox Games Showcase on Sunday. Both Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution are now Xbox console exclusive titles, meaning they won’t be released on rival consoles. Sources at Xbox tell me the decision not to bring Gears of War: E-Day to PS5 was made fairly recently, after Microsoft had already done most of the work to port the game to Sony’s console.

Microsoft characterized the decision as “the return of exclusives,” noting that these two games “are not timed exclusives” so they theoretically won’t ever appear on the PS5 or Nintendo Switch 2. But what about other Xbox games in the future? “Games already announced for multiplatform releases will stick to that plan — we’re committed to investing in and growing Xbox both on console and beyond,” says Microsoft.

Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty revealed more about the decision in an interview with Gamertag Radio. “We want people to have a reason to get on board with Xbox, we want them to have a reason to buy an Xbox, a reason to be an Xbox fan,” says Booty. “At the same time we want to reward all our players that have been with us for a long time. We know that exclusives are important, that’s why we’ve got Gears coming in 2026 and Clockwork in 2027. We also want to be clear, our big multiplayer games, live-service games, are going to be multiplatform. If we’ve promised something to players already, we’re going to honor that promise.”

That helps explain why Fable, which was announced for PS5 earlier this year, is still coming to Sony’s console, and why Gears of War: E-Day is not. Microsoft never previously announced the platforms for E-Day.

But what about the new Xbox games Microsoft announced at its showcase? Senua, set in the Hellblade universe, is coming to PS5, and Spyro: A Real Beyond is also releasing on PS5 and Switch 2. You could argue that both of these franchises have a fan base on PlayStation thanks to past releases, but you could also argue that Microsoft was trying to build up a similar Gears of War fan base by releasing a remaster of the original Gears on PlayStation last year. PlayStation fans who enjoyed Re-Loaded will have to buy a PC or Xbox to play E-Day.

“Our principle is when we announce a date we want to announce the platforms,” says Booty. “So it’s going to be case-by-case, but we’re going to be clear that when it’s got a date it’s got a platform, and you’ll know what the choice will be.”

That doesn’t make Microsoft’s choices any clearer, though. State of Decay 3 is also being released on PS5, despite previous installments only ever being available on Xbox and PC. It has an open world survival sandbox with co-op for up to four players, so perhaps that makes it part of Microsoft’s “live service games,” or maybe it’s just a “case-by-case” decision. Who knows.

Microsoft’s return to Xbox exclusives has also created a weird situation where three of its big “four horsemen” Xbox franchises are coming to PS5. Halo: Campaign Evolved, Forza Horizon 6, and Fable are launching on PS5, but Gears of War: E-Day is not. It’s not clear if E-Day is enough of a big title to sell more Xbox consoles, but it certainly feels like a response to demands for Xbox exclusives from some fans.

I’m not surprised that Microsoft is in this complicated and confusing position, particularly because it’s been here for more than two years now. It’s complicated because Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood set across-the-board targets of 30 percent profit margins for Xbox in fall 2023, and the company responded by desperately trying to find revenue from rival platforms.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, who took over the role in February, now has a little more breathing room to make changes, and Gears of War: E-Day debuting as an Xbox console exclusive is clearly part of that. “My mandate is not 30 percent accountability margins, it’s not enterprise software margins, it’s to be the number one gaming and entertainment company, and that’s what we’re going to do,” said Sharma in an interview with Bloomberg last week.

In the same interview, Sharma also talked about exclusivity and revealed why it’s difficult to make decisions like the E-Day one. “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,” said Sharma. “At the same time we’re increasingly becoming a platform, in order to be a platform you must have exclusive content and services. I think we have to be very thoughtful about each title and how we want to think about it and learn from similar cases in the industry.”

Sharma’s comments speak to the tension between being a big game publisher and a platform holder. It’s difficult to do both and keep everyone happy, particularly in an era when game development is costly and the console install base isn’t growing like it used to. Sony is similarly returning to PlayStation-exclusive titles after dabbling in the PC space. But Microsoft has pushed much harder on being a multiplatform publisher, and because of this I don’t expect much clarity on its exclusives strategy anytime soon. Microsoft will keep testing different approaches in pursuit of its vague “return of Xbox” goal, all while leaving players to speculate about where Xbox games might appear next. Perhaps that ambiguity is part of the strategy.