Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, you’ll know that after weeks of anticipation and begging from fans, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced during the Xbox Showcase that Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution are now Xbox console exclusives..
While the exclusives are officially back on the menu, Sharma also offered some insight into the decision During an interview with Fortune Conversations. He explained exactly why Xbox changed course, so let’s take a look at what he was asked and how he answered.
During the interview, Sharma was asked:
“Previous Xbox leaders have taken exclusivity off the table. Looks like it’s back on after the Showcase. Clockwork Revolution and Gears of War E-Day, both exclusive. What caused the pivot?“
Sharma replied:
“Look, I think we’re the number two publisher in the world, and when you do that, you want your games to be everywhere. You are stronger when the world plays with you.
At the same time, we are becoming more and more platforms, and it is difficult to find examples of platforms out there that do not have exclusive services and content.
And this is a journey for us. Our business is not so healthyas you mentioned and so we start we have one or two signature exclusives and as business is healthy we will try to try more.“
Sharma was also asked what he wanted the Xbox showcase to demonstrate about the future of Xbox, and he said:
“I wanted to protect great games, I wanted to talk about the return of Xbox and I wanted to talk about the future of gaming, and so in my first showcase I really aligned with what we had to do and we had some really great games.
We’ve brought back Xbox with the reintroduction of two new exclusivesas well as the new special edition 25th anniversary console and it was such a great environment to bring everyone together.“
Obviously, exclusives are a key part of Xbox’s current strategy. While Sharma was at a loss to confirm additional exclusives beyond Gears of War: E-Duy and Clockwork Revolution, he offered Xbox “try and do more“If the business of the company is healthier.
Personally, I’d love to see Xbox get their hands dirty again. This is no secret Sony has spent years securing content and marketing deals that keep certain games away from Xbox players, and by all accounts, Xbox has the resources to push back if it chooses to do so.
However, I’ll leave you with another quote from Sharma that may provide the clearest indication yet of where Xbox is headed:
“We’ve had a great 100 days; we’ve started reviving Xbox and the next 100 days are all about resetting Xbox.”
Let me know if you’re as excited for the next 100 days of Xbox as I am, or maybe you’re just not excited at all. Anyway, let me know in the comments and don’t forget to take our poll below:
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