Xbox hints at a shift on exclusives: “The plan is the plan until it’s not the plan”

When it comes to the Xbox ship, the course it's been sailing has been what one might call a rocky one. After slowly bringing a few games from Xbox and Windows PC over to PlayStation, the floodgates have opened with the latest entry of Forza Horizon, Fable, Gears of War, and even Xbox’s beloved Halo franchise.

Some folks have been okay with the idea because it’s a genuinely good thing to give gamers more access to games. That’s why they’re gamers! But it’s caused a calamity of sorts in the minds of people like me who have asked the question, why buy an Xbox at all?

If all the games you’re making will be coming to other platforms, what other reason is there to pick your console over another when the competition has an extra perk or two in the form of games? I argued that Game Pass was still a reason to play Xbox, but with the advent of PC gaming hitting all-time highs (sans AI pricing out the market), players could flock to that ecosystem as well. Heck, that’s Windows is just another Microsoft platform

That’s why I think the recent shuffle at Xbox has caused quite a few people on social media to start giving advice to the new CEO, Asha Sharma. At the top of almost every single list I personally read, I see someone mentioning the need for exclusive games again. I even see people asking for the ports of Halo, Fable, Forza, and other games to be cancelled entirely.

Xbox CEO says, "The plan's the plan until it's not the plan."

I didn’t think any of this was possible, since it’s such a cataclysmic shift in thinking to go from being exclusive to non-exclusive; there was no way they’d reverse that decision, right? Well, Asha spoke to our Jez Corden recently and didn’t rule it out.

When asked what Asha Sharma thought about the idea of returning to exclusive games, she said, "Right now, I need to learn, candidly. About the 'why' of these decisions, what we were optimizing for, and what the data says about the Xbox strategy today. That's the honest answer. I'm looking at lifetime value, not just what happened in a previous moment, or in short-term efficiencies and things like that. The plan's the plan until it's not the plan."

Excuse me? Did she really say that? I know fans were speculating after her initial, “Hear you,” comment on X when someone asked her last Friday to return to making games exclusive, but everyone thought it was more fluff than actual talk.

This is the CEO of Xbox coming out and stating, word-for-word, that the idea of games coming back to being made for their hardware only is not out of the picture. Is that a glint of hope I see in the corner of my eye?

The Xbox ecosystem has been suffering financially over the last couple of years, and whether it’s been the hardware price increases, exclusives, Game Pass hikes, or something else, it’s clear that the status quo won’t do anymore. Asha Sharma may have been brought in without a massive amount of gaming experience, but when it comes to customer acquisition, it’s one of her greatest strengths.

A return to form for Xbox that included a world of exclusives consumers waited years for the platform to achieve would be terrific. However, I don’t think that will be happening overnight. Nor do I think that will start with games like the Halo remake or Forza Horizon, which make mega bucks on PlayStation.

First, Asha needs to learn the business, and that means going around to development studios as detailed in her latest interview. But it also means committing to the ‘return of Xbox’ and the hardware itself; the rest of the decisions will come with time.

"Xbox players have thousands of dollars invested, in money and time too — it's incredibly important for me to understand that and protect that," Sharma said. "I am committed to 'returning to Xbox,' and that starts with console, that starts with hardware. You will hear more about that soon; we'll have some announcements coming up. You will see us collectively investing here.” Asha explained.

Continuing, “We also know that there are a lot of players who aren't on console or our hardware, and I want to deliver great games to them too. I need to learn more about what that can look like, what decisions were made, what we need to do going forward, and I want a little bit of time and space to do that."

The commitment to hardware seems to have been in the works for some time, while the idea that exclusives could make a comeback seems rather fresh. Like, new CEO fresh. Only time will tell if Xbox and Microsoft see the return of a once set-in-stone console perk as good for their business.

What do you think about Xbox’s shifting stance on exclusives?

Xbox leadership’s “the plan is the plan until it’s not the plan” line leaves a lot of room for interpretation — and potential change. We want to hear how you’re reading it. Do you think Xbox should lean back into exclusives, stay multiplatform, or find a new middle ground?

Drop your thoughts below and join the conversation!

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