Xbox CEO Asha Sharma may have made first exclusivity call with Gears of War: E-Day

Official key art for the Xbox Games Showcase 2026 and the Gears of War: E-Day Direct. — It's sounding like a reversal has been made around Gears of War on PS5. (Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

I don't get as excited about "ERMAGHERD EXCLUSIVES" as a lot of folks out there, but there's no denying it's a hot topic people really care about.

As we wait for the big Xbox/Gears of War double-header later on today, exclusive fans will love what we're hearing.

According to Jeff Grubb on Giant Bomb's latest Summer Game Fest show, Gears of War: E-Day was planned to be on PS5, but now it is not. Potentially this marks new XBOX CEO Asha Sharma's first big call on platform exclusivity.

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Gears of War: E-Day was gonna be on PS5. It's not anymore. That just happened. That was a decision that just got made.
Jeff Grubb, Giant Bomb

Gears of War: E-Day was first revealed a couple of years ago, and obviously since then XBOX has been pretty keen to put its first-party games out there on PS5. Forza Horizon 5 was a smash hit when it made its debut on Sony's console, and Halo is primed to make its first appearance with Campaign Evolved.

Both of those are old games, though, as was Gears of War: Reloaded when it launched on PS5. The Gears and Halo that PS5 players have had and will be getting might be 'new,' but they're both decades-old games at their core.

Pulling the plug on Gears of War: E-Day for PS5 would be a pretty huge call and represent a shift in strategy and no doubt one that the fans of platform exclusives will be singing about from the rooftops.

Unlike PlayStation, though, XBOX will continue to support PC with all its biggest releases, I mean, it's a Microsoft platform after all. But it looks like giving all the goodies to the other side could start to slow down.

I can see some sense in it, for sure. Multiplayer games like Forza Horizon 6, you want in as many places as possible. Live service franchises live and die by having as many players as possible.

We'll soon find out for sure, though. The Xbox Showcase starts tonight at 10am Pacific, 6pm BST, and the Gears of War: E-Day show is right after it.

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Richard Devine is the Managing Editor at Windows Central, where he combines a deep love for the open-source community with expert-level technical coverage. Whether he’s hunting for the next big project on GitHub, fine-tuning a WSL workflow, or breaking down the latest meta in Call of Duty, Forza, and The Division 2, Richard focuses on making complex tech accessible to every kind of user. If it’s happening in the world of Windows or PC gaming, he’s probably already knee-deep in the code (or the lobbies). Follow him on X and Mastodon.