Windows Central Insider
In a recent interview, The Game Business's Chris Dring sat down with Xbox Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball, and to say he didn't pull any punches would be an understatement. However, Ball arrived prepared, offering some surprisingly candid insights into Xbox's future, along with a much clearer picture of the company's long-term vision.
Rather than beating around the bush, Dring asked a question that Xbox fans have been raising for months: “What games are going to be console exclusives going forward?” When asked exactly that, Ball had plenty to say: "We have an internal framework and a strategy that we're using to approach exclusives on and off-platform..."
Ball continues, "We announced yesterday that there were two titles, one coming this year, one coming next year. Doing two titles was important. We could have announced Clockwork Revolution was going to be exclusive later in the year... We could have kicked off 2027 by talking about that as an exclusive... It was important for us to include two titles so that people understood this was not a one-off."
Immediately, Ball does a good job of making it clear that this isn't a one-off and that more is to come. He expanded on that point further: "This is the start of the program and players can expect a reliable pipeline that validates their historical investment in the Xbox platform, keeps them as Xbox players going forward, and everyone in the industry understands that exclusives are important to the growth and branding of that platform."
According to GameSpot, Ball also acknowledged that "certain Xbox exclusives will sell fewer units" than they would if they were multiplatform. However, he also stated that this is a short-term issue, something I have often criticized Microsoft for, as it always seems like they're thinking too much about the short term rather than the long term, and it seems these decisions are being made now with the mindset of helping Xbox's console business expand in the future.
It's a lot to digest, and I'm still of the mindset that actions speak louder than words. In this case, it's going to take a lot for me to fully buy into the idea of a "reliable pipeline" of exclusives.
The Xbox Games Showcase was excellent, but unless I'm mistaken, almost everything shown outside of Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution is also heading to PlayStation 5. That's where some of the messaging becomes confusing.
State of Decay 3 and Senua are perfect examples of the kinds of games I would have expected to remain exclusive. Instead, they're heading to a competing platform that, for all intents and purposes, has struggled to maintain the same level of first-party output as Xbox in recent years.
Now, Ball does discuss that previously announced games will remain multiplatform, so don't expect anything announced already to change. Still, Ball's comments suggest Microsoft now has a clearer strategy than many of us may have given it credit for. Whether that translates into a steady stream of meaningful exclusives remains to be seen.
Enough about my thoughts, though. What do you think? Do you trust what Ball is saying, or are you, like me, a little more apprehensive? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll!
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