Earlier today, we reported on a rumour about Xbox apparently having "very big discussions" about how to handle exclusivity going forward, and at the same time, fans have been spotting a reference to "exclusives" on the Xbox Series X|S dashboard that's been raising a few eyebrows over on social media.
A few hours ago, someone highlighted on Twitter/X how they'd seen the reference to exclusives as part of a "day one releases" ad for Xbox Game Pass, mentioning how you could play Forza Horizon 6 "as well as Xbox exclusives".
We've found it as well - you just need to hit the Xbox Game Pass tab on your Xbox Series X|S home screen, and then scroll down a little bit until you find the "Make the most of your Game Pass membership" section.
Here's a closer look:
Since then, we've seen the Xbox News for Koreans account also confirming that the same text appears for them in Korea, so it does seem to be an intentional reference that's clearly attracting a lot of attention. Just to clarify (because there's been some confusion on social media), it's not saying that Forza Horizon 6 is an exclusive itself, but rather that other "Xbox exclusives" are playable on Xbox Game Pass.
But does it actually mean anything? That's anyone's guess. Many commenters have pointed out that it's weird for Xbox to be highlighting exclusive games when they've been pushing against them for multiple years now, but at the same time, Xbox does still have plenty of exclusives — so perhaps it's just a way of boosting Game Pass's appeal.
In any case, the rumour mill suggests exclusives are a big topic of discussion inside Xbox HQ right now, and it'll be interesting to see if the strategy switches at all over the coming weeks and months. We'll see!