Matt Booty Explains Xbox's Plans For Exclusive Games Going Forward

Its a start and the loudest pop Ive had in years. I love this brand, its given me so many great memories and friends and it feels like it was reborn today.

our principle is, when we announce the date, we announce the platforms. So, it's going to be case-by-case, but we're going to be clear.

That. Problem solved. Mystery solved. If you really want every Xbox game, you'd better get an Xbox or PC. If you want to know if an Xbox game will come to PS, you'll need to wait for the date announcement.

I am happy that some games are and will be exclusive. One of the them being potential systemseller is a smart move - make a bundle for Xmas time or ideally price down xbox SX and extra sales are guaranteed.

Overall, I think its a good step in right direction. The grain of salt is of course “case by case” basis so again no clear rule for exclusives. This needs to be addressed going forward.

This is first time since 2022 I dont feel left behind as an xbox player. A lot of amazing games, game pass and (little bit of) exclusives.

W.

I don't buy it!!! As Senua was only announced today & State of Decay 3 never had a platform attached to it. Plus Gears E Day was rated so the PS5 port must have recently been scrapped.

I really don’t know how to feel about this, on one hand it’s great to have some return to exclusivity as the platform otherwise would continue to dwindle, but I fear this might be too little too late and it poses many questions like: Are sales for both games only on Xbox and Steam going to be enough to cover the costs of them? Will any of those studios be at risk if they don’t reach sales targets?

Also, I understand the case-by-case basis, but there has to be some consistency, just today it was bizarre to see Gears E-Day announced as a console exclusive followed by Halo on PS5 just 5 minutes later, while also presenting brand new Xbox Game Studios games still releasing day one games on PS5.

With no discernible pattern how is anyone supposed to believe exclusives are truly back? How is this any different from 2023’s promises of Starfield being exclusive? And perhaps the biggest question is how long will it take them to pivot again?

Wish them the best of luck but I don't see this panning out long term sadly.

Asha has only been in charge for three months, and making these two games exclusive in such a short time is already a very strong start. Of course, for games that were already announced for other consoles — like Evolved and Fable — it would’ve been complicated to walk that back. But this is just the beginning. I can easily see the next Blade being exclusive, and the same for the next Halo, since Evolved is just a remake.

Xbox has so many franchises, so much potential, so many future exclusives — an enormous amount of system‑seller power.

This is the way ! Xbox is back Baby !

@Banjo- Until Satya says otherwise. Again. One word from him or Amy Hood will steamroll everything Asha and Booty so eloquently and emphatically stated today. That’s your “problem”, that’s your “mystery” right there: What does Satya want at any given moment.

So, in a nutshell, we are right back where we where in the first place when it was just 4 games. No better, no worse, no clear plan.

It feels like E Day was pulled to appease folks, Clockwork gave those same folks something to help believe and yet, here we are again. Nothing has changed and you can replace Starfield with Gears this time round.

The plan is the plan until its not the plan. Again.

Xbox console exclusives are back! And it's just the beginning

on Paper its sounds good. Multiplayer games, perticually in the current model need every single player the can get. So keeping those multiformat is perfect logic.

But I'm a little confused, surely Gears of War is one of Xbox's "big multiplayer" games, yet E-Day is exclusive. I guess it's probably because it just so happens to be the next big Xbox IP releasing that didn't have confirmed platforms. Because if it "well gears has a campaign" then CoD should be exclusive too.

I noticed they made a point of separating the games made by "Xbox Game Studios" from "Bethesda" and "Activision" which might be their wiggle room. "Fable is exclusive, but Wolfenstein 3, that's not because it's not a Xbox Game Studios game."

So Gears isn't a big multiplayer game? Is it not big or not multiplayer?

This is so stupid. They are already contradicting their new criteria. They spent 2 years telling us how reaching the most players was all that mattered. Constant 180s from xbox. Its safest to assume that whatever they say will be the exact opposite in the near future.

Gears would only benefit from the ps5 port that they nearly completed before canceling. What a waste.

Sucks a bit tbh. I just want to have one system being able to play everything and I love my switch 2, not so much my Xbox series X. Just release every game on Nintendo hardware too, xbox. They’re not so much your competitor.

Hey look more PR talk. Because why would you then give PS5 Spyro and Senua and SoD3(maybe you can argue as multiplayer here). And halo has multiplayer?

Fable is single player and still announced and I guess this signifies that FH6 will be going over as it’s multiplayer too.

I genuinely don’t think that MS don’t fully know what they want to do currently. Maybe helix can be called Xbox180?

Im in a lucky personal position where I own multiple systems but not everyone is

@abe_hikura Call of Duty is very different because of the contract agreements with government and other companies within the gaming industry.

Really wish people would’ve followed the Microsoft Activision versus Sony case

@PsBoxSwitchOwner those games could’ve been announced for PS5 behind closed doors with Sony or other possible sponsors and or investors

@NeoRatt they don’t read my comment below your first comment.

Remember those games have been in development for a long time

@BacklogBrad I think GoW is "sacrificially" exclusive, not part of this new. It's the only big Xbox IP game coming out that didn't have confirmed platforms.

@Deshalu I did, I was simply using CoD as an example of a "Xbox-owned game that has multiplayer and campaign that's currently not exclusive" I'm also well aware that "10 years of COD for Nintendo" has resulted in 0 COD games in 3 years, with the first one coming about 4 years into the 10-year deal. Evidently the deal has a whole lot of wiggle room.

Wow who would’ve thought exclusives make consoles sell and creates competition

Never should've dropped exclusives to begin with.

@Deshalu then with that argument one would imagine the same for gears of war considering that it got an age rating for PS?!

@Weebleman I will take 2024 back vs late 2025 with “everything is an xbox” and what appeared to be 0 exclusives at all.

I do agree they need to be more consistent going forward.

But the message is xbox has and will have some exclusives.

Bottom line if you were planning to sell xbox thinking it wont have exclusives at all - hold your horses.

Although its clear it will be select games rather than most or even half of 1st party output.

@abe_hikura the other Call of Duty’s were being made, and weren’t a part of the original start of the contract for Nintendo

@PsBoxSwitchOwner It could’ve just got an age rating, doesn’t mean they made an agreement with Sony for it to be on their console yet.

Could’ve, will never know

@PsBoxSwitchOwner also Sony could’ve found it not very valuable so decided to let them have it back instead of holding them into that agreement

@Deshalu its literally launching this year and widely reported to have been pulled in the last few days. To the point it was submitted to the regulatory board for a rating. Are you suggesting that nothing was was in place despite this yet games currently still in development, some of them early, have something?

E Day feels like a knee jerk 'we have to give something' reaction taken at the last minute as everything else around it contradicts their points.

This isn't xbox is back. This is essentially still managing your company on the fly while appesing the hardcore who flew off the handle over logos in videos. Despite it ironically being surround by those logos on pretty much everything else.

I would have thought keeping halo exclusive would’ve been better as it’s basically the biggest original Xbox IP and hasn’t already shown up on PS. Gears has, plus its multiplayer.

Whilst GoW is a bit of a sacrificial lamb, it's a huge positive to bring back exclusives IMO. If it fails as a strategy, it fails, but it's the right call to at least try.

@shiny-enzo why. If anything. Gears E Day should have gone to Playstation as now they only have GoW: Reloaded. Which didn't sell well. So is that why it's now exclusive to Xbox!!! If Xbox plan on more exclusives then they should cancel Halo campaign evolved & Fable on PS5 as if they don't plan to porting more single player titles? Does that mean Xbox studios will prioritise online games so they don't become exclusive. Like @Weebleman said. We are back to it's only 4 games & the Bethesda/ABK acquisitions case by case basis bull. Either go fully exclusive when possible or continue being multiplatform. Stop the bull.

@Weebleman read comment number 27.

It’s possible that Sony didn’t find the IP very valuable so did not hold Microsoft to the agreement

@Coletrain I agree though that was the strategy before and Phil moved away from it for a reason. Maybe under Asha it’ll work better.

Plus, it was by the ratings board, which is technically not Microsoft announcing that Gears is coming to the PS5

@Weebleman I think gears will eventually find its way. If it’s basically complete for PS they may as well at some point.

But for now Asha has managed to appease the Twitter Die hards so looks good, until the change course again

@abe_hikura

If thats the case, its wild that gears of war would be a bridge too far but Halo is not.

@datamonkey 100%. It has to be coupled with platform/hardware growth. I'd love to see the current Series sales figures and Xbox on PC numbers to see where they're at

@Deshalu that means the game is pretty much fully developed for the platform if it has a rating.

I know you are pulling reasons out of your ass, but Senua isn’t a big seller either so I’m sure Sony would rather have gears, considering their first party output of shooters is non existent

@Coletrain yeah me too man but I have a feeling we’ll be waiting a while for them!

And.. back to murky waters with the messaging from Microsoft. Make things more clear; what is exclusive and what isn't. Like you did with Clockwork and Gears. I'm not going to buy a Helix and "hope" that it will have tons of exclusives, I want to know it will.

It’s very good that exclusives are back on the menu imo. It’s needed after Sony backtracked on PC ports in order to keep their games off Helix. Xbox hardware wouldn’t have been able to survive after that happened. Glad that Asha could see the current strategy was unsustainable. It’ll be too little too late to revive XSX|S, but they need to get the ball rolling now so Helix can launch with a solid ‘console exclusive’ lineup. It’s great that Asha actually remembers the promise that Phil made back at XSX|S launch of great Xbox exclusives, Phil forgot that over the years and the brand massively suffered as a result.

This has taken all the wind out of the sails for one of my most anticipated games. They are deliberately making the multiplayer experience worse with this course. It went from my highlight of the second half of the year to wondering if it will even be worth investing time in it at all. What a bummer.