Xbox Confirms Its Two New Console Exclusives Are Not 'Timed'

Hate this decision. The games should be everywhere, especially games with Co op and competitive multiplayer like gears.

I feel bad for the developers that had stated they were excited ps5 players would get to play their games. https://www.purexbox.com/news/2025/11/xbox-developers-are-reportedly-thrilled-to-release-their-games-on-ps5

Fingers crossed clockwork revolution does well enough to justify inexile's exisitance as an xbox studio.

Its a start but will need to be a lot more than just those 2. It needs to be 'all' or nothing. And by 'all' im referring to common sense ones. Obviously keep minecraft, cod, etc multiplat. Hell even all activision. But everything else (including betheseda) should be exclusive

I was actually shocked that E-Day is exclusive and then go on to announce another one, is this a test I wonder to test the waters of the Xbox pure fanbase that have been voicing it

Great news. This is necessary in order to compete with Sony’s aggressive strategy, unfortunately :/

What the hell is the strategy here? Fable and Halo are Day One on PS5. Forza Horizon is a timed exclusive. Gears of War is exclusive. New announcements like Senua are on everything. The thinking is all over the place. Either have exclusives or not. Pick a lane.

Thats what I like to hear, clear messaging. Now work on making more of them exclusive and we can talk about rebuilding trust and faith.

I think it's a it of a raw deal to release gears on ps then they won't get the rest , much prefer them or keep one s that have been Xbox exclusives so far like fable and state of decay

@Ooccoo_Jr I would guess that its based entirely around predicted sales. Gears and Clockwork Revolution were never going to be massive hits on PS so having them exclusive throws a bone to the fans whilst protecting the bank balance. They are not in a position where they can make everything exclusive and expect to recoup the costs when everything is on GP, so they are likely just choosing the best options.

Should have gone with Halo as an XBOX exclusive as well and Fable.

Do it or don’t in my opinion.

I think this is a bad decision.

I think it's pretty clear what the strat is. Release some Xbox remasters/remakes like Halo and Gears on PS to give them a taste. Now that the novelty of Xbox games on PS has worn out, lock down the next iteration for Xbox.

Until they realise the number of sales they are missing out on...

@BacklogBrad cool, so why are you not on Sony PlayStation forums complaining about there exclusives?

I very much doubt this theory I’m gonna write but.

By putting gears on PS5 do they hope some may come across to Xbox for gears e day.

By putting Halo remake on PS5 are they hoping some may come across to Xbox for the next new main Halo game.

Obviously this doesn’t really apply to Fable.

I understand the sentiment people are sharing about a lack of transparency with console exclusives, particularly the games that have been chosen. Some of these games have been known to Sony for a while, and I’m sure contracts have been signed for cross platforming. It sucks that Halo and Forza aren’t exclusive, but Asha can’t undo Phil’s decisions in that short of a time; the deal has already been done. However, I think this decision might get people back into the brand IF Gears and Clockwork turn out to be the excellent games (I believe they will). In my opinion, this is a start to making XBOX relevant again in the console space. Asha has done a great job so far, and I’m sure there will be more plans in the future to shape the brand back to what the 360 generation brought.

The Xbox showcase was amazing. But it's going to be really interesting to see whether this statement holds true in the future. The part about only announced games staying beyond Xbox/PC is weird because there were a number of games from Xbox Game Studios which have never been announced for Playstation, yet got announced to release day 1 on Playstation.

Like Senua, Spyro, and State Of Decay 3. They're still doing the mixed messaging thing lol. If Gears was ready to go, day 1 on Playstation, and they pulled out last minute, then surely the same could've been done for these games. I get it though, cancelling all of those ports would literally just be burning money.

I think this begins the whole "data driven approach" to determine their publishing strategy moving forward.

@Ooccoo_Jr "Games already announced for multiplatform releases will stick to that plan" they are honoring previous agreement. Senua probably was agreed upon before reveal. Basically, moving forward and next gen will have far more exclusives. Next years Xbox showcase will most likely be mostly exclusives. Remind me in a year.

I get the whole new IP being exclusive for Clockwork revolution. But if your gonna make Gears E Day exclusive. Xbox should have cancelled the PS5 ports of the tentpole titles: Fable, Halo, Forza Horizon 6 & State of Decay 3. As one a year is wasting everyone's time.

Gears is back!
Xbox is back!
Sharma is a legend!
Gears has changed forever E day looks amazing!
Best showcase ever!

@Deshalu I am on playstation (and nintendo) sites complaining about their exclusive strategy.

The amount of people that use "Playstation does it" as an excuse are mind-boggling. Its like the logo situation from last week, just because Sony intentionally misleads people does not mean xbox should mislead us too. We need to stop cheering for anti consumer behavior.

Would be smart to have it on Xbox Rog ally as well

As I’ve said, I like that they are trying exclusives again but I also believe it will be cruicial that Gears move the needle for consoles and subscriptions. And if it doesnt move it enough, they better not punish the developer!

@BacklogBrad timing is everything. I think Phil Spencer was on the right track, with your logic. The big problem was they couldn’t release the new console in time that would be integrated with steam to help force Sony to multi-platform just like they are.

Sony pulled the plug for PC. By doing so this allows Sony to be the monopoly in the gaming industry that they already are.

Microsoft bring back exclusives allows them to fight back. If you go through and read the Microsoft Activision versus Sony FTC case you’ll see that Sony is a monopoly in the gaming division. Even the FTC’s definition of a monopoly is everything Sony‘s already done and still doing. That’s why every judge they went through allowed the merger of Microsoft and Activision.

For some reason, people refuse to believe that Sony is a monopoly

Good. Nothing wrong with leveraging both sides of the business.

Hopefully going forward most games will be like this

I'm not fond of exclusives, but that's a game both Sony and Nintendo are playing, so Microsoft trying to leverage their (frankly obscene) vault of IPs and developers to compete at their level makes sense if they want to build the brand.

Clockwork Revolution looks like it stole and copied Bioshock Infinites homework, but even if that game doesn't entirely hold up, I did really love it back in 2013 or whenever it came out. So this is solidly on my radar.

@makexboxgreatagain I mean, they announced two previously unnanounced brand new games are going to PS. Not sure how this fit in with the clear strategy you seem to see.

@Deshalu playstation never gave their pc strategy a chance to succeed. The timed exclusive delay made it so no one was excited for the games when they finally made it to pc. They could either play a brand new game or a $70 port of a game from a year or two ago. Not to mention the ports themselves were poorly optimized for pcs.

Xbox's day 1 pc strategy is way better than what Sony was trying to do.

I wouldnt call them a monopoly either. Nintendo and steam are doing better in my opinion.

I don’t feel bad for PlayStation players they have made more only pc and xbox games and they should stop Forza and fable and others games.
PlayStation players don’t feel sorry all the games that they could cross to Xbox like spiderman days gone and god of war but they are selfish and they stop the pc
Game now becuase the new Xbox will be able to play pc games they have waste billions on a lot of live service flops

I’ll believe it when I see it. They’ve said a lot of things they backtracked on.

It just doesn’t make sense. Gears has been rated its there and ready to go. But then shelved.

Whereas SoD3, Spyro, Senus and Clockwork were never announced for ps5 but then 3 of 4 were.

It’s just more confusing than it was 4hours ago.

@BacklogBrad do a little research. You’ll find that the reason Sony pulled their PC strategy away is because of steam releasing their own home console and the next Xbox being able to use steam on it.

Sony doesn’t want any console competition. Again, it’s about keeping the monopoly of the console business that they have.

The next XBOX is rumored to have all PC storefronts on it

I think its a great move. Obviously they could not reverse decisions for games already announced and clearly they wanted to test waters with some select games.

As expected people that wanted exclusivity now are getting it but salty again.sigh

Its a good step in right direction and good message that you NEED an xbox for at least these 2 games (assuming you are interested in them obviosuly to start with)