[STEAM] Xbox Says More Exclusives Are Coming But Tells Players Not to 'Overly Fixate on Single-Player' Games

[Steam 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Executives at Xbox have

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

attempted to clarify the company's approach to exclusives, promising that "

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

and

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

are not the only titles" it's planning.

Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Ball and chief content officer Matt Booty tried to further explain how

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

is handling exclusives during a conversation with

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. Their clarification arrived amid the company's renewed interest in the strategy, which kicked off just last month with confirmation that two of its biggest first-party games would not come to PlayStation consoles.

"I can assure you, Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution are not the only titles we're planning," Ball promised. "To grow a platform like ours, you have to have exclusive games and services. These are not going to be the only two titles."

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

shocked the industry at its

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

last month when it declared The Coalition's Gears of War: E-Day would not be releasing on PS5 as many had expected. The announcement that inXile Entertainment's Clockwork Revolution would also be console exclusive arrived sooner after. Both were also confirmed to be

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

What's emerged in the weeks since is muddy messaging that's led to some confusion amongst fans. Just as rumors that Xbox had hastily decided to make the Gears prequel exclusive began to dissipate, theories were reignited when the company

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. Meanwhile, as games like

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, and

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

come to PS5, players have been left uncertain about how

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

will determine what is an exclusive and what isn't.

So, what does the future of Xbox exclusive games look like? For the most die-hard fans – and maybe even

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

itself – it's hard to say, for now. In June, Booty said the company will

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Today, he's being a tad more direct, promising that, while "large live-service titles" will be multiplatform going forward, players shouldn't expect all single-player titles to be Xbox exclusive.



"I wouldn't overly fixate on single-player," he clarified. "I think that's a good rule of thumb, but it certainly isn't something that's carved in stone."

He continued: "We are the stewards of over 20 game franchises that have made a billion dollars in their lifetime. There are a lot of different games in our portfolio, and we have to think about how different games serve different purposes within it."

Ball said

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

does "have a framework for these selections, including how we evaluate them." He noted that it's a strategy that may not be "obvious to all of our players," saying the Xbox team is "committed to making this clearer."

As Xbox CEO Asha Sharma brings "energy" to the team, Booty said he's hoping they strike "the right balance between the work that the teams have invested and a strategy pivot." The new gaming boss said in June that

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. Ball echoed that thought in the new interview.

"There is scant evidence of any platform ever being built, let alone sustained, without having exclusive content," he said. "It doesn't matter whether we're talking about cable networks, streaming video channels, broadcast, terrestrial radio, a Hollywood studio, a music label – you need it."

We're still in the early days of Xbox's new strategy, so it's tough to say how it will change its troubled ecosystem in the months and years ahead. As the company attempts to clear the air when it comes to its new exclusive strategy, it's still trudging through the aftermath of layoffs that arrived alongside what Sharma called

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

in its history. The resustructure in question, which resulted in

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, happened earlier this month.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

(@MikeCripe).

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up