The big changes at Xbox in recent months are set to include a return to offering console exclusive games amid a pretty reasonable perception that offering games first-party Xbox games like Indiana Jones and Forza on PlayStation diminish the reason to buy an Xbox console in the first place.
That much was pretty obvious. Why would PS5 gamers, for instance, buy an Xbox if they can get the game on the console they already own? Why would a gamer on the fence opt for Xbox when they can play Indy, Forza, Halo and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Returnal and The Last of Us?
If Xbox was planning on scaling down and becoming a publisher rather than a hardware manufacturer, the strategy of dishing out first-party games to all and sundry would be agreeable. However, if you’re still trying to sell consoles it probably isn’t going to fly.
The refreshed leadership at Xbox agrees. “There has to be a reason for people to buy an Xbox,” says now-CEO Matt Booty to GamesRadar.
In the same interview, chief strategy officer Matthew Ball said: “We need to give players a clear reason to pick us. And even after they choose us, we still have an obligation to earn that purchase” before adding that the decision to bring first-party games back exclusively in-house was made quite early in the tenure of new gaming CEO Aasha Sharma.
“It’s true that the news was a surprise to a lot of people in the company; that’s because we wanted it to be a surprise to players,” he said. ”This specific decision was made very early. Asha believes that to build a platform, you must have exclusive services and software – in this case, games. And so to return our platform to consistent growth, we need a reliable pipeline of exclusive games.”
He went on to say: “I can assure you, Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution are not the only titles we’re planning [as permanent exclusives]. To grow a platform like ours, you have to have exclusive games and services. These are not going to be the only two titles.”
Xbox is still in a flux as it restructures the company. Studios are being shuttered and thousands of layoffs are being made. The company is also beginning to lay the groundwork for Project Helix – the next generation Xbox console.
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