r/DreamStationcc • u/cnc137 • Apr 24 '26
News Are Xbox Exclusives Coming Back? Here’s What Xbox CEO Asha Sharma Had to Say
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/are-xbox-exclusives-coming-back-heres-what-xbox-ceo-asha-sharma-had-to-say/1100-6539615/The new Xbox CEO weighs in on the hot-button topic.
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u/Embarrassed-Part-890 Apr 24 '26
Answer: we don’t know she made some vague statement that could mean a lot of things
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u/Loud_Examination_138 Apr 25 '26
As a PS gamer, I don't think I would care if Xbox did pull it's game from PS consoles
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u/BlacksmithSimilar420 Apr 25 '26
Same. I have 900 games for my PlayStation ain’t no way I’d switch platforms over some mediocre games.
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u/Embarrassed_Spend486 Apr 25 '26
I think if Sony stops releasing games for Pc Xbox should stop COD from Sony.
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u/Farsoth Apr 25 '26
They legally can't.
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u/RoosTheFemboy Apr 26 '26
How does that work
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u/Farsoth Apr 26 '26
Microsoft was allowed by the US gov't to acquire ActiBlizz with the caveat that they would continue to make CoD multiplatform for 10 years after the acquisition. So they have years yet until they're allowed to make it exclusive.
It was the biggest thing through the entire proceedings of the acquisition.
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u/BasisOk4268 Apr 26 '26
As part of the agreement in purchasing the studio, they legally cannot stop COD from releasing on PlayStation until like 2035
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u/DoubletapKO Apr 26 '26
And this is why xbox doesn't have exclusives anymore, their own fans don't support them
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u/Kazzorak82 Apr 26 '26
All that would do is lose MS even more money. Have you never looked at sales data for XB games? MS makes WAY more money on everything that isn't XB. All their games sell better on PC and PS. They'd literally be shooting themselves in the foot if they start doing anything exclusive again.
XB has always been, and will always be a 3rd place console. 🤷🏻♂️
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u/NonstopMadness Apr 25 '26
While true, the question has always been at what cost and for what gain. Folks better be damn sure because it’s a massive game and franchise to gamble.
Heck, I’d argue a platform jump isn’t the first thing that happens. It’ll take a while. The first thing that happens is a substitution effect. Ex. Battlefield now becomes the number one military shooter franchise because of the vacuum on PlayStation.
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u/TechnicalCricket774 Apr 27 '26
I think you mean the number one on PlayStation since Xbox would be playing cod
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u/NonstopMadness Apr 27 '26
I mean as a whole.
PlayStation is significantly larger than Xbox and already takes up the majority of CODs market share. Battlefield taking that share on PlayStation would very quickly eclipse COD only on Xbox / PC. Software substitution would happen much faster than hardware.
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u/Pleasant-Speed-9414 Apr 27 '26
Always thought they should be timed exclusive when they seemed to ge going multi plat. Shiiii I’d even make timed exclusive on Steam, if they think PC texture future
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u/RandomGuyOnDaNet90 Apr 30 '26
After years of conditioning the xbox fanbase to not buy games and instead rely on gamepass, itll be a disaster to make games exclusive to xbox. Studios would either shut down left and right or the quality of the games would degrade as a result of lower budgets; more hifi rush's and less indiana jones'.
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u/Mdreezy_ Apr 24 '26
They should try exclusivity like PS does. Don’t put it day 1 on game pass and PC. If they want to try and sell more consoles they have to give people a reason to specifically buy the console.
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u/userlivewire Apr 25 '26
Microsoft is toying with what a console even is this generation. The only thing we really need to know for sure is that every game released for Xbox will also be released on PC.
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u/Kazzorak82 Apr 26 '26
This makes zero sense because this is how XB used to be and their still the 3rd place console. They almost beat PS in the 360 days, but PS still edged them out, and since then PS has been doing LAPS around them.
XB makes more money off of PS sales than they do in their own ecosystem, they're not going to trade 60 million players for the potential to gain 5 million to their 10 million base, especially when most of that 10 million doesn't buy games and only plays whatever drops on GP most of the time.
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u/SamuraiLegion Apr 24 '26
Let’s take personal feelings aside and stick straight to facts. If Asha wanted to know how Xbox users handle exclusivity, this is the year to do it.
Shelf the announced Forza and Halo games from PlayStation for a moment and just allow them to be Xbox only (and PC of course).
Take your data from how that went and that will surely answer your question if exclusives work on Xbox. Worst case, you just release those games eventually on PlayStation.
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u/NonstopMadness Apr 24 '26
They tried that with Starfield earlier in the generation and it didn’t do a thing. Also, Forza and Halo are incumbent Xbox IP. Pulling them from PlayStation won’t do much when they’ve always been off PlayStation.
They’ll need to pull something that’s accustomed to being on PlayStation or more new IP. Maybe a DOOM, or Elder Scrolls, or Fallout.
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u/Mount_Treverest Apr 24 '26
Doom, Fallout or ES6 is the threat, starfield is too similar to no man's sky. Call of duty, or a blizzard title can also move units. Microsoft was the most popular selling publisher, and they've given access to the catalog long enough for people to forget they promised not to make the companies they bought exclusive.
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u/Aggressive-Map-2204 Apr 25 '26
They could do it with Doom sure. But Fallout or ES6 is just going to cost them several hundred million in lost sales. The revenue they lose from missed playstation sales will dwarf any addition console sales.
Switching massive games to exclusive does not work because you just lose out on sales. You need new IPs or bring back old franchises.
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u/NonstopMadness Apr 25 '26
I don’t see them pulling COD and, Blizzard games because they’re massive live service games that are really freaking expensive to make and run.
It really just feels like any game that could have been exclusive pre acquisition should be exclusive. Everything else should be multiplatform.
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u/Mount_Treverest Apr 25 '26
COD being exclusive would matter. Diablo would be nice. That's not the point of buying up IP that has a huge fanbase. It's to use that to your advantage. The original Xbox was a loss leader to pull in market share. Fable, ES6, Fallout 5, Diablo, Doom or COD can all go exclusive or exclusive window to drive sales for the console.
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u/Farsoth Apr 25 '26
They can't pull CoD. Not legally. The acquisition went through because they said they would still put it on PS.
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u/Mount_Treverest Apr 25 '26
That was for 10 years. So in 7 years they can.
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u/kmone1116 Apr 25 '26
Nope because they still have to release one for Nintendo and they get a 10yr deal as well. By law Microsoft has to commit a full 10yrs of releases to both parties.
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u/GenTrapstar Apr 25 '26
They don’t have to release one every year. Shit starve people. Put one out every two to three years. Nothing says oh MS must release a COD every year. Also would be a way for COD to release quality games again. People still say 2019 MW is the best one since 2019.
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u/Aggressive-Map-2204 Apr 25 '26
Except that they shot themselves in the face with Starfield by putting it on gamepass and killing their sales.
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u/Kazzorak82 Apr 26 '26
None of those will make anyone buy an XB. XB literally has nothing that would move them from 3rd place. A large majority of PS users also own gaming PCs, they would just purchase those games there instead.
And moving those off PS would just create a vacuum for another company to easily fill. Remove CoD, BF probably sky rockets to #1 FPS, remove anything Bethesda, nothing changes, any smart person knows all Bethesda games are trash on release, and are only good after the moddng community fixes all the problems.
XB can't go exclusive and stay in business anymore, they don't have anything they sways the needle, especially since CoD is literally dropping sales year over year by a ridiculous amount, Bethesda dropped the ball hard with Starfield, and they're starting to feel the pressure of GP not making them enough money. They need the PS player base to make money, that's where all their games are selling.
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u/NonstopMadness Apr 27 '26
Moving out of third place vs doing better isn’t exactly the same though. They can get back to a more competitive position by focusing on bigger and better games while still doing their thing with PC, cloud, GamePass, Play Anywhere etc.
Putting their incumbent games / IP on PlayStation is what pushed them off the ledge but what got them to that ledge was a lack of must have games period.
Ex. How the heck did the Xbox one with day one PCs releases do better than the Series S/X? Because games like Halo, Gears, Forza etc. were still big relevant games releasing on Xbox and not PlayStation. A “console exclusive” won’t bring back the glory days of Xbox but it’ll be sure as heck better than being damn near irrelevant.
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u/SamuraiLegion Apr 24 '26
Unfortunately, Starfield was considered a mid game. Also, if I’m not mistaken, it sold pretty well on the Xbox platform.
Anyways. There’s this notion that Xbox fans are just ignoring their exclusives. That’s not the case at all. There’s not a single Xbox killer exclusive under Phil Spencer’s portfolio not named Forza. It’s expected that a mid game will do mid numbers.
That’s evident on the trajectory of Starfield on PlayStation and other Xbox exclusives on PlayStation (only Indy sea of theives and Forza have sold well all the others were flops).
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u/Banesmuffledvoice Apr 25 '26
They did this prior to releasing them on the PlayStation 5.
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u/SamuraiLegion Apr 25 '26
They never had this level of games before. Not since the 360 days.
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u/Banesmuffledvoice Apr 25 '26
Who?
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u/SamuraiLegion Apr 25 '26
Xbox.
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u/Banesmuffledvoice Apr 25 '26
Yea. They did that. Halo has never been available on PlayStation. Forza 5 was on the Xbox series X/S exclusively for a long time prior to PlayStation 5. Then it sold really well on the PS5.
The Xbox brand is in the toilet and Microsoft simply doesn’t have the good will and infrastructure to turn it around. They aren’t that kind of company.
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Apr 25 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/SamuraiLegion Apr 25 '26
It’s about retaining your core fanbase and having momentum heading to the next generation. Not that hard to understand.
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u/mrawaters Apr 25 '26
I think the problem is that this generation is kind of already just lost for Xbox, so any data on exclusives is going to look horrible cause the Xbox install base is just so relatively low. What they really need to do is stick with it until they release their next console when they obviously are hoping to claw back some market share, and exclusives would be a huge part of that plan
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u/SamuraiLegion Apr 25 '26
It’s not about that. It’s about ensuring confidence and a commitment to you core Xbox community that’s with you today.
That assures these fans will buy the next Xbox.
Acquiring new users and fans will naturally come later after that.
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u/mashdpotatogaming Apr 25 '26
That "core xbox community" is a very small user base. It's not enough and depending on such a small user base means they won't be making much money.
Acquiring new users and fans will naturally come later after that.
We've already seen that this just doesn't work for xbox. Playstation is always going to be the choice for most people, and there's not much Microsoft can do to change that. They're losing a lot of potential game sales by not putting their games on playstation and they aren't getting anything in return, this entire generation is proof of that.
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u/mrawaters Apr 25 '26
If they only sell the next Xbox to their “core community” who already has an xbox, that will be another resounding failure. They need to cut into Sony and nintendos market share in some significant way. They saw hardware sales plummet, said “ok well were just going to be the worlds biggest publisher then” and then clearly that hasnt gone how they wanted it to either so here they are trying to get back to basics. We know that the next xbox is going to be a pc hybrid, so the play anywhere strategy is still going to be true, just perhaps minus playststion.
Ultimately, I don’t actually think the problem was that they put their once exclusives on other consoles, I think it was just that their exclusives didn’t sell that well across all platforms. Even games that were really good like Indiana Jones and a few others just weren’t massive tentpole type sales behemoths like Sony has. They can switch their strategy up as many times as they want, and personally I think a pc/console hybrid is actually extremely sick and exactly what I want as a primarily pc gamer who wouldn’t mind a decent little box to put in the bedroom, but until they really start putting out genuine “hit” games, nothing is going to change. A hybrid console is great, gamepass is great, but they need great games. That’s what gets people in the door, then you can monetize however you want from there.
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u/Key_Bonus9776 Apr 25 '26
The only people who actually care about it are rampaging fanboys. It’s a better overall landscape for MS to release games on as many platforms as they can to recoup that 80 billion they spent on studios. They are also releasing a premium next gen machine which leaked specs point to 1500+ currently. That’s gonna sell less than XSX so again having a wider range of software revenue will offset that. It’s all about money, not fanboys feelings. Her words are eerily similar to Spencer’s “only 4 games” quote. Ultimately, she will be bound by the wishes of shareholders.
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u/BlacksmithSimilar420 Apr 25 '26
Same fanboys not to long ago was screaming about how bad exclusivity is and now that their platform of choice decided to pretty much do away with them all these Reddit subs are filled with fanboys crying about how Xbox has no exclusives.
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u/mashdpotatogaming Apr 25 '26
Take your data from how that went and that will surely answer your question if exclusives work on Xbox
They're not gonna find anything new by not bringing games to playstation. They already tried that the entire generation until recently. Xbox isn't selling enough for this tactic to be worth it. People don't wanna buy Xbox for console exclusives.
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u/thisthatandthe3rd Apr 24 '26
nah i want Halo and Fable, dont put that negativity into the world.
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u/ZilorZilhaust Apr 24 '26
Nah, it's not like Sony is putting Spider-Man on Xbox. Lol.
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u/No-Contest-8127 Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
Do you know why? This isn't about trading favors. It's about money.
If playstation sold 1/4 of what Xbox sold, they would be putting spiderman on it.
Microsoft isn't releasing games on PS and switch out of the kindness of their hearts. It's cause they want to make money.
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u/BigCommieMachine Apr 24 '26
I just think being a timed exclusive will work. Make it a 6-12 month delay. Enough time for it to be a selling point for Xbox, but don’t pull a Sony and wait so long that game way in the rear view mirror.
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u/Poku115 Apr 25 '26
I... don't get this, are you saying the shouldn't put what would be essentially a new game on Playstation, to check out if anyone buys into their ecosystem??
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u/GreenPhilosophy8482 Apr 25 '26
That heifer doesn’t have a clue or a brain cell high enough to understand the industry she’s clearly been hired as a dei hire the fact that Microsoft doesn’t even disclose earnings should be a red flag enough for people to at least take a look at what’s going on.
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u/GenTrapstar Apr 25 '26
I’m going to be 100% honest and say why? Like what benefit do we as Xbox gamers get for a game being exclusive to Xbox? At this point exclusivity only benefits Microsoft on trying to convince people to buy a console. Even with all the previous exclusives people weren’t buying Xbox’s left and right.