Xbox Will 'Reevaluate' Its Game Exclusivity, Throwing Potential Doubt Over PS5 Ports

There have genuinely been zero AAA Xbox studio releases that I have yearned to play this generation. Whatever they land on regarding exclusivity, it’s all shoulder shrugs from me haha

Oh come on...make up your mind already. Port or close shop.

It's not that important to be honest. I survived without them and I'm pretty sure I'll continue in the future.

@Northern_munkey Gonna have to agree with you on this one

If they go back to doing exclusives, likely too late to save them.

@thechetearly exactly. The only one I grabbed was forza horizon 5. I'll be all over FH6 but it's not the end of the world if it dosnt get ported.

I’ve already enjoyed the “influencer’s” change of perspective on the importance of exclusivity. As always, they simply take their cue from Microsoft’s ever-shifting policy and then bang that drum. I actually have more fun seeing through their disingenuous posturing than I did playing Microsoft’s games 😎

People are going to get upset over this, but if this gets Microsoft to be able to be a competitor in the console market again, it's good for everyone cause competition is good, it helps push companies to innovate and compete with each other.

It does however make things awkward considering there is going to one Gears, Halo, Fable and Forza game on Playstation and to stop after that just seems weird.

Got Ninja Gaiden 4 which was the only one I care for. The rest of them can stay over on their own platform.

Feels too late though with enough time maybe they could turn things around...
If they had stuck to exclusivity through all their mergers and acquisitions I think they could have kept XBox relevant/a compelling option. Now they should probably just concentrate on being a profitable publisher.

Well, I previously bought multiple PS5s and Series X’s to cover my family when GamePass was more affordable and they had exclusives. With the direction they took, I recently sold our Series X’s and bought another PS5 and regardless of what they do, I’m not buying back in.

If they want my money, they will have to continue releasing on PS consoles.

It's cool to have Xbox games on PlayStation but it would be curious to see them going back to exclusives (would even include Activision and Bethesda games this time) just to see how Sony would react.

I don't know for sure if it would be a good or bad thing to see Sony becoming more aggressive when it comes to the gaming market.

Anyway, at least their new CEO is already beating both Nintendo and Sony when it comes to the number of PR statements.

As far as I’m concerned, we already received (or are about to) 90% of anything they have that’s worth playing. I would have liked to see Sunset Overdrive, Quantum Break and the Alan Wake American Nightmare dlc, but those were unlikely to ever get ported regardless due to cost/demand.

After everything is said and done, even if Xbox returns to exclusivity moving forward I feel like I’ve had my fill of what they can offer. A re-exclusive Forza 8 or Halo 10 is unlikely to be something that makes me think ‘I must have an xbox to play this.’

To paraphrase an old saying, Microsoft needs to make up its mind and port or get off the pot.

I'll take the gears of War franchise it's pretty much the only thing xbox has I like

From what would make sense since the current gen is already done and dusted, the games that are still to come out this gen will be ported to sony's consoles because the majority of the sales happen on the playstation ecosystem. However, they will want to restrict exclusive games with the launch of the next xbox.

@get2sammyb Tbh I kinda like that they're talking more frequently now, and that they gave us an idea of the plans they have in mind for Xbox. Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond became a lot more quiet in recent years, ever since the mass layoffs, studio closures, and PS5 ports started

And sell them to who instead? Their ever decreasing console user base? One that next gen with Helix will shrink even more.

I'd love to see a truly competitive Xbox again but those days were 20 years ago with the 360.

At the end of the day, exclusives or not, I'll be buying that Neo Geo long before I ever consider another Xbox

They should, console game exclusives is what made console gaming what it is today. I never heard Nintendo stutter.

Potentially going back on already announced reports is just daft.

It will alienate too many would be customers.

It's too large to course correct on the series line of consoles and helix will not be a massive market device given it's rumoured price.

Hope common sense prevails

If they keep porting games it's good for Playstation fans. If they start making exclusives again, it's good for Playstation fans, because it will force Sony to reevaluate their approach in the future. Only thing that doesn't make sense is how they expect to make more money with higher profit margins if they return to exclusivity. Sony and Nintendo have managed because the install base is huge and the players are more willing to buy games, as opposed to Xbox playerbase, where there are a lot of gamers using Gamepass.

@carlos82 How about the 30+ million Xbox console owners, and the tens of millions of people on PC? I don't know why, but people keep acting like if Xbox stopped putting their games on PlayStation/Nintendo, they would only be selling games to Xbox console owners, when that's clearly not the case. There's no way Microsoft is ever gonna abandon PC ports, especially not when Project Helix straight-up supports PC games.

Worth noting that Microsoft themselves specifically mentions here that they want to make Xbox an affordable platform. I'm guessing that either means Project Helix will be cheaper than initially anticipated, or that Xbox Series consoles will still be supported into the next generation and offered as a cheaper alternative to next-gen.

@get2sammyb No, I'm not kidding. Yeah, Phil did do interviews pretty frequently, but if you look at his and Bond's social media history, like, pre-2023, you'll see that they interacted a lot more with the community. Of course, even in the last few years, Phil interacted way more with journalists than Doug Bowser and Herman Hulst probably have in their entire tenures (which isn't necessarily a good thing, mind you), so I can see why you may think that way.

Also, I think the Game Pass price drop counts as something meaningful, even if not everyone is satisfied with it due to the removal of CoD and the fact that Fortnite Crew/Ubisoft+ is still included

@ChikaBambus

it will force Sony to reevaluate their approach in the future

I think we start to see that, yes we unfortunately we still have Fairgame$ and some extent Horizon Hunters gathering to come, but I really think Concord (yes that dead horse again) flopping really was a harse wake up call for Sony they needed, also the likes of Astrobot and Yotei etc, selling well will also give them a big hint too

Their brand damage is done by this point.

I don't see the juggernauts like COD or Bethesda games staying Xbox exclusive. Maybe timed. They clearly makes way too much money on PS.

Honestly I hope they do go back to some exclusivity and make Sony step up their game.

Reminder that Microsoft is very buddy-buddy with the tyrants plunging the world into one pointless conflict after another. Supporting Xbox means supporting war, police states and genocide. So they can keep their stupid games.

Was that constructive enough?

@get2sammyb umm… I think ‘someone’ still believes them 😏

@get2sammyb It definitely did bite them in the ass, and while I don't think Asha should form a parasocial relationship again, it's kind of necessary for her to actually outline her plans for Xbox given that she's, you know, the new CEO of Xbox. I would be more concerned if she DIDN'T say anything.I'm surprised you don't think that way.

@Oram77 When those games come out...eeh it won't be nice, that's for sure. But if those games flopping means that it wakes Sony up even more to this live service issue, than so be it. I see a patern with Sony every generation starting from PS2 where one gen they do all the correct choices and are amazing (PS2/PS4) and then we have gens where they disappoint with baffling choices, but still deliver to a good extent. Hopefully they learnt their lesson and what's to come from PS6 is more akin to PS2/PS4.

@Questionable_Duck 30 I don't think for a second they would stop selling on PC, especially as Helix is seemingly a PC itself. It's no secret that when they say exclusive, they only mean not on PlayStation but they clearly had a need to put their games on PlayStation in the first place, which tells you all you need to know about their market on their own console and PC

@carlos82 Well, I think that was more so due to the fact they had a 30% profit margin and had just acquired ABK, rather that that being indicative of their games being unsustainable on Xbox and PC alone. If the rumors about Microsoft easing profit margins are true, then I can see Microsoft going back to exclusivity for some, but not all, titles

Clearly Xbox has no strategy whatsoever for the future every new week they said different stuff completely lost in the sauce

Microsoft is acting like it didn’t just come from exclusivity for the last 25 years. They switched from exclusivity for a reason. They stand to make so much more money releasing day and date on Playstaion. They need to continue that for at least a console generation. Release some bangers in that time and then become exclusive to get people to buy in

@Questionable_Duck that could well be the case and that's the funny thing about Xbox over the last decade or so, there is no real long term plan and they just do things almost at random with no clear idea as to where they want to be.

Perhaps Asha will truly bring some order and direction, or maybe she'll just go down the same path of saying what fanboys such as Colt and Parris want to hear whilst flip flopping almost immediately afterwards

Asha seems cool and she appears to have made positive moves so far but damn I'm fed up of the constant talk, talk and talk.

Surely she knows actions speak louder than words?

I don't think saying this publicly was the right move. While I'm not against Xbox having exclusives again they really should only comment on it if there's going to be a change.

New week, new strategy for Xbox. They see to have the mental stability of Gollum.

The sky isn't falling. My guess: they'll give more consistent and possibly longer exclusivity windows to Xbox, but as we all well know, there's just too much money to be made releasing titles on PS5. Add in the fact that most of these exclusives will be on gamepass, further impacting their profitability, and I don't think we're talking about a radical shift.

@Questionable_Duck Completely agree. In all honesty, what Asha has been doing also seems like she’s trying to be transparent. I liked Phil back in the day when he was more of the face of Xbox than he was towards the end. BUT I would never say he was completely transparent. Asha seems to be genuinely trying to listen.

Other than reevaluating exclusives, what has been “absolute madness” coming from the new management team? Dropping the price of GamePass? Making fast beneficial changes to the Xbox OS?

A lot of what Asha’s been talking about are things that have actually been meaningful changes just in the short time she has been there. A lot of Xbox fans have been feeling better about things because there have already been changes under her leadership. It’s like some PlayStation fans aren’t happy unless Xbox is suffering.

I love my PS5 too but keeping console wars alive by saying stupid things isn’t helping anyone. There have been actual changes under Asha already. That’s good news. And if they help Xbox going in the right direction, that’s all good. Because having more players in the gaming business keeps healthy competition going that makes all of the console makers better.

@Deadlyblack I fear the horse has already bolted

@get2sammyb Maybe what she meant by "game exclusivity" is moving everything from Microsoft Gaming to Xbox gaming simply by renaming it?

https://www.theverge.com/report/917485/microsoft-return-of-xbox-no-more-microsoft-gaming

Between the renaming and the 7,000 US volunteers to be unemployed I wouldn't be surprised if they just sell the entire Xbox Gaming division just to be done with it at this point. Maybe Elon wants it. Or PIF. Then they can just focus on AI like the rest of them.😩

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/23/microsoft-plans-first-voluntary-retirement-program-for-us-employees.html

Meta (Facebook) also cutting 10% of it's employees. Probably relevant to gaming and AI even if I can't tie it to Xbox, but the news dropped about an hour apart so... something about smoke & fire.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/23/meta-will-cut-10percent-of-workforce-as-it-pushes-more-into-ai.html

XBOX is now an XBOX. I’m fine with this as PlayStation and Nintendo have so many quality first party games and my library is plenty big enough 👌🏻👾

This’ll just lead to more layoffs and studio closures than any type of Xbox resurgence.

Dammit I was looking forward to the next Halo, apparently it is an extraction shooter and if there is one thing that we can all agree on, it is that you can never have too many extraction shooters.

@psmr
I’m looking forward to the new Destin video, “Exclusivity is good and here’s why”.

Well if they do go away then I'll be sad. But I lived before they went multiplatform. I could do so again.

It also might do the industry some good to get a bit more competition back.

@ChikaBambus It's funny as it always seems like Sony drop the ball whenever the console is an odd number 😅

Edit: obvs not counting PS1 in that

Good. A platform needs exclusives ! Without them there’s no reason to own one frankly

I can't wait to play Halo on my PS5, but I'd rather have healthy competition to keep PlayStation future-focused than have all of Xbox's games on PlayStation.

It's highly doubtful that Xbox will ever be as competitive as they were during the 360 generation, but I like that they're at least posturing to put up a fight.

I'll believe it when I see it.

i guess we get to look forward to hearing about microsoft’s exclusivity indecision till the day after the xbox 720 launch and flops. then multi-platform release.

@AnginaPectoris
I bought NG4 too, and as with yourself that was the only Xbox game I have been remotely interested in enough to play - though if I had any interest in racing games FH5 impressed me.

It was alright - enjoyable enough, and the Pro updates were nice - something a lot of their games lack (not FH5) which just seems salty to me. But, I struggle to see how anyone compares their output to Sony's.

@Shepherd_Tallon I think that the best path for a gaming CEO to take is somewhere in between what Phil and Herman are doing/did. Don't talk too much, as Phil did to the point where it seemed like he was contradicting himself every two weeks. But also don't act like a brick wall, and avoid communicating with players entirely.

I guess we'll find out what Asha decides to do

I am pretty sure by 'reevaluate' she means looking at the millions AND millions of extra dollars of revenue and going "yeah this still makes sense" lol.

@Enuo well it was certainly more constructive and mature than your original comment.

Other than E-Day I genuinely don't care anything Xbox exclusive. But I support their back-to-basics strategy. Exclusives are great for the competition and pushing the boundries.

It was a mistake for Xbox to get rid of exclusives in the first place, it absolutely neutered their ability to influence hardware in the future (which is strategically important for Microsoft, more than just making money).

I don't know if they can put the genie back in the bottle now though. People will assume they'll just fold and flip flop again later.

The power of exclusives is the loyalty and trust you build up over a long period of time. People will buy a Switch 2 even if it has no games, because they trust that Nintendo will come out with exclusives they like eventually. Sony built up their studios reputations for high quality exclusives over years - and it tides them over even in the rough patches of releases.