Xbox boss says she wants to ‘make the right decision’ on future game exclusivity
Asha Sharma and Matt Booty discuss some of the broad policy commitments made this week, including PS5 releases
Xbox’s leadership team has spoken more about the future of exclusive games on the platform, following this week’s staff letter claiming it would reevaluate its strategy.
Since 2024, Xbox has increasingly released its first-party games on Sony’s PlayStation 5 console, as its own hardware sales lag far behind the rival. However, its release cadence has been inconsistent, with some games releasing later on PS5, and others arriving simultaneously alongside Xbox console versions.
Speaking in a new interview with Game File, Microsoft’s new gaming CEO, Asha Sharma, and chief content officer Matt Booty, were asked to elaborate on some of the broad commitments made in this week’s letter, notably that exclusivity re-evaluation.
The pair indicated they will take their time considering the future strategy for Xbox game releases and that no announcement was imminent.
“These are long-term decisions, like long-swinging decisions that have decade-long impact,” Sharma said. “It takes a while to create great games, and so the team’s been through a lot of cycles. I don’t think it’s helpful to unpack those. I wasn’t here.
“We’ll take a data-driven approach and a strategic-driven approach, and then we’ll look at our principles and we’ll make some calls. So we’ll share more when we’re ready. We know it’s an important discussion to have.”
Pushed for a timeframe on how long it could take for the new leadership team to establish a firm multiplatform strategy, the CEO said, “nothing we’re ready to commit to.”
“It’s been 60 days,” Sharma added. “These are decade-long decisions from before. These are very consequential decisions. I want to make the right decision, not the fastest decision.”
The gaming boss added that she’s “heard all the feedback” from core fans disappointed by the removal of exclusive games. “We’re listening to all the feedback, and we’re looking at a lot of things on that.”
Booty was asked to reflect on Xbox’s multiformat journey so far, and whether it had been a success. The exec then suggested that Xbox could continue to take a title-by-title approach, similar to what it’s already doing on PS5, with games like Fable releasing on day one, and Forza Horizon 6 arriving after Xbox and PC.
“A great approach to things, that has been great to dock to the way Asha thinks on this, is just around intentionality,” he said.
“And you’ve heard the things about learning, evaluate, and how we go forward, right? Each title has got its own audience, it’s got its own approach, it has its own business model. There really isn’t a single through line. Or I’ll even use the phrase Asha used, like there’s no silver bullet in terms of how we solve which games go where, right?”
He continued: “We’ve got probably one of the most complex times in the industry, at least that I’ve seen in a long time. We’ve got really evolving player expectations, really evolving business models. So, our focus is on what we’re gonna do going forward.
“And certainly we’ve got big franchises that for decades have been established as multi-platform. And there’s certain games that lend themselves to that. As Asha said, we’re really wanting to be intentional and [will] listen, learn and evaluate and think about what might make sense to evolve going forward.”
In this week’s letter to staff, Sharma and Booty said they intended to “fortify” Game Pass with “clear differentiation and sustainable economics”, days after it reduced prices on some tiers and removed new Call of Duty games.
Asked to clarify what it means to ‘fortify’ the service, Sharma said she wanted “more players who love the subscription that are staying longer and that are happy”.
“We’ve been thinking about Game Pass in two steps,” she said. “One is just: let’s make sure it’s affordable, which we addressed. The second is: what does value look like eight years later after the advent of Game Pass and the world changing around us and the next generation coming online?
“And so we’re exploring a number of different things. Nothing more to share that I haven’t already. And we’ll share them as they come, and we’ll test and learn together with the community.”
