Xbox Is Reportedly Having "Very Big Discussions" About Exclusivity

I imagine the discussions going something like this:

“HEY DAVE!”

“WHAT!?”

“EXCLUSIVITY!!”

“PHWOAH!!!!”

“MASSIVE, RIGHT!?!?”

“YEAH MATE, ENORMOUS!!!”

“ABSOLUTELY MATE!!! COLOSSAL!!!”

“GARGANTUAN!!!!”

“TITANIC!!! ELEPHANTINE!!! WHOPPING HUGE!!!!”

“SO BIG!!!!”

“SAME TIME AGAIN NEXT WEEK?”

“WORKS FOR ME!!!”

I can’t imagine the discussions getting much bigger than that.

Exclusive or not, I can't say that I'm very interested in the vast majority of Xbox's output.

Is Jez the same guy who keep pushing rumors back when MS first started porting to basically downplay it and make it seem like Halo and Forza would never be on the table or kept flip flopping about it?

I mean they can’t make money selling their own games on their own hardware, how’s that gonna work out for them? The math ain’t mathin!!

Well, that means XBOX will dying faster if they keep giving away their exclusives to PlayStation and Nintendo.
It will makes XBOX become irrelevant brand and people will not considering XBOX if their games also on PlayStation / Nintendo.

My post from when PS had this article 18 hours ago:

Microsoft is going to simultaneously stop making hardware and stop releasing their games on other consoles. They will rename their entire Xbox division "Schrodinger's Cat Games". 🤣

@Dreamcaster-X
Well to go more into my other comment was hinting at, they toss this bogus stuff out there to keep the diehards especially the gamepass subscribers from giving up.

Microsoft after Sony released several games on pc: we did it first and exclusivity sucks, we're going multiplatform!

Microsoft after reports saying Sony will go back to exclusivity: nevermind!

@Dreamcaster-X As a math teacher, I can confirm that the math ain’t in fact mathin’.

@rjejr Perhaps there never was a Project Helix. Perhaps what we’re getting is Project Felix the Cat.

Buying up a few major 3rd party publishers and making all their games exclusive would be a real crappy move and really hurt the industry. Xbox has got themselves into a mess these past few years with their deals and change of direction and I'm not sure they can recover from it. They should have just focused on exclusives, like Nintendo and Sony does.

I mean, I get the argument that not having any exclusives hurts their console business. I feel like there are merits to both strategies. Or they could make a console and experience that stands apart from the rest. That's what Nintendo has done for years. Of course, they also arguably have the industry's best exclusive franchises. I feel like - but please correct me if I'm mistaken about this - Xbox probably doesn't do as well globally, and that makes it tough to compete with Sony and Nintendo. I know the US is a huge market, but the rest of the world ain't nothin'. I had a feeling this might happen with their business strategy when they announced the change in leadership and a "return" and "commitment" to Xbox. I guess we'll see what they do.

@Anti-Matter It seems so obvious, and all evidence points to exclusives being important to the brand...but the guys running things just see dollars. They see tens of millions of gamers playing elsewhere that could potentially be playing their games... The result will be a few more million sales for each game, but far fewer buying into the Xbox ecosystem.

Even if their next console is a powerhouse at a fair price , as long as all their 1st party games can be played elsewhere, their console sales will continue to decline.

Not to sound a fanboy but unlike Sony, Xbox cant really do this in this current, why? Because PS5 (and also the Switch & the 2) are selling numbers meanwhile there are even countries where Xbox is dead, look at countries like Non English-Speaking European countries, Japan etc Xbox is non existent there basically and they think can make exclusives again? That will hurt even more than their current status (which is already in the abyss) imo.

@Nao120 It might hurt in the short term but would surely help in the long term. If the next Xbox console has a few top tier games that get a lot of media attention, like a BOTW tier game, and can only be played on Xbox, people will buy a console to play them. It might take 4 or 5 years of quality releases and good publicity, but they can get the brand back to where it once was. The US and European base is large enough for them. One generation can change everything. Sony have made a lot of mistakes this gen, so there's a part of their base who could be tempted to go with Xbox.

Selfishly, I would love for all their big games to come to switch 2. Objectively, I don’t see how they sell a new console without exclusive games. I was honestly surprised to learn they had a new console in the works. I thought all these games going to other platforms was the start of winding down Xbox as a hardware option. In the future I suspect Xbox will be a service that you subscribe to. That’s the direction this is ultimately going I think. But in the medium term, if they intend to sell a new console they will need exclusives.

I’ve owned every generation of Xbox (including a Series X that has been collecting dust), I can safely say the brand has been a sinking ship since the Xbone. I honestly regret my purchase of the Series X. Software is what drives hardware sales. The lack of compelling exclusive hardware drives your user base to Sony and Nintendo. After all why get a Xbox if a PS5 plays everything Xbox plays plus PS exclusives? I think these talks though are too little too late. They already lost a majority of the user base and lost the trust of their supporters. Microsoft should honestly drop out of the hardware race and focus on going third party. They have a real uphill battle to fight if they really want to revitalize the Xbox brand.

I don’t play a lot of Xbox AAA’s but I do play most of my indie games on it. What they have done with their VRR implementation and the input handling is magic. (The difference in how they play is akin to an Arcade or Neo Geo original verses a SNES or Megadrive port). I know I am very much in the minority and I got rid of Ultimate for essential and just buy my games

For an exclusive to matter and be an absolute marvel it would need to be truly Xbox only so it could be totally optimized for the hardware that would mean no PC port day one. (series S support either) Due to that I think it’s super unlikely to happen. (Some of the best Sony exclusives have all those advantages the byproduct of which is when they do get a PC port it’s not good on lots of hardware configurations I can’t see MS going that route at all.

@OorWullie True, tho they really need a game that is BOTW level of "wow" while Indiana Jones was fun, Halo infinite was mid and im waiting for Forza Horizon 6, their last few years releases arent that much, sure there was Hifi Rush but it wasnt enough to the point the studio was almost shutdown, imo they need to bring back their fierce competition they had back in 360 (which i used to own) and make really good games that catches the masses eyes.

I mean does Microsoft even have a console business to save at this point?

@Nao120

Unfortunately that Microsoft kind of died with Kinect.

The early to mid 360 era was lightening in a bottle for them. They haven't had that level of mainstream success since then.

@OorWullie
You underestimate the hole they’ve dug themselves into especially after they blew billions and billions on publisher acquisitions, powerhouse hardware with exclusives won’t get them out of that.
@17h3s
Your analogy makes me question if you have any idea what you’re taking about, if you did you would have made it about real hardware vs emulators. You care about buying games so at least I have to give it to you for that.

@OrtadragoonX Yep thats why i doubt they can survive with this strategy, didnt most xbox games also sold the most on ps5 as well?

@Nao120

No idea. They sold well. Especially Gears Remastered.

IMO, MS needs to have exclusives before they can talk exclusive gatekeeping. They haven’t replaced franchises lost over the years (most of bioware’s xbox and early xbox 360 work was exclusive), the acquisition hasn’t produced console exclusives and the existing exclusives either take too long between sequels, haven’t had a sequel in a while or are timed exclusives from multiplat studios (starfield). Also delays of new exclusives (fable). Sony imo has the “exclusives take too long” as well but their games remain exclusive so no matter what you have to eat at their table. Nintendo as usual for the switch era, has exclusives of all sizes that allows steady output and they also hit different demographics (they can take their time on mario because tomodachi life or rhythm heaven brings in a different demographic.) Xbox also has a Japan problem. Games that should be on series x aren’t but will go to PS5 and often times switch family instead. Less games is never good.

I hope they sort it out.

@UpsideDownRowlet

Clearly not that many people are. It's why the Series X, despite being a fantastic piece of hardware, has sold much more poorly than anyone expected. It did well in 2020 and 2021 when the generation started and PS5 shortages were so acute. But once Sony got the shortages fixed it left the Series X in the dust.

@Ryu_Niiyama

They're in a mess for sure. I dunno how they fix it. The totally botched the Xbox One and they've never recovered from that fiasco.

Only reason they didn't go the way of Sega is that they actually have money as a corporation. But something tells me big daddy Microsoft is starting to get tired of pouring money into Xbox and not seeing any real returns.