After Describing Them as ‘Antiquated’, Xbox Now Says It ‘Must Have Exclusive Content and Services’

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A recent interview with Xbox CEO Asha Sharma offered some further insight into how the company handles exclusive games, although their strategy still appears somewhat unclear.

The interview with Bloomberg is surprisingly good, featuring insightful and well-informed questions from journalist Emily Chang. It’s clear she prepared thoroughly.

The article covers various subjects related to Microsoft and the tech industry. For instance, Sharma notes that RAM prices have risen by 50% since she became CEO, replacing Phil Spencer earlier this year. This price increase impacts all players in the market, such as Sony and Nintendo.

PlayStation 5 owners will likely be most interested in the discussion about exclusive games. Chang directly asked the executive about this, and whether Game Pass could eventually become a comprehensive game subscription service like Netflix.

Sharma’s answer doesn’t really shed much light on anything, but I’ve transcribed it below for you:

This is a complex issue for us. As one of the world’s leading publishers, we need our games to be widely played. However, we’re also growing as a platform, which requires offering unique games and services that players can’t find anywhere else. We’re carefully considering how to balance these two goals, looking at each game individually and learning from what other companies have done. We want to make smart decisions about where and how our games are available.

Honestly, this is open to interpretation, and people could easily draw many different conclusions from it.

I was listening to the interview, and she kept saying her goal is to make Xbox the biggest gaming and entertainment company out there. Honestly, I’m a little skeptical about how she’ll pull that off without also appealing to players who already love the PS5 (and probably the next Switch too). We’ll just have to wait and see if her plans work out.

Okay, so it sounds like the new head, Sharma, is totally changing things up. The previous boss, Sarah Bond, used to say exclusives were old news, but now it’s clear the company has had a change of heart. They’re definitely thinking exclusives are a good move now, which is pretty interesting as a gamer!

After investing around $100 billion in companies that create content for many different platforms, I’m not sure how Microsoft can reverse course now.

Her statements suggest decisions will be made individually for each game, but with major franchises like Forza and Halo already planned for PlayStation 5, will releasing a few extra games really make a difference for Microsoft?

It’ll be very interesting to watch what happens with Gears of War: E-Day this week. Microsoft hasn’t announced whether it will be released on PlayStation 5 at the same time as Xbox, and it could be the game they use to test the waters for multi-platform releases.

Last year’s release of Gears of War Reloaded seemed intended as an introduction to the series and its main character, Marcus Fenix, for players on the PlayStation 5.

This interview still hasn’t given us any insight into the organization’s plans.

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2026-06-05 15:37