This is the year Master Chief heads to PlayStation 5 as part of Halo: Campaign Evolved, raising questions about the future of Xbox exclusives on a wider scale. Rest assured, they're still happening, but on a more particular cadence, while multiplayer releases will remain multi-platform for the time-being.
Gamertag Radio asked Matt Booty, the executive vice president and chief content officer at Xbox, about what the strategy here is during Summer Game Fest 2026. "[We] want people to have a reason to get on board with Xbox," he starts.
"We want them to have a reason to buy an Xbox, [a] reason to be an Xbox fan. At the same time, we want to reward all our players that have been with us for a long time," he continues. "We know exclusives are important, that's why we've got [Gears of War: E-Day] coming in 2026, [Clockwork Revolution] in 2027."
Games that aren't as single-player-centric, however, are a different story. "We also want to be clear: our big multiplayer games, live-service games, are going to continue to be multi-platform," he says. "If we've promised something to players already, we're going to honor that promise."
Booty reiterates Xbox's philosophy of, "when we announce a date, we want to announce the platforms." As such, if something is heading over to Sony's system, it's "going to be case-by-case."
One such case is the long-awaited Fable, which will be the first installment of the series to be on PlayStation. The list of releases genuinely particular to Xbox on home consoles is getting leaner and leaner, but given the number of publishers Microsoft now owns, there's scope for more IP to join or rejoin the ranks in the years to come.
That said, don't expect a U-turn on the live-service projects given the investment needed. But if you want to experience E-Day from the frontline, an Xbox Series X/S should be among your hardware.
