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Summing up Xbox's Games Showcase 2026 lineup, chief strategy officer Matthew Ball says new CEO Asha Sharma has communicated that "our business today is not healthy" and part of "turning around the business" is establishing a new plan for exclusive games.
Speaking at a Summer Game Fest panel hosted by The Game Business' Christopher Dring and attended by GamesRadar+, Ball explains his interactions with Sharma, who he describes as a capable and motivated leader. "I came to really like Asha, really believe in her as a leader overall and as a leader for Xbox," he says.
Asked about Xbox's new approach to exclusivity following conflicting announcements at Summer Game Fest – Clockwork Revolution and Gears of War: E-Day are console exclusives, yet Halo: Campaign Evolved is not – Ball explains, "We have an internal framework and a strategy that we're using to approach exclusives on- and off-platform."
The plan is not, Ball says, "It's our 25th anniversary, its Gear's 20th anniversary, we're returning to Xbox, here's an exclusive." This isn't a one-off thing; rather, it's "the start of a program" to get Xbox back to regular exclusive games.
Just as Microsoft ended up putting the likes of Deathloop on PS5 following the Bethesda and Zenimax acquisition, some announced multiplatform games will remain non-exclusive. However, once that slate of games is shipped, it seems Xbox will recenter console exclusives as a key offering.
"Asha has been clear that our business today is not healthy," Ball relays. "She's been clear that we are turning around the business. Every day, we are going to become more and more outward about what we're doing and why we're doing it."
To this end, Ball admits he can't give a comprehensive exclusivity plan for every Xbox game in the pipes, but says clarifying and conveying the platform's strategy is core.
"Everyone in this audience is an expert, an aficionado of the field, and I understand why they are saying we still don't quite get it," he adds. "We have to communicate that internally, we have to communicate that to our partners, but then most of all, at the end of the day, the average player, the average current Xbox player, and the player that we want but don't have today, have to understand it very simply. That's where we're going. We're just not ready to do it yet."
Sharma has also stressed moves to "reset the business" following several declining years for Xbox.
Xbox CCO Matt Booty separately clarified that "case-by-case" exclusivity may see single-player games like Gears of War: E-Day become console exclusives, but live-service games from Xbox "are going to continue to be multi-platform."
This approach, in isolation, is not too dissimilar from Sony's reported withdrawal from PC, which will purportedly see major single-player games remain exclusive while multiplayer games come to multiple platforms. The difference, of course, is that PlayStation has always had marquee exclusive games.
The comparison is especially relevant since Microsoft is really only talking about console exclusives; basically everything from Xbox will seemingly continue to come to PC.
