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Xbox announced a return to console exclusivity on June 7, a move intended to draw players back to the platform after a challenging generation. A lot has happened since then. By July 7, devastating layoffs fractured the foundation of the platform. Studios are fighting for survival, and some of the video games that would have defined Xbox in 2027 are now in the hands of new owners.
There's been a lot of noise and uncertainty. So much so that a significant shift in strategy for Xbox barely had time to breathe before attention was forced elsewhere. After making a bet on going multiplatform, Xbox is now pulling some of its tentpole titles back from the PS5 and Nintendo Switch.
Some, but not all.
The long-awaited (and debated) return of Xbox console exclusivity isn't clean; it's messy. Rumors started circulating 48 hours before the strategy was revealed to the public, with developers across the Xbox portfolio openly trading rumors on the ground at Summer Game Fest in search of some clarity. It may appear, then, that this was a snap decision from Xbox CEO Asha Sharma – made in some vague effort to celebrate her first 100 days in office with a bold statement of intent.
I'm told that wasn't the case. "It's true that the news was a surprise to a lot of people in the company; that's because we wanted it to be a surprise to players," says Matthew Ball, chief strategy officer at Xbox. "This specific decision was made very early. Asha believes that to build a platform, you must have exclusive services and software – in this case, games. And so to return our platform to consistent growth, we need a reliable pipeline of exclusive games."
– Josh West, Editor-in-Chief
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