Highlights
- Matthew Ball confirmed that select games, such as Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution, will be permanent Xbox console exclusives.
- Microsoft will work on making the Xbox consoles appealing again and move away from multi-platform day one game releases.
- Ball is optimistic about Xbox’s future and thinks the brand can turn things around.
Matthew Ball, Xbox's newly appointed chief strategy officer, said that the Xbox business needs to be turned around. He admitted that the exclusivity strategy has been confusing, and the RAM crisis affecting the next console is worse than he let on earlier this year.
After Xbox’s struggles in the console market against Sony and Nintendo, Microsoft is making significant leadership changes to remain competitive. Ball is partly responsible for Xbox’s new strategy, and he gave the best picture yet of where Microsoft's gaming division is actually headed.
Xbox’s Exclusivity Strategy
Ball broke Xbox's game portfolio into three categories in an interview with The Game Business. Big handpicked first-party titles like Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution will be permanent console exclusives. Live service games designed for large audiences, Call of Duty and Sea of Thieves, will remain multiplatform. Games already announced for other platforms will ship on PlayStation, PC, and Switch as previously agreed with partners.
That framework is a meaningful shift from the strategy Xbox has operated under for the past few years. It was a time when almost everything eventually came to PlayStation, and the definition of exclusive had been stretched to the point of meaninglessness.
The logic behind bringing exclusives back is straightforward: Xbox needs a reason for players to buy the console. Multiplatform releases, however commercially sensible, remove the most fundamental incentive to own the hardware.
He said, “What is important is that we restore that [console] business before we look beyond to those other platforms. Do we need to get better at PC? Yes. Do we need to get better at mobile? Yes. At the same time, we can’t ask publishers, partners, and especially players to bet on us on other platforms where we are behind.”
He admitted that Xbox’s technology in PC and mobile gaming is inadequate and that their own console has been “mistreated.” Ball is arguing that a healthier Xbox is good for the entire games industry. He is optimistic about making a comeback and feels that Xbox is “capable of turning around" in the console market.
