For more than a decade, Xbox has been locked in a battle against its own strategic missteps. Microsoft attempted to put the console back on track with Game Pass, but instead gave way to a deeper identity crisis; lagging hardware sales, rising costs, polarizing 'This is an Xbox' messaging, and a pivot toward publishing titles on competing platforms, drawing comparisons to Sega's collapse into becoming a third-party publisher after the Dreamcast.

Xbox head Phil Spencer departed the company earlier this year on February 20 as part of a wider paradigm shift, making way for Asha Sharma. The new CEO immediately set to work on making drastic overhauls ahead of the arrival of Project Helix. We've already seen Game Pass price reductions, an end to the console's widely mocked marketing campaign, and the removal of Copilot for Gaming, yet even with these changes, Sharma is keenly aware that Xbox isn't doing well right now.

"I think that we are the number two publisher in the world, and when you do that you want your games to be everywhere," Sharma said in an interview with Fortune (via IGN). "You're stronger when the world plays with you. At the same time, we're increasingly becoming more of a platform, and it's hard to find examples of platforms out there that don't have exclusive services and content. And so this is a journey for us. Our business isn't particularly healthy as you noted, and so we're starting by introducing one to two signature exclusives and, as the business is healthy, we will look to try and do more."

Expect More Xbox Exclusives In The Future

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Those two signature exclusives are Gears of War: E-Day — which was clearly slated for PS5, as evidenced by the console's logo accidentally appearing in the official Xbox Podcast before being scrubbed — and Clockwork Revolution. Meanwhile, previously announced multiplatform projects like Halo: Campaign Evolved and Fable are still launching day-and-date on PlayStation, alongside the newly unveiled PS5 ports for State of Decay 3 and Senua.

It might be confusing, but these projects highlight Microsoft's new case-by-case approach towards exclusivity going forward, an approach not unlike Sony's, who now plans to keep its premium single-player experiences exclusive, while its live-service offerings remain cross-platform to reach as wide an audience as possible. What exactly will dictate Xbox's decision-making, however, is unclear.

Whether this return to exclusives, compounded by a wider cultural shift, will be enough to dig Xbox out of a two-generation deep hole remains to be seen. At the very least, there is no longer any denial from the console giant about its current state. Things have to change — and fast — if Microsoft wants to avoid Xbox succumbing to the same fate as Sega.

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Xbox Series X

Brand Microsoft Original Release Date November 10, 2020 Original MSRP (USD) $499 Operating System Proprietary (Windows-based) Processor Custom AMD 8-core Zen 2 3.8 GHz Resolution 720p - 4K UHD See at Official Site See at Walmart See at Best Buy $487 at Amazon Expand Collapse