Asha Sharma's first 100 days as the CEO of Xbox have been a huge success on the PR front. By saying the right things and bringing the price of Game Pass down, the perception of the studio has improved massively.

This is mostly thanks to Sharma's repeated claims that Xbox is interested in releasing console exclusives again. This is yet to materialise, but it's clearly what Xbox fans want, and she's very much aware of this, leveraging it to earn some goodwill as she starts out.

However, don't expect all of the company's first-party games to suddenly go Xbox console exclusive. As spotted by VGC, Sharma discussed Xbox's approach to exclusivity with Bloomberg and acknowledged that the company still has a duty to release some of its games on other platforms.

Asha Sharma Addresses Xbox Exclusivity Again, And Acknowledges That Some Games Will Have To Be Shared

"It's a tough topic," Sharma begins. "Look, we're the number two publisher in the world, and in order to be a great publisher, you must have your games reach large audiences to play.

"At the same time, we're increasingly becoming a platform, and in order to be a platform, you must have exclusive content and services. We're looking at that very closely."

Xbox is contractually obligated to share Call of Duty, so that won't be going exclusive anytime soon.

Acknowledging that conflict in Xbox's business would suggest that the company can't suddenly start making all of the games made by its subsidiaries exclusive to Xbox Series X/S on console. Sharma then goes on to further imply that exclusivity will be done on a case-by-case basis.

"I think that we have to be very thoughtful about each title on how we want to think about it, and learn from similar cases in the industry," she says. "That's what we're doing."

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So, still no firm commitments just yet, but this gives us a better idea of what Xbox's so-called return to exclusivity will look like. Rather than acting like PlayStation and keeping pretty much all of its first-party games to itself (even more so now, with PC ports slowing down), it seems that Xbox will take a more strategic approach.

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That raises its own questions, however. What can Xbox really keep to itself anymore? It's already committed to sharing Halo and Fable, two titans of Xbox exclusivity, back in the 360 era. Will new IPs be locked behind Xbox, or would that only be hurting their chances of breaking through in today's market?

It won't be an easy situation to navigate, especially as Sharma has set everyone's expectations so high by alluding to exclusivity in the first place. Empty gestures like removing PlayStation logos from Xbox trailers will only keep fans happy for so long.

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Xbox Series X

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