“We have to be very thoughtful about each title and learn from similar cases in the industry.”
No seriously, how is this different from the fireside chat where it was, “Just four games. This will be an experiment and we’ll learn along the way.” and “Platforms for each games will be carefully decided on a case by case basis.”
You clearly want everything except for COD (and I’m assuming Minecraft to be exclusive). Sharma is using the same rhetoric Phil used up until the end with “case by case”. She’s also specifying exclusive content & services. What’s different about what she’s saying and now? Some major games that benefit from larger populations and are very costly to make are getting multiplatform releases, new IP and smaller games aren’t necessarily, and Xbox Play Anywhere, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Xbox Game Pass remain as exclusive value differentiators for buying games on Xbox. That quote could easily be taken to mean, “Forza Horizon makes sense as a multiplatform game to keep the multiplayer live service going stronger and make it more of a financial success but with day one game pass, XPA, and Xbox Cloud Gaming being exclusive benefits for the Xbox ecosystem will remain to keep the value on Xbox.” or it could mean that she’ll take it off day one game pass to instead make it a console exclusive or it could mean she’ll do an exclusive Xbox dlc pack. Sharma isn’t picking a lane or saying anything declarative: she’s continuing the same “case by case” with equally noncommital language. This time I’ll give her a pass for not saying so directly on Twitter. Misquoting someone in an interview isn’t helpful. The interview was Bloomberg tech from a few searches. It’s a video. https://x.com/BloombergLive/status/2062636809360642349?s=20
Haven’t watched it but another article had a slightly longer quote which adds a LOT of needed context:
We’re the number 2 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. And so, we’re looking at that very closely. I think that we have to be very thoughtful about each title and how we want to think about it and learn from similar cases in the industry.
She specifically additionally mentions Xbox’s status as a major publisher and the need to maximize a games audience to maintain that. I’m going to go out on a limb and say she was asked the hot topic question about exclusivity directly, and that was her answer. A non commital “It’s important for us to reach large audiences and it’s also important for us to have exclusive content and services, so we’ll make these decisions thoughtfully per each title.”
I think there’s going to be a big crashout when people realize that Microsoft isn’t backing away from the huge success of their games on PS. Not everything was a huge success and maybe those types of games will be what they don’t bother porting. It’s not like everything is going over now. Take Double Fine. Kiln launched multiplatform day one, but Keeper didn’t and has no timeline on going to PS or Nintendo. There’s also third party exclusives like Space Marine remastered and tons of indies. They aren’t even necessarily being paid to stay off other platforms, but Xbox is working a lot to support developers and bring over content which leads to a lot of natural exclusives.
Gears of War E day probably won’t get announced as multiplatform and I don’t remember it previously stating a PS release. We’ll see, but I think it wouldn’t benefit the game terribly with how stacked fall is currently and it could easily slot into a brand win. But expecting them to backtrack and unnannounce games as a multiplatform is unrealistic. It’s either they go all in with multiplatform same day launches (which I think will happen gradually for all platforms as consoles continue stagnating) or they continue their mixed “case by case” outlook. Maybe Clockwork Revolution is Xbox & PC only, but Elder Scrolls VI is day one everywhere. Stuff like that.