During her summer livestream earlier this year, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma made a big song and dance about her company’s return to console exclusivity.
Many first-party titles, like Halo: Campaign Evolved, released on PS5 under the direction of former boss Phil Spencer.
The new management, however, has decided to restrict titles like Gears of War: E-Day and next year’s Clockwork Revolution to PC and Xbox Series X|S consoles.
We know that The Coalition’s popular third-person shooter was planned for the PS5, because Microsoft accidentally uploaded a trailer confirming it. The title was also evaluated for release on the Sony system, and a “nearly finished” version exists on a hard drive somewhere.
But is the gamble paying off for Microsoft?
The day after a mundane financial report for Xbox – where its sales fell further – The Game Business reports that Gears of War’s exclusivity “didn’t make a difference” for the brand.
In the UK, hardware sales fell 22% during October, and Circana’s Mat Piscatella says things are only getting worse in the US.
Piscatella explained:
“Saying that Gears will be exclusive made no difference in terms of hardware trend. In fact, the situation keeps getting worse.
Everything they do seems to get likes on Twitter from the more passionate part of their fan base, but other than that, in terms of actual results, I don’t see anything at the moment. And I’m looking really hard.
And Gears is a beautiful game. It’s a cool Gears of War game. But by making it exclusive, you reduce its potential as an individual title to boost your platform, and at least in the short term, it made no difference.
In a new report from The Verge, it is claimed that E-Day has sold around 400,000 units worldwide, which is quite a bit higher than the most recent estimates from Alinea Analytics.
Like all proprietary games, it is included in Xbox Game Pass – although there is speculation Microsoft may revise this business model in the new year, as it is not working financially for the company.
Indeed, sources say the game could have cost as much as $500 million to create, meaning it’s unlikely it’ll ever make its money back.
Whether this will mean the title will eventually be ported to the PS5 in order to recoup some revenue remains to be seen, but so far it appears the latter tactic isn’t working for Microsoft.
Next, let’s see how Clockwork Revolution will perform.
Gn tech
