Well, well. Who would’ve thought that exclusivity would be back on the table in some way at XBOX. In the Phil Spencer era, the term exclusivity was a second thought and the door was firmly open for everybody to seemingly jump in. What I have learned from this is that when it’s not going right for the platform, in the sense of what they wanted to achieve. They needed gamers back on their side and you do that by playing the game that the new XBOX boss is really good at, incredible marketing, that speaks to the core of your fanbase.
They’ve gone ahead and brought new leadership to XBOX and made relatively small changes that have had somewhat of an impact in such a relatively small amount of time. However, it’s clear that we do not know what the future of exclusivity will look like and we probably will not know clearly until more games start dropping before that picture starts to become clearer.
Fundamentally, this change in policy at XBOX has been done because the previous ways of leadership weren’t working and getting rid of the previous messaging was a clear indication of their mistake. This has to be the start of a comeback. Because seemingly it is on trial right now to ‘see how it goes’ and ultimately, how gamers respond to this new way of doing things is going to be paramount.
What we saw at the XBOX Showcase was that some sort of exclusivity has to be there, and that maybe it was a mistake to get rid of it completely. However, at the same time, we’re seeing XBOX double down on XBOX Game Pass, it has more support than ever before, and their team up with third-parties is something I expect to continue to happen. This will continue to make the platform appealing to those who do love the service and the value it offers.
What needs to happen now is that XBOX sticks to this strategy going into the next generation. Because XBOX needs that kind of stability going into the next generation where there are possibilities to draw even more people into what is happening here that’s been rather positive of late. It’s going to be interesting how far Asha can seemingly save a sinking ship by resetting the platform all together to fit the needs of the modern XBOX audience.