In recent years, Xbox embraced the idea of non-exclusive games and services, prioritizing instead appealing to as wide an audience as possible, no matter the device. While this genuinely benefited fans, it cost the company dearly as people saw fewer reasons to own its consoles.
But that could be about to change, because according to new Xbox chief executive Asha Sharma, exclusivity is a must if a platform is to stand any chance of succeeding, especially in a market as competitive as consoles.
“To be a leading publisher, our games must reach large audiences,” Sharma said during a Bloomberg Tech panel today (via GamesIndustry.biz), emphasizing past efforts to broaden Xbox’s horizon and appeal to as many people as it can. However, she noted that Xbox is “increasingly becoming a platform” with dedicated services and consumer expectations.
“To succeed as a platform, we must offer exclusive content and services,” she continued, “and we’re looking at that very closely.”
“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, and that’s what we’re doing,” Sharma said.
Xbox has long suffered in the market due to Sony simply outclassing it when it comes to exclusive AAA titles. While Xbox has had its own set of games, none managed to succeed at a satisfactory level, compared to how Sony’s been utterly dominating the sphere with first-party blockbusters.
On top of that, Xbox also launched all of its games on PC at the same time as consoles, further diluting its devices’ viability. Things really need to change if Xbox is to remain a platform, as Sharma says, since it risks downgrading itself to merely a service provider at best.
One thing I’ll also add is that Sharma said she “absolutely” supports AI, that neural rendering is a great idea that’ll give us better graphics, and that she was surprised by how different studios she visited incorporated AI into their pipelines. At first, she had a strong stance against “AI slop,” and perhaps still does, since she did claim AI won’t replace AAA titles.
However, any kind of open support for AI immediately makes me worry. I just cannot for the life of me trust multi-trillion-dollar corporations to do the right thing with a technology as potentially destructive and reductive as AI is. So, make of this what you will.
