{"id":708919,"date":"2026-06-17T05:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T05:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/708919\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T05:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T05:31:09","slug":"xbox-shoots-down-rumors-that-gears-exclusivity-is-a-fake-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/708919\/","title":{"rendered":"Xbox Shoots Down Rumors That Gears Exclusivity Is A Fake Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

A \u201creset\u201d is underway at Xbox<\/a>. Rapid changes and rubber-banding vibes have left a lot of people feeling confused and shaky about what comes next for the console maker. The announcement at Xbox\u2019s June showcase that Gears of War: E-Day won\u2019t be coming to PlayStation 5 was one of the more notable shifts, an about-face from Microsoft\u2019s wider multiplatform pivot over the last two years<\/a>. How to square that move with Xbox CEO Asha Sharma\u2019s stark memo about dismal profit margins for the tech giant\u2019s gaming division?<\/p>\n

While exclusives are a necessary building block of any console-first gaming strategy, they also lock studios and publishers out of revenue from players on other platforms. As Xbox prepares for mass layoffs<\/a> due to poor financials across different parts of its business, rumors have begun to fly<\/a> that the current pivot back toward some level of Xbox Series X\/S exclusivity is only a temporary move to earn good will.<\/p>\n

Some have even theorized that preventing Gears of War: E-Day<\/a> from coming to PS5 is secretly a move designed to prove<\/a> that exclusivity isn\u2019t financially viable for Xbox and end it once and for all. Microsoft is saying emphatically that\u2019s not the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese rumors are false,\u201d Xbox chief strategist Matthew Ball wrote on X on June 16<\/a>. \u201cGears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution will stay exclusive. There are no conversations and have been no conversations to \u2018reverse course.\u2019 And as we said last week, players can continue to expect signature exclusives from us every year.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a Game Business live event last week<\/a>, Ball said that Microsoft had announced a few exclusives at its recent showcase to prove to fans that the move was part of a deeper strategic shift and not just a one-off for Xbox\u2019s 25th anniversary. The suggestion is that new exclusives will be announced in 2027 and beyond, heading into the expected launch of the company\u2019s next-gen Project Helix hardware, though details on how the decisions will be made about which games are exclusive and which aren\u2019t remain elusive.<\/p>\n

Ball was asked during the event why 2026\u2019s Clockwork Revolution<\/a>\u00a0would be an Xbox Series X\/S exclusive, while Ninja Theory\u2019s upcoming Hellblade sequel Senua would not be. \u201cNo comment,\u201d he said at the time. We now know the answer. Microsoft is currently cutting that studio and that game loose<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u201creset\u201d is underway at Xbox. Rapid changes and rubber-banding vibes have left a lot of people feeling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[299730,247674,1281,74,1298],"class_list":["post-708919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-exclusive-games","tag-gears-of-war-e-day","tag-microsoft","tag-technology","tag-xbox"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}