Here's my honest thoughts on exclusives with Xbox.
Their current strategy is not going to make any difference whatsoever. If Asha would have been brought in a lot sooner and had Xbox exclusives written on every game at the show - it would have made a much bigger impact.
Instead, virtually the entire lineup is already announced for years that these games will show up on PlayStation.
And these are major games, so the toothpaste is already out of the tube.
If Xbox truly wanted to dominate - yes exclusives matter. But picking & choosing doesn't make any difference. It leads to constant guessing and frustration for fans. A banger here or there is easy to skip.
It's all or nothing.
If my goal was to make Xbox the #1 brand - i'd make EVERY SINGLE game exclusive. Including Call of Duty - EVERYTHING. That's the only way Xbox would make some major comeback. And it would take a lot of pain and burning money out for them to do that. And it would need to be a years long campaign with full commitments.
The other option is just fully embrace 3rd party and have no exclusives. That's the easy solution and probably the right one for the company if your goal is to maximize profits and revenue. Especially when they're losing money on consoles and next gen is gonna be so expensive. If your goal is MAU's this is also the right path.
PlayStation has made it super clear and it's a solid strategy with exclusives.
Multiplayer goes multiplatform
Single player stays exclusive.
Some say Xbox should copy this strategy. The problem is Xbox isn't known for single player games. Their best shot was something like Fable, assuming it's good. Virtually everything else has been completely forgettable.
Do I think they'll make everything exclusive? No, I don't think higher ups are ready to bleed that much money.
But If I was Asha and my goal was truly to be #1 in the console space- i'd apologize to my competitors and gamers and say we're pulling all of these games and everything releasing from today forward will only be playable on Xbox.
It's all or nothing. No one will buy a Xbox for Gears or Clockwork. They would buy an Xbox if that's the only way to play everything Xbox is publishing.
What we have now is Phil 2.0. No real strategy and complete confusion and switching up game plans as you throw everything at the wall without a solid clear goal in mind.