Xbox exclusives plan 'not ready' as CEO seeks business turnaround

Summing up Xbox's Games Showcase 2026 lineup, chief strategy officer Matthew Ball said new CEO Asha Sharma has communicated that "our business today is not healthy" and that part of "turning around the business" is establishing a new plan for exclusive games. Ball described Sharma as a capable, motivated leader, saying, "I came to really like Asha, really believe in her as a leader overall and as a leader for Xbox." On exclusivity, Ball said Xbox has "an internal framework and a strategy" to approach exclusives on- and off-platform.

He rejected one-off tie-ins — "It's our 25th anniversary, its Gear's 20th anniversary, we're returning to Xbox, here's an exclusive" — and called the effort "the start of a program" to return to regular exclusive games. Some announced multiplatform titles will remain non-exclusive, as happened when Deathloop went to PS5 after the Bethesda and ZeniMax acquisition.

Ball said once that slate ships, Xbox intends to recentre console exclusives as a key offering.

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