Xbox CEO Asha Sharma Says No Call Made Yet on Xbox Exclusives - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 24 April 2026 / 6,830 Views
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and Xbox executive vice president and chief content officer Matt Booty this week posted a new mission statement - We Are Xbox - in which they stated "we will reevaluate our approach to exclusivity."
Sharma in an interview with Game File was asked about exclusives on Xbox and no calls have been made yet. Choices about the approach to exclusive games are "long-swinging decisions that have decade-long impact," she said.
"We’ll take a data-driven approach and a strategic-driven approach, and then we’ll look at our principles and we’ll make some calls. So we’ll share more when we’re ready," said Sharma.
She was asked if there was a timeframe to make a decision and stated "nothing we’re ready to commit to" as she has only been Xbox CEO for roughly two months. "I want to make the right decision, not the fastest decision."
She has made a number of changes and announcements since taking over as Xbox CEO. In just two weeks she announced the next-generation Xbox console, codenamed Project Helix, which will lead in performance and be able to play Xbox and PC games.
A little over a month into her new role she announced Xbox had retired the "This is an Xbox" ad campaign.
Earlier this week Xbox announced it had lowered the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate from $29.99 to $22.99 a month and PC Game Pass from $16.49 to $13.99 a month.
In order to justify the lower price, starting this year future Call of Duty titles will no longer join Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass at launch. New Call of Duty titles will be added to the two tiers during the following holiday season, which would be around a year after launch. Existing Call of Duty titles already in the library will continue to be available.
Also announced over the course of a few weeks are updates coming to Xbox console and visual changes to achievements. The first update lets users disable Quick Resume on a per-game basis, increases the number of custom groups from 2 to 10, custom colors, and adds the five most recent unlocked badges to a users profile.
Xbox achievements have been updated with a new look and feel, ability to hide games from your Achievement history on your profile, and games with 100% of achievements unlocks will be highlighted in the achievements list.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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Exclusives are coming back
You cannot sustain a platform without them
Permanent not timed or people just wait
I can see them moving away from Nintendo, Sony and eventually Steam
they can't sustain a platform when the only thing to make them exclusive to is an extremely low volume over 1000 dollar luxury product.
Xbox's biggest problem is their marketing, not lack of exclusive games. It's no coincidence that the Xbox Series sales dipped after 2023 when their marketing got bad. Until they can fix that they cannot improve. We saw the Wii U get great exclusive and arguably had the best exclusives in the 8th generation, yet it sold bad because Nintendo did bad marketing for it.
I still think all Xbox games will still go to Nintendo and Playstation. What I think she may decide on is release games on Xbox and PC first then Nintendo and Playstation 6-12 months later. I'd be shocked if they really went back to Xbox and PC only even if it's just for certain games.
That is what I am thinking as well. They will be able to say the word "exclusive" again even if it is only temporary.
Xbox is so integrated with PC now with the Xbox PC App, PC Game Pass and a huge presence on Steam. When someone says "exclusive" I'm sure they referring to Xbox and PC, which is why I never said exclusive, since that would be false. But I think Xbox's biggest problem is their marketing. Regardless if they have exclusives or not if their marketing is terrible their console, services, and games won't sell. Just look at the Wii U.
Yeah when I say exclusive I mean console exclusive. Also I agree the marketing for Xbox hasn't been good since the 360 days.
They might even go Xbox only for 6-1 year but everything after that.
I dont think k that would work especially since PC GamePass is still a thing
They will look at data and continue with Playstation ports. Xbox is in no position to make console exclusives.
Yeah. It's impossible and I don't know why they're giving Xbox fans false hope. Who does that benefit?
Following same textbook as Phil Spencer, even that 'we are xbox' letter sounds like he wrote it.
best thing anyone can do is to have Xbox officially announce they're back to exclusives, otherwise this is just a lot of hot air.
False hope? Why would anyone hope for exclusives? That is of no benefit to anybody.
Then their hardware business will die completely.. Simple as that.
It's all about money.
They can make more money as a publisher. Reinvigorate Xbox console with exclusives will not work, new/returning users are not going to compensate the loss in Sales. When it comes to PC/Consoles, selling as much games as possible is the best path for Xbox; they won't gain anything by fighting a losing battle against Playstation and Steam.
I mean, considering how much their revenue has been consistently dropping ever since they started this multiplatform strategy, I have to wonder, when exactly is it that they are going to start seeing this whole "more money" thing?
They can make whatever decision they want, if they own it, they control it.
Sure, they can do it.
But it will be a bad move. They will not save Xbox and they will lose money.
Depends if they decide to go the long term gain then they will do exactly what Sony does
The only data they need to look at is how many X1 owners decided to migrate to other platforms.
Based on TrueTrophies player data at least, FH5, Indiana Jones, Psychonauts 2, and Gears of War Reloaded all did reasonably well for their respective budgets. Everything else they have ported to PS5 seemed to underperform, at least based on TrueTrophies player data; Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2, Hellblade 2, AoE 2 DE, AoM Retold, South of Midnight, etc.
These games also under performed on XB and pc.
I had my worries about her initially due to her non-gaming background, but so far I've been getting good vibes from her. We'll see if the vibes result in something good though.
Same. This might not work but she's off to a great start in a relatively short amount of time
If Xbox Helix will become basically a small yet decently powerful pc. They might get away with ditching PS and Nintendo and go full pc. There are plenty pc only games that turn a profit without (meaningful) console sales.
If they dont have exclusives, what is the reason for anyone to get an Xbox over a Playstation?
Most console gamers only get one console (especially now with these prices) and we know Playstation is the favored of the two, so Sharma needs to hone in on what would make anyone prefer the Xbox and deliver.
The best thing about owning the platform, is you never have to worry if a 1st party game is releasing on the platform. Its a simple luxury to have.
I don't know much about business, but I know...
"We’ll take a data-driven approach and a strategic-driven approach, and then we’ll look at our principles and we’ll make some calls. "
...isn't what they need. What Xbox needs is an identity.
We know why people buy Nintendo. We know why people buy Playstation. What does buying Xbox say about me? Microsoft bought all those studios, but they can't leverage those IPs?
