In the past two months, Microsoft's gaming department has made frequent moves. Just yesterday, the department was officially renamed the Xbox department. There have been many related rumors in the market before, and one of the most talked about topics after this name change is how Microsoft will adjust its game exclusivity strategy. Division CEO Asha Sharma and chief content officer Matt Booty said they would "re-evaluate our strategy" going forward.
Sharma reiterated this attitude in an interview with Game File reporter Stephen Totilo, adding that no final decision has been made yet. She described such decisions as "long-term decisions with an impact of up to ten years" and said that Microsoft will "adopt a data- and strategy-driven decision-making method, combined with our core principles, to make a final decision. When everything is ready, we will announce more relevant information."
When asked about the timing of the decision, Sharma responded: "We don't have any timetable to commit to at the moment. I hope to make the right decision, not a hasty decision." This attitude is completely understandable, after all, the relevant adjustments have only been advanced for two months. However, outsiders inevitably speculate that Microsoft's final decision may depend on the market performance of blockbuster masterpieces such as "Halo: Battle Evolved", "Fable" and "Forza Horizon 6" on the PS5 platform.
Although the Helix plan is obviously Microsoft's current core focus, and its core goal is to achieve "performance leadership," the Xbox Series X/S console has not been left out in the cold. Sharma said: "I think the ninth-generation console is an excellent hardware product, and we want to ensure that its gaming experience and platform experience reach the top level. We know that our previous investment in this area has been insufficient, and now we will refocus on this." The recent optimization of the achievement system and the update of the custom switch for the quick wake-up function are the most representative implementation cases.
In addition, Microsoft has also lowered the subscription prices of Game Pass Ultimate Edition and PC version of Game Pass. It also announced a major news: the new "Call of Duty" series will no longer be added to the Game Pass subscription library on the day of launch. However, these new works will still be available on the subscription service about a year after their release, and there are rumors that older works in the series will eventually be added to the subscription library.