The 2026 Xbox Games Showcase kicked off with a lengthy demo of Gears of War: E-Day that had its share of hunky dudes peppering Grubs over slabs of cover, Marcus Fenix’s gravelly voice, and even a chainsaw bisecting a Locust at the end; all typical Gears elements. Newly minted Xbox CEO Asha Sharma then came out to deliver news that would have also been typical for Gears a decade ago but is more newsworthy in the modern day: the fact that E-Day would be an Xbox console exclusive. It wasn’t as cut and dried as that, though, since some first-party games will still make it to other platforms. This desperate pivot was clouded in conflicting messages but one thing, however, was rather clear: This shift will not save Xbox.
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It’s a move that has many smaller problems nestled inside of it, but the debacle surrounding E-Day‘s console exclusivity encapsulates many of them. There’s an inconsistency here that makes it confusing, which is made even worse from the messaging behind it. Ratings for a PS5 version were spotted online and Xbox’s own podcast had a PS5 logo on the game’s marketing. Given those goofs, it seemed as though the decision was only just made to make E-Day a console exclusive. Insider Jeff Grubb even noted that a “basically finished [PS5] version” of E-Day was sitting on a drive somewhere.
However, despite this obvious change in direction, the involved parties couldn’t figure out how to effectively convey what happened. VP of games marketing Aaron Greenberg disputed the immediacy of the change by saying the choice was made roughly a month ago. Studio creative director Matt Searcy then said the team “never talked about it coming to PS5” and studio brand director Nicole Fawcette said the “plans never changed.” This is not technically an outright lie, but it is a simple case of carefully selecting words and omitting the full truth in order to save face. All signs have pointed to a PS5 version being in production — Gears of War: Reloaded also just came to PS5, as if to prime PlayStation users — but it being unannounced gave them unearned wiggle room to say the team “never talked about it” since it was never publicly revealed. Greenberg already mostly fessed up, yet there wasn’t a consistent and transparent way to convey what happened.
And this lack of consistency makes it all a bit strange. Senua is making its way to PS5, but Clockwork Revolution is not and it’s unclear why those games are being treated differently. Chief content officer Matt Booty wasn’t able to make things any clearer, saying the team is making the decision on a “case-by-case” basis. It would be imperative to further explain that, yet no one has.
Xbox Just Doesn’t Have the Numbers
The shaky message is mostly a surface-level problem since it seems farcical from a business standpoint. Wanting to give the actual console some more appeal isn’t a terrible idea, but many games simply don’t sell too well on Xbox. The lack of sales data worthy of touting heavily implies both Xbox Series consoles aren’t flying off the shelves (the Switch 2 and PS5 both outsold it in 2025). Xbox’s brand-new chief strategy officer Matthew Ball claimed demand for its consoles was outpacing supply, but, again, that just sounds like a shifty way of omitting the full picture.
These soft sales are backed up in certain financial disclosures and estimates. First-party games didn’t perform well in 2025. Analytics firm Alinea Analytics estimated games like Subnautica 2, Resident Evil Requiem, Marathon, Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, and 007 First Light all had exponentially higher sales on other platforms. Xbox also confirmed the obvious and noted how Game Pass cannibalizes sales. Other teams like Dotemu and Moon Studios even have spoken about initially neglecting Xbox ports for various reasons. Those reasons are likely based on the smaller install base, something a few publishers reportedly talked about in private and public. Xbox even began reaching out to developers to ask why their games were skipping the platform.
This all looks even worse for the Xbox console when considering how well many Xbox games were selling on PlayStation systems. According to an Alinea report from April, titles like Forza Horizon 5, Sea of Thieves, and The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered sold around 5.8 million, 2.7 million, and 1.2 million units, respectively. Many of the other games like DOOM: The Dark Ages and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle cracked hundreds of thousands of units sold. PlayStation players wanted to play these games. Windows Central even recently reported many Xbox games missed their targets — an issue across exclusive and multiplatform games — so limiting their reach now seems even more ill advised.
Xbox Is Listening Too Much to Fans
Moving back to exclusives seems like a way to boost those Xbox numbers, but that just hasn’t worked. Former Xbox CEO Phil Spencer said keeping games exclusive didn’t work and making great games wasn’t enough, both of which were surprisingly candid admissions from a person in a high-up position designed for lying. He also stated in the podcast in February 2024 that officially revealed the plans to port its games elsewhere that this decision was made to ensure the “long-term health of Xbox” so its game could reach as many players as they can and help grow said franchises. Spoken in plainer terms, Xbox leadership needed the money from other, more successful platforms in order to survive or come closer to hitting its targets. With this history, Sharma’s insistence that exclusives are the way to go seems even more foolish.
This is all ear poison to fanboys who just don’t want to deal with the realities of where Xbox currently is and the economy it finds itself. And it seems like the current Xbox leadership is blindly following these people into oblivion in lieu of a more noble vision. Its new initiative to blatantly pander to these people reeks of desperation that has taken form in small ways in addition to the aforementioned big ones. Apologizing for listing PlayStation logos in a trailer is absolutely ridiculous, as is allegedly pulling a Halo: Campaign Evolved trailer from the last PlayStation State of Play. Polling people on if Xbox should be capitalized or not is worthless. Gathering suggestions on a website seems decent in theory, but it’s filled with bad suggestions fueled by the clueless hivemind; a company ideally shouldn’t be run by Reddit-esque updoots and should be run with smart people with a solid vision. The third-most upvoted post is about backwards compatibility — something Xbox has done surprisingly well with already — and doesn’t even spell “compatible” correctly.
Xbox and Microsoft Are Both Making Bad (and Sometimes Evil) Decisions
The hardcore Xbox fanboy is a dying breed, so bending over backwards to cater to them is extremely silly. Given the dire state of the overall economy and industry, it doesn’t make sense for Xbox to narrow where it delivers its games. With tightened wallets across the board, it’s highly unlikely players will plunk down the ever-increasing amount of money to buy an Xbox to play console exclusives; it isn’t 2009 anymore. It seems more likely these Xbox-less players will just not play them as they try to stretch their shorter paychecks to make room to pay for expensive gas, costly groceries, and the onslaught of games that are on the platforms they currently own. Timed exclusives seem like a better compromise, since it gives the console some value without completely forsaking the extra cash that would come from later ports. Perhaps the current Xbox leadership will stumble backwards into this same multiplatform strategy when the numbers inevitably don’t add up and its hypercapitalist overlords at Microsoft come knocking.
All of this comes in the context of Xbox’s other, grander failings and those of its parent company. Even though it laid off thousands and canned projects less than a year ago, Bloomberg reported Xbox is planning for yet another major round of layoffs in order to “stem declining revenue.” Sharma was recently a bit wishy-washy on whether or not the company’s historic $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard was worth it. Xbox is also still part of the ongoing boycott for Microsoft’s support of Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. Microsoft’s insistence on doubling down on AI is undoubtedly playing a role here, too, since this initiative is contributing to how expensive memory is now. Xbox has also spent the last two generation making terrible short-term decisions to please stockholders and bad long-term investments, both of which have cast a dark cloud over the company that has yet to dissipate. It capitulated to the worst impulses of the industry (expanding and throwing creatives under the bus) and is now paying the price at the most inopportune time.
As noted by people who attended the event, the 2026 Xbox FanFest was a lavish ball. Attendees were spoiled with a ton of catering, exclusive swag, giveaways, and, to top it all off, a special anniversary Xbox Series X. Taking care of fans is not the worst idea, but this extravagant display for those who bleed green within the context of how much Xbox is hemorrhaging money, laying off its workers, and cutting off those on other platforms is almost too on the nose. It will make a huge show pampering these hardcore fans in order to score points even when it comes off as desperate, tacky, and short-sighted.
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