Xbox CEO Asha Sharma Won't Commit to Exclusives

Cheaper Game Pass. A new logo. The death of the widely mocked "This Is An Xbox" ad campaign. In roughly 60 days as Xbox CEO, Asha Sharma has moved fast on the stuff that was easy to fix. On the one question that will actually determine whether Xbox has a future as a console platform, she's still buying time.

In an interview with Game File, Sharma was asked directly about bringing back Xbox exclusives. Her answer was careful, corporate, and deliberately noncommittal. "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," she said. "I want to make the right decision, not the fastest decision." She described the exclusivity question as a "long-swinging decision" with "decade-long impact," and offered no timeline for when Xbox would actually land somewhere.

I understand the instinct to be measured here. Sharma inherited a platform in identity crisis, and reversing course on multiplatform releases would have massive financial consequences. But the longer Xbox leaves this question unanswered, the harder it becomes to answer it at all. Every month without a clear stance is another month where potential Xbox buyers look at the lineup and think, "I can just play all of this on PS5."

The horse is already out

And that's the real problem. While Sharma deliberates, the previous leadership already gave away the store. Forza Horizon 5 launched on PlayStation last year and sold 5 million copies. Gears of War: Reloaded is already on PS5. Forza Horizon 6 has been greenlit for PlayStation. Halo is heading to a competing console for the first time via Campaign Evolved. Fable is confirmed for PlayStation. Starfield recently released there too. These aren't minor catalogue titles being farmed out for extra revenue; they're the franchises that used to justify owning Xbox hardware.

Sharma can talk about data-driven approaches all she wants, but the data she's going to get back will be shaped by decisions that were already made before she sat down. Forza Horizon 5 sold 5 million copies on PlayStation because PlayStation has a massive install base. Of course the numbers look good. That doesn't mean putting everything on PS5 is the right long-term play for a company that also wants to sell you a $500 console.

Matt Booty, Xbox's chief content officer, spoke in the same interview about wanting Xbox Game Studios to focus on "predictable cadence, roadmap, aim for quality" and creating "the conditions for the lightning in a bottle of winning Game of the Year." Those are fine goals, but they sidestep the core tension: even if Xbox Game Studios ships a GOTY contender, why would anyone buy an Xbox to play it if it's also on PlayStation? Nintendo has answered this question for decades. Sony answered it with the PS5. Xbox is the only platform holder that seems unsure.

Sharma has earned some goodwill with her early moves. Dropping Game Pass prices was a smart, consumer-friendly call. Killing the "This Is An Xbox" branding was overdue by about a year. And her social media presence has been refreshingly direct; when a lapsed fan posted about ordering a Series X, Sharma responded with a simple "hell yes" that racked up over 10,000 likes. People want to root for this version of Xbox.

But vibes and price cuts only carry you so far. The next-gen console, currently known as Project Helix, is in development, and Sharma says the team is "investing in it as a first-class experience again." I don't know what a first-class console experience looks like when every major game on it is also available on the competition. Sharma's memo mentioned plans to "reevaluate our approach to exclusivity, windowing, and AI," lumping one of the most consequential strategic decisions in Xbox history in with two other bullet points. Sixty days in, the biggest question facing Xbox remains completely open, and the window to answer it convincingly is shrinking with every multiplatform announcement.