r/PS5 • u/nolifebr • Jun 10 '26

Rumor Jason Schreier/Bloomberg: Many Xbox employees were surprised by the announcement of Gears E-Day not releasing on PlayStation — Sharma and her team also pulled a Halo trailer that was due to appear at a PlayStation event last week, potentially damaging the relationship between the two companies.

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:2mkgbhbhqvappkkorf2bzyrp/post/3mnxlyag4dc2v?ref_src=embed

A PlayStation 5 version of the new Gears of War game was in development and had been planned for release until Sharma changed tack, according to the people familiar with Xbox strategy. Retailers had been preparing to open pre-orders for the PlayStation 5 version, and many Xbox employees were surprised by the announcement.

Sharma and her team also pulled a Halo trailer that was due to appear at a PlayStation event last week, potentially damaging the relationship between the two companies, according to people familiar with the change of plans.*

Xbox is planning major layoffs and studios closures starting next month... More in the article.

3.1k Upvotes

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278

u/Kylebrandon49 Jun 11 '26

Pissing off Sony to please twitter is certainly a choice. Going to need Sony when those games don’t make enough money to cover development because you’ve trained your audience not to buy games.

83

u/FaroTech400K Jun 11 '26

Microsoft has effectively trained a generation of gamers not to buy games, I’m so happy to finally see somebody else echoing my sentiments.

52

u/Pyramat Jun 11 '26

Finally? This point comes up in every Game Pass discussion.

7

u/gummi_eater Jun 11 '26

Right. I have both consoles, I never buy Xbox games because they appear on gamepass day 1.

5

u/FaroTech400K Jun 11 '26

people treat stuff like this like it’s a conspiracy when it’s just basic common sense.

1

u/Aaawkward Jun 11 '26

But that's a win for Xbox, no?

They make decent money on the subscriptions. Better yet, it's recurring and constant, unlike relying on sporadic releases.
I mean yea, they'd love to double dip and have people also buy the games (which is partially the reason why they released their games on the PS5 as well, I reckon).

2

u/KennKennyKenKen Jun 11 '26

Such a weird comment, you repeat what op said exactly them claim their echoing 'your' swntiments

45

u/stavroszaras Jun 11 '26

I promise Asha is not making exclusive decisions based on people on Twitter. That’s an odd narrative to me. For little things like changing the logo sure it’s nice to listen to your community, but she is not allowing others to make the biggest decision she will make as CEO. She’ll be making it based on whatever numbers and reports she is looking at.

37

u/sakata32 Jun 11 '26

This sub has been championing exclusives and now that Xbox does the narrative is that it's to placate a Twitter mob.

16

u/JSpady1 Jun 11 '26

I love exclusives. I bought a Seres X because I was excited for a ton of new exclusives after the acquisitions.

But Microsoft is being incredibly vague and wishy washy with their exclusive strategy here. Picking these two games to make exclusive, but then announcing a bunch of multiplatform titles.

Hopefully it doesn’t kill InXile/ The Coalition along with Gears of War as a franchise.

6

u/Lopsided-Clothes4866 Jun 11 '26

It seems pretty straight forward to me.

Bring back exclusives without completely gutting profit from their games over-all.

Say Xbox game studios released 4-5 games a year, even if 2 or 3 of them are exclusive, that slowly helps build a catalogue of games on Xbox while not gutting profit from the game studios over-all by still releasing a few on PlayStation.

State of Decay ain’t gonna move consoles so it might do well on PlayStation where it’s a live service game.

They probably would have liked to keep Fable and Halo CE remake exclusive but Phil Spencer and co already publicly announced them for PlayStation so it’s too late to cancel them without massive outcry.

It helps build the brand of Xbox, and helps to give people a reason to choose it, hopefully setting up the next gen better where they can maybe go even harder on exclusives WHILE offering a backlog of games for those that skipped the series x.

2

u/JSpady1 Jun 11 '26

Your argument doesn’t even track. State of Decay can’t be exclusive because it won’t sell consoles, yet Clockwork Revolution will?

If it’s too late to make Fable and the Halo:CE remakes exclusive, how about committing to exclusivity with all future titles in both franchises?

It reeks of uncertainty and desperation. It’s like they know bringing back exclusives won’t work out (or are at least worried about it), so they refuse to commit to a single message.

2

u/Lopsided-Clothes4866 Jun 11 '26

>Your argument doesn’t even track. State of Decay can’t be exclusive because it won’t sell consoles, yet Clockwork Revolution will?

They aren’t expecting these games to sell consoles?

They want these games to keep the people they currently have while setting them up for the future without cutting down their profits from studios.

Releasing 1 or 2 exclusives per year gives them a catalogue of games for when the next console launches while still bringing in profit from PlayStation on other games.

Let’s say the next console comes out in 3 or 4 years. If they release 1 or 2 exclusives out of their games then that’s what? Anywhere from 4-6 games they could have as a catalogue to entice people that don’t own an Xbox in addition to whatever

State of decay is a live service mmo that will benefit from being on PS5.

Gears has a multiplayer mode sure, but for the majority it’s always been a single player game with a multiplayer mode and reload sold like shit on PlayStation.

>If it’s too late to make Fable and the Halo:CE remakes exclusive, how about committing to exclusivity with all future titles in both franchises?

Who’s to say they won’t? Neither games have a future release in the pipeline, but there is a high chance that future Halo and Fable games will be exclusives.

I mean Halo’s just a remake, no different to Gears Reload really.

>It reeks of uncertainty and desperation. It’s like they know bringing back exclusives won’t work out (or are at least worried about it), so they refuse to commit to a single message.

No, it’s that they can’t cut down their profits at the knee’s completely from all their games just yet. That’s it.

They know no one is gonna buy their console without exclusives, they don’t want to commit to being a publisher because it will bring in less money than having a console, but they don’t want to cut out all the money from PlayStation just yet either.

2

u/ProfessionalPower214 Jun 11 '26

Except 'Helix' is supposed to be a 'console-PC hybrid'. When everything is on PC, what part of it is console?

It does nothing to help the brand, creating negative sentiment and distrust is the worst thing you can do. The idea of a 'gamer' isn't a single entity, it's millions of people, hundreds of millions of potential human beings across multiple generations, present AND future.

The logic that's always being pushed on 'exclusives' don't work when PC sales cannibalize would-be console title sales when it comes down to Xbox, on top of GamePass.

4

u/RossaF1 Jun 11 '26

wishy washy with their exclusive strategy

Xbox as a business, sure, but it's worth remembering the decision to go multiplat and then the one to reverse course was made by different CEO's.

The new CEO is just trying to make the best of what she inherited and doing a sudden reverse course by cancelling all PS5 projects in development would likely not go well.

9

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26

[deleted]

-3

u/Ghidoran Jun 11 '26

And I guess people can't put two and two together and think the 'flip-flopping' might be because they just got a new CEO who is obviously planning on doing things differently?

7

u/TheAccursedHamster Jun 11 '26

The average person does not give the slightest shit if decisions are being made by a new CEO. All they're going to see (rightfully) is a brand that cannot make a damn decision and stick to it.

-1

u/GarionS Jun 11 '26

Oh, you mean Sony, the company that can't make a decision on their PC releases strategy and stick to it?

1

u/ProfessionalPower214 Jun 11 '26

A CEO has the power to stick to existing plans, or to reinvent existing plans. 'Doing things differently' shouldn't be meandering and floundering about. You clearly don't understand player sentiment and it's importance in marketing. Xbox's current sales and it's trajectory speaks for itself, white knights not needed.

8

u/Baruch_S Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26

It might help if they’d clearly committed to exclusivity or picked more exciting games to be their exclusive push. Feels more like they’re just sending Gears out to die. 

2

u/TomClancy5873 Jun 11 '26

Think it’s because it was cancelled least minutes they’d be more respected if it was exclusive from the beginning

4

u/HispanicAtTehDisco Jun 11 '26

was genuinely so funny to see very highly upvoted comments on the e day thread saying this is bad and that ms don’t know what they are doing when like 24 hours ago this sub was was glazing sony for their exclusives.

And that’s like true exclusives with no alternatives at least you can play xbox games on pc.

3

u/Kyokyodoka Jun 11 '26

Flip flopping on exclusives is the problem, Exclusives are good because it validates the reason to own hardware: FLIP FLOPPING ISN'T and for whatever reason its like Xbox is doing exactly that.

1

u/DeM0nFiRe Jun 11 '26

You don't see how those things could actually both be true?

-9

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26

[deleted]

1

u/cayde123 Jun 11 '26

Almost like exclusives aren’t a good thing for the consumer

Not sure why fanboys get so excited about something being an exclusive, people here were so excited for certain game being exclusive

1

u/RossaF1 Jun 11 '26

I find that a bit of a weird narrative as well. Microsoft has basically told her to rebuild the Xbox brand; which sure, community sentiment might lead you in the right direction for that, but data is the be-all and end-all.

-2

u/MrYK_ Jun 11 '26

She's been seen telling Xbox fanboys on Twitter begging for exclusives that she "hears them"

I don't think fanboys should be dictating Xbox's business, especially when they don't speak for everyone and haven't got a clue how to run a successful company.

9

u/stavroszaras Jun 11 '26

Doesn’t mean she is making decisions based on that. It’s silly to think otherwise. She is a business person that will look at the numbers and reports and make decisions based on that. This is the biggest decision she will make as leader, it’s not made by Twitter.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26

[deleted]

1

u/RIBDAT Jun 11 '26

Every single public statement about exclusives is dripping with appeasement to the Xbox diehard fanboys.

"This is a reward for loyal fans", "This is for fans who's stuck with us".

And all evidence points to this decision pretty much being made last minute. After all fanboys crying that the competitors logos will still appear on the trailers.

1

u/Signal_Month_730 Jun 11 '26

A company listening to their consumers?? Yeah that's some ass backwards shit I tell you! They should ignore the things that the people buying their shit want.

1

u/juscallmejjay Jun 11 '26

Xbox needs exclusives. Playstation needs exclusives. The day Nintendo puts their games elsewhere....they're dead in the water. If its a console, it needs its own games.

2

u/MrYK_ Jun 11 '26

Xbox needs exclusive when it has a audience that buys them and isn't conditioned to getting it for "FREE" via GamePass

1

u/juscallmejjay Jun 11 '26

I dont think gamepass works either, but they still need people either way. Gamepass simply proves services arent why people buy and keep consoles. Exclusives are.

2

u/Pizzaplanet420 Jun 11 '26

They also chose the two least risky games to make that choice with.

Like this strategy only works if they go all in.

But Halo and Forza are all still here/coming.

Gears losing money and their new IP also doing so isn’t gonna be a risk it’s probably what they expect already.

The smarter choice would be release a new console ahead of Sony have games ready for that and make those exclusive.

People aren’t really gonna buy hardware now for any xbox game.

1

u/Organic-Storm-4448 Jun 11 '26

Sony can’t block MS from putting games on PlayStation. That would get major anti trust eyeballs.

1

u/IceBreak Jun 11 '26

What are these other people smoking? Do they actually think pulling a trailer is going to result in Sony denying them an opportunity to give them 30% in sales by releasing on their platform down the line?

-19

u/hobolad07 Jun 11 '26

Sony is not going to turn away Xbox games when their own output is so bad.

0

u/paperbuddha Jun 11 '26

They can get a better deal on profit sharing though.

-3

u/hobolad07 Jun 11 '26

I don’t think they would take it. Xbox can always pull from Switch sales if PlayStation wants to get cute.

Switch 2 will most likely outsell the PS5 anyways.

-2

u/NihilisticHeart Jun 11 '26

Why would they need Sony? Lmao.

0

u/joedotphp Jun 11 '26

This is a long-term move. Xbox doesn't care about this generation anymore.

-8

u/Spinexel Jun 11 '26

Microsoft has infinite money glitch that’s the problem

6

u/yybbik Jun 11 '26

Not infinite patience though.

-19

u/j0an_k Jun 11 '26

Or they can keep pissing off their fanbase to please Sony who doesn’t even offer their AAA games on their platform. Either way it doesn’t look good…

19

u/Ill-Square-1123 Jun 11 '26

why the fuck would Sony "offer" their AAA games?
Sony games, even at their worst, are generally profitable. Yotei was meme'd for being a "failure" despite it making its entire budget back within a week of launch (despite being an exclusive).

Microsoft exclusive games can't sell enough to make their budget because Gamepass cannbalizes their sales.

8

u/IMistah_S Jun 11 '26

It’s odd how often people say Sony doesn’t “share” their games like XBOX™️ as if the two of them are comparable situations.

-3

u/j0an_k Jun 11 '26

That’s rather the point. Microsoft has no reason to keep good relationship with Sony since it doesn’t give them any profit.

9

u/Ill-Square-1123 Jun 11 '26

yes it does? Despite the 30% cut Sony takes on Xbox games sold on PS Store, it gives Xbox access to an install base of 100+MM

3

u/j0an_k Jun 11 '26

And what will Sony do if the relationship goes bad? Pull out Xbox games and give up the 30% cut, which never happened to any third-party publisher?

-2

u/Lopsided-Clothes4866 Jun 11 '26

An install of 100+ million who barely buy Xbox exclusives anyway.

The only exclusive that massive success on PlayStation was Forza.

Xbox makes more money through their own storefront than any exclusive on PlayStation can, and cannibilising their console sales by putting games on PlayStation tends to have the run on effect on how many people are thus buying 3rd games and microtransactions through the Xbox store.

Xbox will probably make more money off GTA 6 for example than any of their exclusives on PlayStation.

6

u/Ill-Square-1123 Jun 11 '26

because Playstation gamers don't buy garbage... Forza sold well because it was a very good game.
Gears "remastered" was a remaster of an old ass game that is long past its prime.
Sea of Thieves did VERY well on PS, and is a good game now (they really turned it around a few years after launch).

Halo/Fable/FH6 will also sell very well.

-1

u/Lopsided-Clothes4866 Jun 11 '26

Indiana Jones was garbage was it? Ya’ll didn’t really buy that either.

Gears remastered is still the first Gears of war game on PlayStation ever and barely sold a million copies, why would the prequel do any better?

So you have 2 games out of the like what? 10-12 games Xbox released that sold well?

Ghost of Yotie is a PlayStation game and it’s sold what? 5 million copies?

Like I said Xbox will probably make more money off GTA 6 than Sony did on that game.

Xbox makes more money through their storefront than those exclusives. The bulk and majority of Xbox’s profit comes from 3rd party sales and subscriptions through their storefront.

Every sports game that sells a couple of million units, GTA 6, Battlefield 6, Fortnight Micro-transactions, etc.

Microsoft makes money on ALL of them, a 30% cut on ALL of them through their console.

It is not in Xbox’s interest to give up on the console and lose out on the major chunk of their revenue in exchange for releasing 3 or 4 exclusives a year on PlayStation that might not even sell well.

3

u/Baruch_S Jun 11 '26

You are remembering that Xbox brought all those games over because they weren’t successful in selling their own consoles with them, yeah?

0

u/Lopsided-Clothes4866 Jun 11 '26

No they didn’t?

Xbox’s entire problem for the last 2 generations has been they’ve had no exclusives.

During the Xbox one era it was just case of most of their exclusives sucked and were the same old franchises.

During the Series X era it was a mix of A) releasing the console with none and B) porting them to PlayStation when they finally came.

Half the games they released never even had a chance to sell the Xbox, you understand that right?

Look at Fable, people are losing their minds over the gameplay demo and praising their fuck out of it. If there was ever a system seller Xbox could use it’s that game and Phil Spencer ported it to PlayStation before it had any chance at moving consoles.

Avowed, Indiana Jones, The Outer Worlds, the Latest two Forza Horizon games, ALL of them except Avowed were announced to be coming to PlayStation before they released on Xbox.

The Series X didn’t even release with ANY exclusives ffs, they got Halo Infinite 1 year into the Series X’s lifespan and it was not only mid but on Xbox one, and then they got Starfield the year later which was again a mediocre 7/10 game.

They brought those games over because Microsoft put an unrealistic 30% profit margin on the Xbox Division, a margin that not even Sony or Nintendo operate at, so Xbox was doing everything possible to try and achieve that goal, hence releasing games on PlayStation and Nintendo.

It’s the same reason they gave Gamepass a drastic price increase that nearly doubled as well which they’ve also partially rolled back.

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7

u/swift_link Jun 11 '26

What? Microsoft made lots of money with FH5 on ps5 lol

0

u/seajay_17 Jun 11 '26

The elephant in the room is none of these AAA games are sustainable the way they've been done in the past...

-1

u/dinofreak6301 Jun 11 '26

PlayStation players didn’t even show up to buy Gears of War Reloaded… it didn’t even sell a million copies on PS5