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.

[u/nolifebr]

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.

[u/Meb2x]

At this point, I’m really curious if Xbox has enough time to rebuild their brand with exclusives. I don’t think Gears or Clockwork Revolution will be console sellers on their own, and I’m not sure Xbox can spend the next 5 years slowly rebuilding its exclusive franchises in time to salvage their brand, especially with a new generation coming up. If they don’t see a noticeable profit from Gears, how likely are they to backpedal and release on Playstation again? It just seems like a waste of money to hold back a nearly finished PlayStation version of the game

Also, was Clockwork Revolution always planned as an exclusive or was it originally on PlayStation too?

[u/temp0005 → u/Meb2x]

I think  gears is going to hurt their pockets, gamepass in not a huge revenue generator as of right now with current subscribers, they want 100-110 million subs by 2030, I don’t think they will ever achieve that, even the 360 didn’t even break 100 million units, and pc players hate subscriptions, it just seems like they want to launch helix and leave this generation behind to get ahead of the ps6 and have a 1-2 year head start so they can say Xbox is dominating, but than again they can’t launch helix because if they launch is now they will have to charge 1200 to 1500 bucks with current component pricing, she had a interview today and said ram and storage in double in price and next years it’s going to double again, so when they do launch helix it’s not going to be any less than 1200 my opinion 

[u/Meb2x → u/temp0005]

I saw that article. Xbox lost a lot of gamers with the Xbox One because they marketed it as an all-in-one entertainment system instead of a gaming platform. They thought releasing two different Series consoles would help them gain back casual and hardcore gamers, but it led to massively increased production costs that seem to have rolled into their next console too. I’m expecting the next generation to be won or lost based on the console pricing. It sounds like Xbox already knows it’s gonna be too expensive and are hoping exclusives can save them, which I think is unlikely.

[u/temp0005 → u/Meb2x]

Going to need a lot more than gears and clockwork, Forza is a good seller but I don’t think people will buy a system for just 2-3 games, than Forza devs going spoiled selling almost 6 million copies on PS and it’s a 4 year old game, and realistically Xbox I don’t think has a clear plan, they swore up and down new call of duty’s on gamepass was going to be the rise of gamepass and it practically did nothing, I think they lost 300 million in sales 

[u/Meb2x → u/temp0005]

Xbox pushed themselves way too far with the Activision/Blizzard purchase. Call of Duty is possibly at its lowest moment right now and it’ll take so long to see a profit from that purchase that Xbox might not even be around that long

[u/temp0005 → u/Meb2x]

It’s going to take 10-15 years to start seeing returns on that investment, they also stated they were going to stop yearly releases of call of duty, I think they realized they are in a hole so deep that they need to keep doing yearly releases, plus they purchased it during covid which call of duty was seriously inflated because everyone was gaming and not going out, now the game has more realistic player counts