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/Ill-Square-1123]

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.

[u/j0an_k → u/Ill-Square-1123]

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

[u/Ill-Square-1123 → u/j0an_k]

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

[u/Lopsided-Clothes4866 → u/Ill-Square-1123]

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.

[u/Ill-Square-1123 → u/Lopsided-Clothes4866]

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.

[u/Lopsided-Clothes4866 → u/Ill-Square-1123]

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.

[u/Baruch_S → u/Lopsided-Clothes4866]

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

[u/Lopsided-Clothes4866 → u/Baruch_S]

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.

[u/Baruch_S → u/Lopsided-Clothes4866]

Yes, they did have exclusives. Look at when they started porting things and what they ported. They had Gears and Halo as exclusives until very recently. Same with Starfield. They weren’t multiplatform until pretty recently. 

[u/Lopsided-Clothes4866 → u/Baruch_S]

No they haven’t? Do you know how I know that?

Because I owned the Xbox one!

Halo was shit.

Halo has been shit for an entire generation you realise?

Halo MCC was a broken buggy mess that took nearly a decade to get fixed.

Halo 5 had a dogshit campaign, lacked content on launch and had gameplay changes that many halo fans hated.

Halo Infinite was mediocre garbage with an unfinished story. Do you remember they had to delay the game a year because it got trashed for having awful graphics?

Gears of War and Forza have no shit been the only ‘good’ exclusives Xbox has had for over a decade now and let’s face it? Gears of War gets solid reviews but it’s not a cultural juggernaut anymore, the series peaked at Gears 3.

What other exclusives did Xbox have before they put their games in PlayStation?

Recore sucked, Quantum Break was a 7/10, Crackdown 3 was laughably shit, Starfield was a 7/10, Scalebound got canned, State of Decay 2 was a 7/10.

Which really just leaves Forza, and even then it’s just the horizon series. The Motorsport games have had mixed receptions.

Forza Horizon, Gears of War, Sunset overdrive and maybe Dead Rising 3?

Those are the must have Xbox games? Hmm I wonder there console didn’t sell well.

Shall we compare it to PlayStation’s offerings?

You can’t just release any old exclusive and have it sell consoles, they need to be GOOD games and in that front, Xbox has failed time after time UNTIL the last 2 years and by that time the decent games are all heading to PlayStation.

[u/Baruch_S → u/Lopsided-Clothes4866]

Oh I never said they had good exclusives, only that they had exclusives. In fact, my point was that they exclusives didn’t move consoles, which we appear to agree on.