Although there had been rumours beforehand, it was obviously big news when it was announced during the Xbox Games Showcase that Gears of War: E-Day would be an exclusive title, but the fact is that it isn't the only one, as Inxile's role-playing game Clockwork Revolution was also confirmed to be an Xbox exclusive.
Apparently, confirming exactly two games was very important. Xbox Head of Strategy Matthew Ball explains this in an interview with The Game Business founder Christopher Dring (transcription via Resetera):
"We could have announced Clockwork was going to be exclusive later at the end of the year, when we got closer and closer to the 25th anniversary. We could have kicked off 2027 by talking about that as an exclusive. It was important for us to include two titles so that people understood this was not a one-off. It was not commemorative. We were not saying, 'It's our 25th anniversary, it's Gears' 20th anniversary, we're returning to Xbox, here's an exclusive.'"
Instead, he explains, this should be seen as the start of something entirely new. Exclusive games will be a thing from now on, and there is a detailed strategy in place:
"This is the start of a program. And players can expect a reliable pipeline that validates their historical investment in the Xbox platform, keeps them as Xbox players going forward, and everyone in the industry understands that exclusives are important to the growth and branding of that platform."
Ball also adds that much may seem unclear today, but a policy is in place so the Xbox team will know which games will be Xbox exclusives, and the goal is for this to be significantly clearer for everyone going forward:
"We know what those are going to have to be. We know how we're going to make those decisions. We know how we're going to be evaluated against those decisions. But what's important there is that framework has to be external eventually."
Microsoft is expected to participate in Gamescom in August and will hold its own event in conjunction with the Xbox 25th anniversary in November, and hopefully we'll learn more then.
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