Many were surprised to learn that Gears of War: E-Day would be an Xbox console exclusive on its release and skip PlayStation 5, but the series’ original creator believes this is a wise move by the platform holder.
It had been assumed that the upcoming Gears prequel would also launch on PS5, given last year’s revamped edition of the original game – known as Gears of War: Reloaded – had been released across both consoles. Additionally, until recently Xbox had been making many of its first party titles available across multiple console platforms. The likes of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Sea of Thieves have both proven popular on PlayStation, specifically.
Despite this though, newly-appointed CEO Asha Sharma kicked off Sunday’s Xbox Games Showcase with the announcement that E-Day would be an Xbox console exclusive on its release this October, and Gears of War creator Cliff ‘CliffyB’ Bleszinski believes this is a smart move.
“As much as I’m happy to see Microsoft previously embracing ‘the more the merrier’ [approach], I think it may have hurt their loyal tribal fanbase’s perception of the brand,” Bleszinski told Eurogamer. As a reminder, in August last year, Bleszinski said he was “thrilled” that more people would be able to experience the original Gears game on PlayStation, but this was when Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond were still in charge at Xbox.
Continuing, Bleszinski noted that since Sharma’s appointment in February of this year, Xbox has been “steadily trying to win” back its core fanbase, and console exclusives are a part of that strategy. “E-day looks fantastic and the reception has been great so it seems like they’re steering the ‘ship’ back in the right direction,” he said in closing.
Since her appointment, Sharma has been making a number of changes at Xbox, including cutting the price of Game Pass by taking Call of Duty out of the service. Earlier this month, Sharma spoke about the company’s stance on exclusivity for first-party games, stating she is aware that platforms “need” exclusive content, but also that successful publishers need to reach players everywhere they can. As Sharma continues work on fixing the Xbox brand image, there is a growing call from the BDS movement to boycott the gaming platform due to parent company Microsoft’s reported complicity in Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian population and state.
As for Gears of War: E-Day, it will include Versus and Horde Mode when it arrives on 6th October, via PC and Xbox Series X/S. It will not be coming to PlayStation, as neither it or Clockwork Revolution are timed Xbox exclusives.
