New Xbox boss keeps saying all the right things as Game Pass price drop teased

Asha Sharma has already acknowledged the demand for a return to Xbox exclusives and now it’s claimed to be something the company is seriously considering.

There was plenty of scepticism going around when Asha Sharma took over from Phil Spencer as head of Xbox, back in February, given she has zero experience working in the video games industry and only joined Microsoft in 2024, as president of the company’s CoreAI project.

Most surprisingly, she openly acknowledged fans’ demands for Xbox to return to making console exclusives and although she’s never confirmed anything, it’s claimed that is something that Xbox is seriously discussing.

During a recent appearance on the Xbox Two podcast, Corden claimed, ‘there are very very very big discussions about the exclusivity stuff going on’ internally at Xbox.

Expert, exclusive gaming analysis

Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more.

Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning.

‘I think they do recognise the value,’ said Corden, ‘It’s just about what type of company do you want to be at the end of the day?

… Do you want to be an ecosystem company first or do you want to be a publishing company first?’
It’s hard to imagine Microsoft reneging on its push for multiplatform releases and while there was pushback from the diehard Xbox crowd, when the shift in strategy was announced in 2024, Microsoft has found a lot of success with releasing its games on PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.

Forza Horizon 5 and Indiana Jones And The Great Circle saw strong PlayStation 5 launches last year, making Microsoft the top publisher on both the PlayStation and Xbox stores.

The decision to bring even Halo, once the most prestigious Xbox franchise, to PlayStation 5 feels like the death knell for Xbox exclusives and near the end of 2024, Corden himself said, based on what he heard at the time, that the era of permanent Xbox exclusives was over.

Later in the podcast, Corden acknowledged ‘it’s hard to fight against the spreadsheet,’ but pointed out that Sony is still pumping out exclusives (they’re even reportedly pulling back from PC ports) even after Helldivers 2 was ported to Xbox and proved popular.

‘They can see that games will sell on Xbox and not detract from PlayStation necessarily on the spreadsheet, but… you lose prestige when you do it.

… PlayStation knows it, Nintendo knows it, and some people at Xbox know it,’ said Corden.

If there is such a debate within Xbox to return to exclusives, it’s likely a fierce one, that invites a lot of risk, especially as people are already accustomed to Xbox games releasing on PlayStation 5 and doing so would cut off a revenue stream for Microsoft.

Don't miss Gaming news!

Add us as a Preferred Source

As a loyal GameCentral reader, we want to make sure you never miss our articles when searching for gaming stories.

We have all the latest video games news, reviews, previews, and interviews, with a vibrant community of highly engaged readers.

Click the button below and tick Metro.co.uk to ensure you see stories from us first in Google Search.

Add us as a Preferred Source
No matter what happens with exclusives, Sharma seems to be saying all the right things so far.

She’s vowed to have no ‘soulless AI slop’ in Xbox games, she killed the much maligned ‘This is an Xbox’ marketing slogan, and, more recently, acknowledging that Xbox Game Pass has grown too expensive.

This could imply Sharma and her team are looking into bringing Game Pass’ price back down following last year’s price hike.

In a separate podcast, Corden suggested this could involve removing Call Of Duty from the service, which would be quite the upset considering getting the series on Game Pass was one of the major reasons for Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

As it is, not only did Call Of Duty not make Game Pass more popular, but Call Of Duty itself has seen a sharp decline since then – although that might be coincidental.

The series is bleeding players and being on Game Pass has eaten into the series’ sales performance.

‘Revenue was down because Call Of Duty revenue was down, and Call Of Duty is not exclusive,’ said Corden.

Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.

For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.