Which Microsoft first-party games will be Xbox console exclusives? Which ones will eventually come to PlayStation 5? More than two years into this unprecedented experiment, it’s harder to know than ever.
The company revealed during its big summer showcase on June 7 that Gears of War: E-Day will not come to PS5 after all, despite a port of the game reportedly already existing on a drive somewhere at The Coalition’s offices. Clockwork Revolution, an upcoming RPG from inXile Entertainment, which Microsoft acquired in 2018, will be an Xbox console exclusive as well.
But Fable is still coming to PS5. And Senua, the l latest game in the Hellblade franchise from Ninja Theory, which was just announced during today’s showcase, will be multiplatform as well. Even State of Decay 3 is coming to PS5. What exactly is going on here? How is Microsoft deciding what to make exclusive and what not to keep off Sony’s rival console platform?
“We want people to choose XBOX because of great games and experiences,” new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma wrote on X after the showcase wrapped up. “That also means giving you something that was made for XBOX. Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution will be XBOX console exclusives!”
Microsoft elaborated on this philosophy ever so slighting in a new Xbox Wire blog post by the blog’s editor, Joe Skrebels. “These are not timed exclusives,” he wrote, referring to both Gears and Clockwork. “Games already announced for multiplatform releases will stick to that plan – we’re committed to investing in and growing XBOX both on console and beyond.”
The obvious takeaway here is that Xbox is going back to the drawing board when it comes to exclusivity. That’s understandable. There are new people in charge and they will have different ideas about what to prioritize and how to grow and maintain a successful gaming platform in 2026 than their predecessors.
But reading between the lines it seems like Xbox is embarking on another experiment to see if a few exclusives here and there can retain the good will of its hardcore fanbase while games that those fans care less about, like Senua, or that have a better chance of resonating with a PlayStation fanbase, like Fable, stick with the multiplatform approach.
The big question now is what this means for the future of Halo. While Halo: Campaign Evolved was already announced for PS5, and thus sticking to that promise, it’s unclear what this evolving position will mean for the previous claim that Halo will be on PlayStation “going forward.”
Update 6/7/2026, 5:40 p.m. ET: Microsoft’s chief content officer Matt Booty elaborated on the company’s increasingly complex relationship to exclusivity in a preview following the showcase with Gamertag Radio. He clarified that platforms will always be announced alongside release dates leaving no room for confusion as to what consoles a game might eventually be available on. But as for how those platforms get decided in the first place, he says it’s still going to be on a case-by-case basis.
“[We] want people to have a reason to get on board with Xbox,” Booty said. “We want them to have a reason to buy an Xbox reason to be an Xbox fan. At the same time we want to reward all our players that have been with us for a long time. We know that exclusives are important. That’s why we got Gears coming in 2026, Clockwork in 2027.”
He continued, “We also want to be clear, our big multiplayer games, live service, games are going to continue to be multiplatform. If we’ve promised something to players already, we’re going to honor that promise, right? And then we’re going to really, I think Asha said it, we’re going to make the right decision, not the fast decision.
“We’re going to keep thinking about this going forward. And I think you guys know as well as anybody that our principle is when we announce a date, we want to announce the platforms. So, it’s going to be case by case, but we’re going to be clear that when it’s got a date, it’s got a platform and you’ll know uh what the choice is going to be.”
