Xbox president: Exclusives are antiquated, gamers have evolved way past that

Xbox president Sarah Bond lays out the future of Xbox, reiterating Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's comments about game exclusivity: "I have no love for that world."

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Xbox is done with exclusives. That felt like a clear observation to most fans when, in February 2024, Microsoft brought four Xbox exclusive games to PlayStation and Nintendo platforms. That Pandora's Box moment has grown, and Xbox opened the gates on its games, breaking down the walls of platform exclusivity for good and all. The plan has worked so far, as Forza Horizon 5 became a big hit on PS5 thanks to stored up FOMO.

So where does that leave Xbox? Prepare for more of the same, just magnified. Executive management re-confirms that exclusives are essentially gone at Microsoft, with Xbox president Sarah Bond going so far as to say that exclusives are "antiquated" in a recent interview with Mashable's Timothy Beck Werth.

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Below is a transcription of the interview Q&A exchange:

(Timothy Beck Werth) "We haven't really talked about games. I know exclusives have been less of a focus it seems like with Xbox, we're getting more cross-platform games. Where do big blockbuster exclusives fit into this, if at all? Or is it kind of evolving past that place?"

(Sarah Bond)"We're seeing people evolve way past that. The biggest games in the world are available everywhere. You look at Call of Duty, Minecraft, Fortnite, Roblox, [those games are] actually what's really driving community in gaming. That's where people gather, where they have experiences.

"The idea of locking it to one store or one device is antiquated for most people. You want to be able to play with your friends anywhere regardless of what platform they're on."