Microsoft’s attempts to win back consumers by making Gears of War: E-Day an exclusive has not panned out so far, according to industry analysis.
New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s “reset,” including a return to console exclusivity for Gears, “seems to be getting Twitter likes from the most passionate part of their fan base,” according to Circana’s Mat Piscatella in a recent video for The Game Business, “but other than that, in terms of actual results, I’m not seeing anything right now.”
While E-Day is critically acclaimed with an 87 Metacritic rating (I scored it a 9 for Destructoid myself), it likely hasn’t translated to the sales Microsoft was hoping for. According to The Verge, it’s sold over 400,000 copies while being available on Game Pass. And none of that has made a dent when it comes to selling consoles, either.
“Saying Gears is going to be exclusive hasn’t made any difference in terms of the hardware trend,” Piscatella said. “In fact, it keeps getting worse. And Gears is a gorgeous game. That is a Gears-ass Gears of War game. But by making it exclusive, you chop the legs out from under its potential as an individual title in order to boost your platform, and at least in the short term, it hasn’t made a difference.”
So far, Xbox’s “exclusivity as a selling point” after years of its confusing “This is an Xbox” marketing hasn’t done much when it comes to getting Xbox hardware off shelves, which is also understandable given we’re approaching the end of this generation. But on the other side of the aisle, a PS5 exclusive in Marvel’s Wolverine has been paying off for the competitor despite its mixed reviews (75 on Metacritic), according to Piscatella.
“If you look at the weekly sales cadence of accessories and hardware, the Wolverine DualSense was the bestselling accessory of the month,” Piscatella said. “The [console] bundle sold out. There weren’t huge quantities, but that really helped boost PlayStation 5 sales that particular week. In terms of an old-school, ‘here’s an exclusive game and we’re going to sell some consoles and some accessories with it,’ I think it’s about as good as you could hope from an IP that isn’t the level of Spider-Man.”
There’s no doubt that the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6 release is also helping to sell consoles for PlayStation, which is being marketed as the “best” place to play the highly anticipated sequel. The game is also available on Xbox, though, and hardware sales fell 14 percent year-over-year last quarter, according to Microsoft itself, but Sharma said it has to do with not being able to meet demand.
I’m bored of console wars in general and wish that all games were multiplatform. But if you’re using exclusivity as a selling point and it’s not working, at what point do you pivot again?
