Microsoft Addresses Xbox AAA Exclusives Criticism

Following the Xbox One X (aka Project Scorpio) reveal at E3 last month, Microsoft received criticism for its perceived lack of new AAA exclusives. In terms of big names, only Forza Motorsport 7 debuted. No Halo and no Gears of War for the first time in years. Instead, we got Crackdown, Sea of Thieves, and State of Decay 2. All interesting titles, but lacking that blockbuster punch. Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg, though, thinks the criticism is unfair.

“We Showed Everything”

According to Greenberg, Microsoft is damned if it does, damned if it doesn’t. Instead of aiming for a certain demographic, Microsoft just showed “everything” at E3, Greenberg says. He told GamerTagRadio:

“We felt like we showed a lot of great AAA games. It’s tough because if you show too many AAA games, people are gonna be like ‘oh man, all you’re showing us are big blockbusters, we want to see more variety and diversity’. We just showed everything. But, with that said, largely what we showed was games that are going to launch between now and E3 next year.

Take our first party stuff. Forza will be out, Crackdown will be out. Sea of Thieves, Super Lucky’s Tale, State of Decay 2 – all will be launching before E3 next year. So, we showed you big blockbuster exclusives that you will be able to play over the next year. In addition to Assassin’s Creed this holiday. In addition to a great variety of all those great indie titles that are coming out, like Cuphead. And that’s an exclusive.”

In fact, Microsoft is proud not to have Halo and Gears of War at E3, Greenberg asserts:

“I think we’re kind of proud to be able to come to E3 and show our largest and most diverse games lineup and not have Gears and Halo.”

New Exclusives Coming Soon?

Greenberg did suggest, though, that current Gears of War developer The Coalition is working on new content. Greenberg said:

“It’s an incredibly talented team up there. We pivoted that team to go focus on Gears and brought Rod Ferguson in, co-creator of that franchise. You guys played Gears 4, I assume? Incredible campaign. They did a great job with versus, great job with Horde mode. So that team is focused on the Gears franchise going forward.”