Xbox CEO reviews first-party exclusives, Microsoft’s next move remains undecided

Xbox’s next exclusives move still isn’t settled, and that matters because the business is already showing strain. Xbox revenue has declined in four of the past six quarters, while Asha Sharma is reviewing whether first-party games should stay tied to hardware, spread wider, or settle into some hybrid in-between.

Sharma, who moved to Xbox in February 2026 after Phil Spencer announced his retirement, is taking a cautious line. She has been evaluating multiple options after hearing concerns in a recent town hall, and she has told employees she wants to make the “right decision” rather than the fastest one. She has framed the issue as a long-term call with decade-scale consequences, which is exactly why this debate reaches far beyond one launch window or one holiday sales cycle.

The uncertainty lands on top of a major shift Microsoft already made in 2024. Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond, and Matt Booty said at the time that Xbox would bring four games to other platforms without changing its core exclusivity strategy. The titles were Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Grounded, and Sea of Thieves, and Xbox said those games had already been available to Xbox players for at least a year before the multiplatform release plan. Spencer also said exclusive games tied to one piece of hardware would become a smaller part of the industry over the next five to 10 years.

That earlier move made Xbox’s position harder to read. Microsoft talked about bringing more games to more players, but it also insisted there was “no fundamental change” to its exclusivity approach and “no promise beyond” those four titles. That is the tension Sharma now inherits. If first-party games keep showing up on PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC, then Xbox starts to look less like a closed platform and more like a distribution layer for Microsoft games. If the company draws a harder line around some releases, then hardware and Game Pass regain some of the leverage they have lost.

The financial backdrop helps explain why the choice is still open. Microsoft said gaming revenue rose 9% in fiscal 2025, driven by Xbox content and services, even as revenue trends inside Xbox stayed uneven. Sharma is also overhauling the leadership team, a sign that Microsoft wants tighter execution while it decides how far to push its multiplatform strategy. For players, the real issue is simple: whether buying into Xbox still buys access to a distinct ecosystem, or just first access to Microsoft’s next game before it goes everywhere else.