The big problem with the Xbox One – which is an exacerbation of a historical problem Xbox has always had – is its utter lack of compelling exclusives at this point. Very few games remain to convince people who don’t already own an Xbox to pick one up- in fact, the Switch will, in nine months, get more exclusives than the Xbox One has had in the last two years put together.
But how does Shannon Loftis, who heads up Publishing for first-party games for Microsoft and Xbox, feel about the criticism of the Xbox exclusives lineup? Speaking to GameSpot, she defended the lineup of games, saying she is confident of the games available right now, and that more games are coming in the future.
“I think our offering is good and it is solid. I definitely hear that gamers want more. Would we love to have two-dozen more super-strong, absolutely exclusives? You bet,” Loftis said. “We do have more coming; more that are in the works that we’re not talking about now. But I feel good about what we have to offer for the launch [of Xbox One X].”
She also addressed the criticism that Xbox Play Anywhere undermines the value of exclusives on the console, stating that making good games available to more players shouldn’t be perceived as a bad thing whatsoever. “Regarding [Xbox Play Anywhere] and games being available on PC, I may be out in left field but I do not see how offering games on more platforms to more gamers is a bad thing necessarily, particularly in a multiplayer scenario,” she said.
That said, she did say that she is aware of how some people feel about the state of Xbox’s exclusives lineup. “I don’t want to disregard the feelings of the people that care deeply about exclusives for Xbox …” she said.
Whether or not this is going to be an issue addressed by Microsoft is one that remains to be seen. I don’t think there is anything wrong with going for a ‘console exclusives’ strategy via Play Anywhere, that’s not the problem- the problem is that even with that strategy, Microsoft isn’t offering much right now at all. Hopefully the coming year shows us a difference in the exclusives lineup for Xbox One.
