Rhys Elliott, an analyst at Alinea Analytics, believes that relying on exclusives is no longer capable of changing Xbox's position in the console market.
The Xbox console business, in the traditional sense, has been effectively dead for a long time. It's impossible to turn this ship around.
According to Elliott, projects like Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution become a kind of "sacrificial lambs" that are designed to maintain the brand's image but are unable to significantly increase sales of Xbox Series X consoles.
The analyst noted that exclusivity is no longer an effective tool for stimulating hardware sales for Microsoft, as the Xbox audience does not respond actively enough to such initiatives. In addition, games are simultaneously released on Steam, which further reduces the value of exclusivity for the Xbox console itself.
Elliott also believes that a PlayStation 5 version of Gears of War: E-Day was likely in development, and he called the decision not to show Halo materials at the recent PlayStation State of Play presentation a symbolic step that could negatively affect relations between the companies and Microsoft's potential revenue.
According to his forecast, if financial indicators show that abandoning the PlayStation audience does not pay off, Microsoft may reconsider its position again.