Gears of War: E-Day exclusivity hasn’t helped Xbox: console sales continue to fall, says well-known analyst

A good project that makes fans of the series very happy, yet likes and laudatory comments on social media just aren't converting into cash in Microsoft’s bank accounts.

Microsoft’s decision to keep Gears of War: E-Day exclusive to Xbox and PC has not yet yielded noticeable results. According to The Game Business, returning to a console exclusivity strategy has not helped improve the brand’s standing, and Xbox sales continue to decline.

Earlier, Xbox head Asha Sharma announced the company’s return to releasing exclusive games for its own platforms. Under the previous leadership of Phil Spencer, many Microsoft projects were also released on PlayStation 5 — in particular, Halo: Campaign Evolved. However, the new strategy suggests that several upcoming releases, including Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution, will remain on PC and Xbox Series X|S consoles.

At the same time, Gears of War: E-Day could have originally received a PS5 version. Microsoft accidentally published a trailer mentioning the Sony console, and the game itself, according to available data, was undergoing age classification for that platform. Furthermore, the existence of a virtually finished version for PS5 was reported.

However, moving away from a multiplatform release has not yet helped stop the decline in hardware sales. In the UK, Xbox console sales in October fell by 22% compared to the same period of the previous year. Circana analyst Mat Piscatella also noted that the situation in the US market continues to worsen.

According to him, Microsoft’s actions are praised by the most dedicated part of the audience on social media, but so far this has not translated into noticeable commercial results.