Layden: Xbox Must Pick a Lane on Exclusives

Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden said on The Expansion Pass podcast that Xbox needs to pick a lane between being a platform with exclusives and being the biggest publisher. He argued that a platform needs exclusives or else the platform has no meaning, and said Xbox's current woes come from its inability to commit to exclusives.

Layden called the situation Xbox's Dreamcast moment and advised picking a lane. He added that Xbox CEO Asha Sharma seems to be trying to right the ship in recent months.

The comments come after a period in which Microsoft, under Phil Spencer's tenure as head of Xbox, went from releasing almost all of its games exclusively on PC and Xbox consoles to becoming a sort-of third-party publisher, with games like Starfield and Halo: Campaign Evolved coming to PS5.

Since her appointment at the start of the year, Sharma kicked off a corporate restructure that will result in 3,200 lost jobs. She also signed Hideo Kojima's Physint and bought back some console exclusives with Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution.

Sharma recently shot down speculation about Microsoft selling Xbox and said she wants to course correct whatever it takes. The next-gen Project Helix sounds like it's still going ahead.