Microsoft hates the idea of console exclusives. According to company CEO Satya Nadalla, he would do away completely with the idea of games being exclusive to the Xbox platform and has blamed Sony for defining the industry with exclusive games.
In the latest FTC hearings, Nadalla says that Sony is the dominant player and responsible for how the market has evolved. He claims that Microsoft has had no option but to adapt to the way the industry works now and that means buying up studios and releasing console exclusives.
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Nadalla says that if it was up to him, he wouldn’t have any exclusives on consoles and throw the whole idea of them away.
“If it was up to me I would love to get rid of the entire exclusives on consoles, but that’s not for me to define especially as a low share player in the console market. The dominant player there [Sony] has defined market competition using exclusives, so that’s the world we live in. I have no love for that world.”
Console exclusives have been a thing for a very long time now. Even before Sony had invested in its own studios, Microsoft also had exclusives on its previous Xbox platforms. The entire Xbox ecosystem was built on exclusives such as Halo and Gears of War before being ported over to PC much later.
Nintendo is also a heavy competitor when it comes to exclusive titles. The company has always been this way. The majority of the Nintendo lineup since the original NES has included exclusive titles only playable on a Nintendo device. This was even before the Xbox brand existed.
