A Monument Of Triumph

Microsoft-Xbox’s Destiny

When Asha Sharma came in as CEO, she was tasked with one tall order: Bring Xbox back to profitability. While she made some great PR moves early on the greatest shot across the bow was bringing back Xbox exclusivity. While not all prior announced titles were cancelled on their rival platform, Gears E-Day was immediately clawed back and reserved for the Xbox and PC faithful. A bold move especially if the platform holder was to return to profitability. Limiting sales of a once popular IP on the hardware with a fraction of the market share was a serious gamble. Yet, she did it. It is suspected that many who were fans of the gears series had jumped ship during the Xbox One generation following Don Matrick’s fumbles and moved on to PlayStation. However, these once faithful masses didn’t show up for Gears Reloaded which had a poor albeit much better showing on PlayStation than Xbox. It is worth noting however that the title was offered for free for Xbox players who already owned a copy of Gears Of War Ultimate Edition. While it can be argued this was a remake, Activision’s Black Ops 1 & 2 launching on PlayStation shifted half a billion dollars in weeks. These weren’t even remakes or remasters. Simply ports. Perhaps age or nostalgia had nothing to do with the sales success or lack thereof. The Gears IP may simply be suffering from waning popularity.

The paltry sum sold via Xbox simply an indication of gamers’ mistrust of the handling of the IP by The Coalition. 

With Gears E-Day launching day one into GamePass, some have speculated that perhaps this completely cannibalised the title’s sales. While evident, it was not and is not a guarantee that the title would have been able to reach profitability sans GamePass in spite of its quality. At a rumoured cost of $400 million it would have needed to shift approximately 8 million units to be profitable. A particularly tall order. Marvel’s Wolverine did not launch day and date into PlayStation Plus but has yet to sell enough copies to recoup its budget. However, it launched to strong sales shifting approximately two million copies in a matter of days. Gears E-Day has had close to two million people play it on gamepass with only sixty two thousand purchasing it on Xbox. Multiple times that number purchased on steam yet still not enough of a shift of units to make the title profitable. Surprisingly, this doesn’t seem to be the case for all titles that launch into the service. The Forza Horizon series is currently Xbox’s most popular IP, aside for Call Of Duty, yet in spite of it being launched day and date on GamePass it made half a billion in revenue within weeks of launch. Its launch on PlayStation not a missed opportunity but rather an opportunity to seek out extra revenue.

Keeping Gears E-Day on Xbox was the right move on Asha Sharma’s part. The extra tens of millions of dollars made in premium upgrades from GamePass were great for cashflow but sadly not enough to recoup the full production budget. The paltry sum sold via Xbox simply an indication of gamers’ mistrust of the handling of the IP by The Coalition. This is not a definitive judgement call on platform exclusivity. This is far from being Asha Sharma’s red ring of death moment. However, it may be her monument of triumph. While launching with some technical issues across both consoles, the title is a technical achievement. One that has pushed Epic Games’ UnReal technology even further than previously expected. It is important to note that the IP was originally grown and cultivated by Epic games. The use of megalights technology in particular shines through on what is achievable on current generation hardware. The unique constraints of the base hardware have had the team at the Coalition come up with novel ways of handling memory ensuring that their is parity both in terms of presentation and feature set of the title across both consoles. As with Forza Horizon 5, the focus on exclusivity have enabled the team at the Coaltion to focus on Xbox’s strengths. Great controller feedback and 3D audio being particular highlights. Features that are severely compromised on PlayStation hardware for Forza Horizon 5.

This is far from being Asha Sharma’s red ring of death moment. However, it may be her monument of triumph.

Exclusives move hardware. Xbox may have traded sure sales for profitability during the previous regime but losing their identity as a console maker may lose them the next console generation. It will be irresponsible for the current crop of leadership to throw in the towel and admit defeat while the next generation is yet to be birthed. Nintendo switched things around from the cataclysmic failure of the Wii U by delivering the second most viable console of all time in the generation that followed. Miss Sharma and her team need to stick to their guns and realise that this is a season for planting. One in which greatness is conceived. Helix may be their next great harvest if they can weather the waves of constant criticism from internauters, a majority of whom who were never going to purchase their titles anyway. When the dust settles and the fog of war lifts. Gears E-Day may stand tall as their monument of triumph. The right decision made at the right time.

Images in order of appearance: Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay; Image by b0red from Pixabay