Xbox leadership shook up its strategy this week with the announcement that upcoming games “Gears of War: E-Day” and “Clockwork Revolution” would be exclusive to Xbox consoles and PCs.

Following years of Xbox breaking down platform barriers for its games with competitors PlayStation and Nintendo under longtime chief Phil Spencer, the move was a radical change by new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma.

“We want to give Xbox players a reason to believe in Xbox, a reason to buy an Xbox, be an Xbox fan. We also want to reward the people who’ve been with us and have been loyal,” Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty told Variety in an interview following Xbox’s show Sunday. “So we’re doing one this year in 2026, going to do one next year in 2027, and then we’re going to continue to think about it going forward.”

Booty continued: “I think you’ve heard Asha say before, we want to make the right decision, not a fast decision. So, as we have the chance to think about the strategy overall and continue to look at it, it’s going to be case by case. Our big multiplayer games, our big live service games are going to continue to be multiplatform. The games that we’ve already announced coming to fans, and we’ve already announced for other platforms, of course, we’re going to honor that. We don’t want to ever take something away from players, but those are the two that we’re doing.”

Read more from Variety‘s interview with Xbox chief content officer Booty below.

You’ve said one exclusive game this year with “Gears of War: E-Day,” one next year with “Clockwork Revolution.” Is it concrete that there will be only one exclusive next year, or is there room for that to change?

In my life, I think, ahead about 12 months. So I’m here to tell you about what we’re doing with those two. But we’re going to continue to look at it going forward. And consistent with what we’ve done before, we’re not going to reveal decisions about platforms when we haven’t announced a date yet. So, if you follow what we’ve done, when we date something is when we’ll talk about platform exclusivity.

Before this year’s showcase, fan discourse started regarding Xbox’s decision to feature competitors’ logos during its presentations. What was your reaction to that conversation and what do you mean to do moving forward?

One, we want clarity. I think players want to know, where are you going to play the game? What platforms? And that includes our own. Is it Gen 8? Is it Gen 9? We’ve got X Cloud, we’ve got Series S and X. We have Xbox PCs. We have a lot, so the first principle is just clarity. Then we also know that this is an Xbox show, and Xbox fans want to feel like it’s their show. And I think we’ll be able to, going forward, find that right balance.

There was no “Blade” in this year’s showcase. I was hoping for “Blade.” When will we see “Blade”?

It’s a big show, I can’t fit everything in. It’s a big show, and there’s other beats coming up in the year.

So there’s potential to hear something later?

There’s always potential to hear more about things that didn’t show up today.

I’m assuming there are also conversations going on about what you could announce during the actual 25th anniversary of Xbox in the fall. Is there anything coming down the pipe for that that you saved from today?

Well, nothing I can share, nothing I can talk about. But it is a big year for us. Just when you think about not only 25th anniversary for Xbox, but 35 years for Blizzard, 40 years for Bethesda. I think it’s great that we were able to open the show with “Gears,” “Fable,” “Halo,” and we’re having such success right now with “Forza.” These are things that we have been playing with Xbox for a decade or more. It’s just so great to have that iconic IP anchored so heavily with the brand and with the 25 years. I mean, there aren’t a whole lot of consumer brands that can say they’re celebrating a 25 year anniversary that have this pop culture relevance. So I think it’s just a great reflection of the brand, of what Xbox means to fans, and of our portfolio of IP.

We all saw this coming, but it was actually set this week with PlayStation’s “State of Play” and announcements out of Summer Game Fest and now Showcase, that it’s going to be a very crowded September for video game releases, based on date decisions impacted by “Grand Theft Auto 6” coming out in November. What are your thoughts on that — and that it spring 2027 is also shaping up to be crowded as the other main alternative here?

I just will take that as a reflection of good for the industry and good for players, right? There’s a lot to play, there’s a lot of excitement. I think all these games, it just shows that we’ve got an industry with a lot of active development. At the end of the day, it’s great for players.

I think for us, we’ve got a lot of confidence in “Gears.” And we really want to get behind the teams, and part of that madness in the machine is trying to figure out where everything makes the most sense. The further things are out, probably the less predictable they get. But we also feel really good about moving “Fable” to early next year, just to give that one a window. With “Gears” coming out this fall, we’ve got to be in it to win it, right? So let’s get in there. It’s going to be a lot going on, but I think we’ve got a great game. And with “Fable,” we really want to give that one room for everybody to play it and discover it.

How much of this year’s Xbox Game Showcase was decided before Asha Sharma took over for Phil Spencer, and how much was set afterwards?

There’s phases to it. So, in terms of putting together the trailers, working with the teams, the timing of what’s ready to show in relation to when it’s going to ship, we start working on that in December [of the year before.] And Asha joined in February. So at that point, in terms of which games are candidates — because we always have more to show than we decide to put in the show — was locked down. But then she joined the process and has been with it since early March. And that’s when we start getting into, OK, which ones are in? We’ve always got more, what makes the most sense? And we start thinking about the ordering, we start thinking about what assets, which trailers make the most sense where, we write the script, we record our parts. So she’s been with it for the last four months.

What has that partnership been like for you? And how much are you collaborating at this point versus informing her on how things have previously been done?

She’s great to work with, brings a lot of energy, a lot of excitement, a lot of curiosity, a lot of willingness to revisit things that maybe we might not have looked at before, which is fantastic. A very collaborative leader, which is great. And I feel on my part there is a responsibility. I think a lot of people that have been with Xbox for a while want to make sure that she gets up to speed on some of the nuance of the industry, some of the nuance of game production, and some of the nuance of how these things come together. And there’s a lot of people around that can help with that. At the same time, we don’t want to be too heavy with the history lesson, because she is very squarely focused on moving forward.

How much are you talking with the film and TV division to try and work through what the best timing is for certain releases? There’s a “Call of Duty” movie in the works at Paramount with Taylor Sheridan — is there potential for a new “Call of Duty” game in the next few years to try and line up with whatever that movie is?

If there’s any game that has the best chance of doing the impossible, it would be “Call of Duty,” because they ship every year. So at the most, they’ll be 11 months off.

It’s hard. Game production has always got an amount of variability to it, and film production has always got an amount of variability, in terms of when it gets started and when it kicks off. They tend to be in incubation for quite a while. So our goal is more that the linear and the game are complementary. We’ve heard a lot about “Fallout,” and there are people who enjoyed the show, never played the game, had no idea what it was and they want to make sure that there’s a place for them to go if they like this world and want to keep going.

So it’s more about making sure that there is an active part of that world and that universe for fans to go enjoy, rather than trying to sort of stick some landing where the two line up exactly. It’s just really, really tough.

I know if Todd Howard gets asked about “Elder Scrolls 6” again, he’s gonna die — but during the presentation every time Bethesda’s logo came up, there was a catch in the audience and then people settled down when they saw what it was each time — which wasn’t “Elder Scrolls 6.” How do you deal with that aspect of it, given that there are so many fans who are so excited for whatever that announcement is going to be, but you’re also dealing with disappointment when people have it in their head what it could be?

I would say one of the more challenging balancing acts of someone in a job like mine is balancing that you want to go show the world all the cool stuff you’re working on, and you want to get them excited early, but we also know that we want to wait till the right moment. And when you decide to show it, you want it to be the best you’ve got. And also that when you show the game, you’re also giving them a promise of, hey, it’s coming soon. So I can tell you, having visited Bethesda and sat with Todd and seen “Elder Scrolls” playing, it looks amazing, and it’s coming along well. And we’ll make sure to announce it and really reveal it at the right time.

This interview has been edited and condensed.