- Gears of War: E-Day creative director Matt Searcy says the game “makes a lot of sense” as an Xbox exclusive
- He confirms that The Coalition “never talked about this coming to PS5”
- Meanwhile, two developers for Halo: Campaign Evolved and Fable are “excited” about branching out to multiple platforms
Xbox games coming to other platforms has been an intriguing concept and process to witness from the outside. There have been ebbs and flows, reports of this and that, and recently an interesting move back to console exclusivity for two titles, as per that recent Xbox Games Showcase earlier in June.
We had the chance to speak to multiple Xbox Game Studios teams at an event adjacent to this year’s Summer Game Fest 2026 after the showcase had streamed and found that there was a stark difference of opinion between some of the developers on being an Xbox exclusive or embracing being on multiple rival platforms.
For example, the Coalition creative director Matt Searcy believes making Gears of War: E-Day an Xbox exclusive was the best decision — something not all Xbox Game Studios teams are aligned on.
According to Searcy, it feels right in the case of Gears of War, and the studio never talked about it going to other platforms. “Well, we never talked about it going to PS5; it was announced as an [Xbox] exclusive,” Searcy said. “I would say that Gears as an exclusive makes a ton of sense to me, thinking about how tightly […] Gears has been tied to the Xbox brand [for] its entire life.”
He went on to say that, “It’s kind of an honor, and I think excitement to be like one of the best Xbox flagship titles. As a developer, of course, it’s awesome to have people play our games, but we’re Xbox fans.”
When asked about missing out on a potential player base and the effect it might have had on hypothetical multiplayer numbers, he went on to say that “we’re not too concerned about the size of the audience.”
While…
