Xbox One Exec Responds to PS4 Price Cut, Losing Call of Duty DLC Exclusivity

Following the PlayStation 4 price cut earlier this month, Sony's console and Microsoft's Xbox One are now offered at the same $350 starting price. Going into the holiday season, Microsoft no longer has the price advantage, but this doesn't worry Xbox marketing executive Aaron Greenberg.

He tells GameSpot in a new interview that games drive console sales and boasts that Microsoft has the best lineup in its history with titles like Halo 5: Guardians and Rise of the Tomb Raider. Even if it's not enough to outsell the PS4, Greenberg said he's confident that the Xbox One can remain "competitive" with Sony's console this holiday.

"For us, since frankly since we've been in this business, we've really focused on over-delivering on value," Greenberg said. "And so I think you saw that with the Xbox 360 generation where we focused on delivering great value for our fans; we continue to do that. We've been pretty aggressive both in pricing and what we're doing with our games lineup and with great choice of bundles. So we feel really happy with where we're at.

"And we think we'll continue to be competitive this holiday in our top markets with the offerings that we have," he added. "We know that games [are] what drive console sales, and we have games and we have the greatest games lineup in the history of our business. So we feel good about putting that out there and letting fans respond based on the type of games we're bringing to the market."

"We know that games [are] what drive console sales, and we have games and we have the greatest games lineup in the history of our business" -- Greenberg

One major multiplatform game this holiday, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, is coming to Xbox One with a different arrangement than in years past. As announced at E3, all Black Ops III DLC will launch first on PlayStation consoles, not Xbox systems--but Greenberg still expects Black Ops III to perform well on Xbox One. He also notes that the arrangement Sony has with Activision, like the one Microsoft formerly had, is only for timed-exclusivity.

"We expect Black Ops III to be a really big title for us this year just like it has been in previous years," he said. "The fact is that there is no content in Call of Duty that we don't get. The fact is if you want to play Call of Duty and Halo, you're gonna want to do that on Xbox One. If you want to play Call of Duty and Halo and Tomb Raider or Forza or any of the seven big exclusives we have this holiday, you're only going to be able to do that on our box.

"With that said, we know a lot of fans will play Call of Duty on other platforms. And we're sure Activision will have great success with the title," he added. "That's great for the industry overall. But our focus is making sure that our Xbox fans have all the best games, and I think we're delivering that with Call of Duty and the rest of our games lineup."

For more on the Xbox One's holiday plans, check out GameSpot's complete interview with Greenberg here.