Xbox's Shannon Loftis Defends Exclusives Lineup, Teases More Game Announcements

Microsoft is launching a new console, the Xbox One X, this week. One comment that gets repeated in some circles online is that Xbox overall has too few exclusives to encourage people to pick up an Xbox One S or Xbox One X this year. Now, Xbox executive Shannon Loftis, who heads up Publishing for first-party games, has responded. As she's said before, Loftis said she is confident in the lineup for 2017 and next year, though she acknowledged it would be good to have more exclusives, too.

"I think our offering is good and it is solid. I definitely hear that gamers want more. Would we love to have two-dozen more super-strong, absolutely exclusives? You bet,"
Loftis said. "We do have more coming; more that are in the works that we're not talking about now. But I feel good about what we have to offer for the launch [of Xbox One X]."

Some of Microsoft's exclusives for this year include recently released titles like Forza Motorsport 7, Super Lucky's Tale, and Cuphead, while PUBG is headed to Xbox One on December 12 as a "console launch exclusive." People often point out that many of these games are also available on PC through the Xbox Play Anywhere system, so are they truly console exclusives? They may not be, but Loftis wonders if that's such a bad thing.

"Regarding [Xbox Play Anywhere] and games being available on PC, I may be out in left field but I do not see how offering games on more platforms to more gamers is a bad thing necessarily, particularly in a multiplayer scenario," she said.

Loftis pointed out that having Killer Instinct be available on both Xbox One and PC (via Windows 10 and Steam) is great for the fighting game because it expands the multiplayer pool. She added that Microsoft does not see a lot of overlap between people playing Xbox Play Anywhere titles on Xbox One and PC. She indicated that it is more often the case that

Still, Loftis said she is aware of the way Xbox fans feel about exclusives. "I don't want to disregard the feelings of the people that care deeply about exclusives for Xbox ..." she said.

Microsoft originally going to have another exclusive out this year, Crackdown 3, but the game was delayed to 2018. Additionally, Microsoft canceled Scalebound and Fable Legends, two of its other exclusives.

The Xbox One X launches on November 7, priced at $500 in the US. More than 130 games are getting or have already been patched to take advantage of the console's horsepower; it is 40 percent more powerful than the PS4 Pro. Some of the enhanced titles include Halo 5 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt--you can see them all here. With its premium price tag, Microsoft is not targeting the mass market with the Xbox One X, as the Xbox One S is expected to continue to be Microsoft's best-seller this holiday and beyond.

How do you feel about the discussion around exclusives for Xbox? Let us know in the comments below!