Former PlayStation boss tells Xbox to pick a lane on exclusives
Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden says Xbox needs to pick a lane on exclusive games. Decide what you are, he argues: a platform with its own must-play titles, or a publisher selling games everywhere.
Layden gave the advice on The Expansion Pass podcast, in remarks reported on 2 October 2026 Eurogamer. He said most of Xbox's current woes come from its inability to commit to exclusives, games made to be played only on its own hardware. "Or if they picked a lane, they didn't stay in it very long."
His test was blunt. "Are you going to be a platform? A platform needs exclusives or else the platform has no meaning." A platform holder makes the console and runs the shop. A publisher makes games and can sell them on any shop.
Layden called the choice "your Dreamcast moment". He was pointing to Sega, which left console hardware behind after the Dreamcast and carried on as a publisher releasing games on rival systems.
He said current Xbox chief executive Asha Sharma seems to be trying to "right the ship". Sharma is the new Xbox chief overseeing a reset of Microsoft's gaming business IGN. She has spoken about bringing back the competitive drive of the Xbox 360 era Eurogamer. Layden urged her to settle the bigger question first: publisher or platform holder.
Sharma has said she "would love to chat" with Layden Wccftech.
For players, this matters because it decides where games appear. Keep them exclusive and the console has a clear reason to exist. Sell them everywhere and more people can play, but the box itself becomes harder to define.
