- 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 more developers Halo: Campaign Evolved and Fable are “excited” to branch out into more platforms
Xbox games coming to other platforms has been an exciting 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, according to the latest Xbox Games Showcase earlier in June.
We had the chance to speak with several Xbox Game Studios teams at an event alongside this year’s Summer Game Fest 2026 after the showcase had streamed and found that there was a strong difference of opinion between some of the developers about being an Xbox exclusive or embracing being on multiple rival platforms.
For example, the coalition’s creative director Matt Searcy believes to make Gears of War: E-Day an Xbox exclusive was the best decision – something not all Xbox Game Studios teams are attuned to.
According to Searcy, it feels right in case of Gears of Warand the studio never talked about it going to other platforms. “Well, we never talked about it going to PS5; it was announced as one [Xbox] exclusively,” Searcy said. “I’d say so Gear as an exclusive makes a lot of sense to me considering how tight […] Gear has been tied to the Xbox brand [for] all his life.”
He went on to say, “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 great 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 could have had on hypothetical multiplayer numbers, he went on to say that “we’re not that concerned about the size of the audience.”
While it’s kind of admirable that such a confidence and sense of ease was exuded by the developers in light of a smaller player base than some of their contemporary Xbox studios hope to get, it seems a bit of a shame when the other studios want to get the games in front of millions of players.
This was evident when we spoke to two other Xbox Game Studio developers in the Halo: Campaign Evolved executive producer Damon Conn, and Ralph Fulton, founder and GM of Fable study, playground games. Unlike Searcy, both developers are eager to branch out to more platforms and are really excited about it because it will allow them to reach a wider audience.
“We are excited to set the game [out] and to play it with as many different people as we can,” Conn said. “With The Halo campaign evolvedwe have it on more platforms than ever before, and we’re going to meet the player where they are.”
The executive producer is also looking forward to players trying out cross-play, which he calls “a win for us, just sharing the experience with as many people as possible.”
“Hello has always been about coming together and sharing experiences and socializing, and that’s something we’re really excited about,” Conn added.
Meanwhile, Fulton confirmed that he and the team at Playground Games are still committed to bringing Fable for PlayStation 5, along with Xbox Series X, Series S and PC, as well Helloand are incredibly excited about the prospect of reaching a greater number of people.
“For us, we look at this as an opportunity to get this game – [in a series] that’s been out of circulation for about 15 years — in front of as many fans who want to play it as possible,” Fulton said. “We’re really excited about the number of people we can bring this game to.”
Of course, each game can be treated in isolation to some degree, but it’s exciting to see such a contrast and witness such conflicting views within the Xbox Game Studios group itself.
Fable has been in development for a very long time, but will officially launch on February 23, 2027, while Halo: Campaign Evolved will be released globally on July 28. Gears of War: E-Day arriving on October 6.
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