Xbox damaged its relationship with Sony by removing Halo trailer from State of Play

After Microsoft used its showcase last Sunday (7) to show a new trailer for Halo: Campaign Evolved, reports emerged that the material should have appeared almost a week earlier, in the State of Play on the 2nd. According to a report published by Bloomberg, this change actually happened and may have harmed relations between Xbox and Sony.

According to sources consulted by reporter Jason Schreier, the change was the result of a decision by Asha Sharma, current CEO of Xbox. It was made at the last minute, as appears to have happened with the decision to cancel a version of Gears of War: E-Day for the PlayStation 5.

Image: Disclosure/Xbox

Although a version of the game was never announced to the public, it was already discussed with retailers and resellers. Like this, many of them will have to change their plans for the end of the year, which involved reserving shelf space and advertising for the title, which will now be exclusive to the Xbox Series X|S in the world of consoles.

Xbox sacrifices revenue by abandoning relationship with Sony

As Bloomberg explains, Sharma’s decision to “burn some bridges” with Sony has to do with the desire to strengthen Xbox’s hardware business. By allowing series like Forza and Indiana Jones to reach competitors, the company eliminated one of the main reasons for purchasing its devices — at the same time that it expanded public access to titles.

In trying to reverse this course, the division’s new CEO will have to sacrifice revenues that would be very important for the company — and give up reaching an installed base of more than 90 million PlayStation 5 units. Microsoft does not publicly share its numbers, but analysts estimate that its current generation sold only 30% of that amount.

Project Helix will require Xbox to adopt different business models — Image: Disclosure/Xbox

Publicly, Sharma stated that both Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution will be titles that will never reach the PlayStation 5. At the same time, she clarified that any future exclusivity will be analyzed on a case-by-case basis. In other words, the continuity of the strategy should depend on the trading performance of the two securities.

The executive, who has just completed three months in her role, announced that the next 100 days will be one of great transformations for the Xbox. The expectation is that major layoffs in the division will be announced in July and may be accompanied by the closure of at least one studio.

Source: Bloomberg