Phil Spencer heeft tijdens een interview laten weten dat Microsoft niet meer gaat betalen voor exclusieve titels. Iets wat we al zagen tijdens de E3 toen bekend werd dat Sony nu als eerste de DLC voor de nieuwe Call of Duty titel zal uitbrengen. Het bedrijf uit Redmond wil graag wel third party developers gebruiken voor hun games, maar niet meer betalen om deze exclusief aan hun console te binden.

Phil Spencer, who leads the gaming division at Microsoft, is quoted in a new interview from the China Joy 2015 event as saying that the company will invest in its biggest franchises and will try to evolve them in interesting ways.

He adds, "I want to have strong third party relations, but paying for many third party exclusives isn't our long term strategy. This year, the fact that we're shipping Halo 5, Gears of War, Forza 6, Fable, we can only do that and build that best line-up we've ever seen really on the back of franchises that we own. It's great to have Tomb Raider as part of our line-up, but investing in first party, you'll see more of that at gamescom next week, is really core to our strategy."

A lot of gamers were surprised when Rise of the Tomb Raider was announced as a timed exclusive for the Xbox One and questioned whether the title is big enough to attract new players to the platform.

The task of the new Lara Croft adventure is made even harder by the fact that it arrives on the same day as Fallout 4.

Despite a price cut that was initially temporary and then became permanent the Microsoft home console has failed to close the sales gap to the rival PlayStation 4.

The Sony device has managed to deliver more units to customers in North America for all but one of the months of 2015 and is also in the lead worldwide.

Microsoft is saying that the delivery of exclusives like Forza Motorsport 6, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Halo 5: Guardians will allow the Xbox One to dominate the crucial months of the fall and winter.

A boost is also expected as more gamers adopt Windows 10 on their PCs and get an Xbox One in order to expand their gaming opportunities.

Sony is focusing more on exclusive content for major titles like Destiny and Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 in order to keep the PlayStation 4 in the sales lead.