Circana game analyst Mat Piscatella stated that Gears of War: E-Day remains an Xbox console exclusive but has not brought any visible improvement to the hardware trajectory of the Xbox Series X|S. He believes this exclusivity arrangement has not altered Xbox's current sales trends.
Nielsen IQ data shows that Xbox sales in the UK dropped by 22% in October 2026. In the U.S. market data observed by Circana, Piscatella also saw no growth driven by Gears of War: E-Day. Several recent initiatives launched by Xbox have also failed to show positive effects in the sales and engagement data he reviewed.
Piscatella also mentioned that after Call of Duty was removed from day-one availability on Xbox Game Pass, Xbox lost a significant amount of engagement without gaining corresponding revenue.
PlayStation's performance during the same period was different. Despite negative player feedback and mixed reviews for Marvel's Wolverine, Piscatella stated that the game, along with console bundles and the new DualSense controller, drove year-over-year growth for the PS5 in September 2026. He believes this approaches the ideal effect of a non-Spider-Man-level IP leveraging an exclusive title to boost console and accessory sales. These conclusions are based on analysts' judgments from market data and do not represent Microsoft's official stance on the effectiveness of its exclusivity strategy.