Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has undertaken a number of efforts thus far to help get the business back into a healthy place, and nothing has worked, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella says.

He told The Game Business that based on the sales and engagement data he sees for the US gaming industry, "I'm not seeing [the moves] have any positive impact" for Xbox.

The disc-to-digital program "hasn't changed their sales of new physical software trend at all," he added. Additionally, making Gears of War: E-Day exclusive on console to Xbox "hasn't made any difference" in terms of selling more Xbox hardware. In fact, Xbox sales continue to spiral. Sharma says there is a supply issue, but, in the US at least, you can get a new Xbox very easily.

Piscatella said E-Day is a "Gears-ass Gears of War game," and a gorgeous one. But making it exclusive to Xbox created a scenario where "you chop the legs out" from under its potential potential to boost Xbox generally. "At least in the short term, it hasn't made a difference," he said.

There was clear and obvious evidence that E-Day was planned for PS5, but it was never released on Sony's console. Other industry experts said Microsoft purposefully sent E-Day out to die "for hearts and minds."

Additionally, Piscatella said Sharma's decision to remove new Call of Duty games from Game Pass was another loser of a decision. He said the data he's seeing shows that the Call of Duty franchise "lost a ton of engagement" due to Modern Warfare 4 being stripped out of Game Pass.

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