Ex-Blizzard President calls out Xbox for lack of hit games & “$18 skins”

Former Blizzard President Mike Ybarra is calling out Xbox for a lack of exclusive titles, while urging both Sony and Microsoft to cut it out with expensive skins and battle passes.

Xbox’s lack of hit games has proven to be one of the main drawbacks in the console wars, with the Sony PlayStation winning out through its exclusivity deals.

Following news that Black Myth: Wukong’s delay on Xbox is due to a Sony exclusivity deal, Blizzard’s ex-president Mike Ybarra chimed in, saying that if he was PlayStation, he’d double down, sensing “blood in the water.”

“If your strategy is to win the living room, you need exclusive hits because winning is both a platform and games perspective. Sony knows how to make hits, and how to pick the hits from others to be exclusive,” he said in response to an X post about exclusivity.

This resulted in others suggesting that Sony fumbled by focusing on live-service games such as Concord. The hero shooter failed to break 700 players on launch day after being in development for eight years.

Ybarra urged Sony to “stop the all in approach on this” and further added that players are growing sick of some of the trends associated with live-service games, pointing specifically to how the titles are monetized.

“Players are tired of battle passes and $18 skins,” he added.

Yes. I would stop the all in approach on this. Players are tired of battle passes and $18 skins.

— Mike Ybarra (@Qwik) August 30, 2024

Microsoft notably bought Activision-Blizzard in a $68B deal, picking up franchises that have featured battle passes and expensive skins such as Call of Duty and Overwatch. Players have often voiced their displeasure at how skins are priced, frequently calling out “scummy” cosmetic costs on social media and beyond.

The former president left Blizzard in January 2024 following Microsoft’s acquisition of the company and its decision to lay off around 1,900 members of staff.