Xbox is admittedly not in the greatest place right now, with the brand having faced significant challenges over the years. In her and chief content officer Matt Booty’s own words, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma says “Players are frustrated (…) New feature drops on console have been less frequent. Our presence on PC isn’t strong enough. Pricing is getting harder for people to keep up with. And core experiences like search, discovery, social, and personalization still feel too fragmented. Developers and publishers are asking for more, too: better tools, better insights, and a platform that helps them grow faster”.
Their memo confesses to lagging behind rival brands such as Playstation and Switch, but Sharma and Booty assure that the company is “a challenger, and meeting this moment will require pace, energy, and a level of self-critique that should feel uncomfortable”. One step towards that direction is more affordable pricing, with the memo released online saying it plans to be “affordable, personable, and open”. All of this signals an attempt to return to the glory days of the Xbox brand and prioritizing players, with Sharma and Booty stating that while they are structurally Microsoft Gaming, it does not reflect what they hope to achieve.
While this seems like a nice gesture towards Xbox fans and players, we have yet to see where the new leadership takes Microsoft, and if it can keep the brand from going under and further. They do make mention of wanting to expand their portfolio, emerging into new global markets such as China, and giving attention to mobile-first audiences, but this does not necessarily mean they will abandon their existing consumer-base; after all, the company still has extremely ambitious plans for Project Helix, its newest console in development for the Xbox line, stating they aim to “deliver Project Helix to lead in performance and play your console and PC games”. Time will tell what success or failure lies ahead for the Xbox brand, but given the state it is in right now, maybe it’s time for a win.