Microsoft’s new gaming CEO has outlined the future of Xbox, including a potential pivot on exclusive games and an emphasis on ‘flexible pricing’.
Xbox boss Asha Sharma has been in charge for two months but she’s already made some notable announcements within that time, including a price drop for Xbox Game Pass and a codename reveal for Microsoft’s next console.
When her appointment was announced, Sharma served up several vague platitudes related to the future of Xbox, placing an emphasis on avoiding ‘soulless AI slop’ and returning to the ‘renegade spirit that built Xbox in the first place’.
It’s still not clear what this means in practical terms, but Sharma has served up another lengthy blog post designed to define what Xbox is trying to do moving forward.
In the blog post, titled ‘We Are Xbox’, there are few concrete details, but it does at least acknowledge some failure on Microsoft’s part to connect with ‘frustrated’ players.
‘New feature drops on console have been less frequent,’ it reads. ‘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 personalisation still feel too fragmented.’
Expert, exclusive gaming analysis
Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning.
‘Developers and publishers are asking for more, too: better tools, better insights, and a platform that helps them grow faster,’ they add. ‘The model that got us here won’t be the one that takes us forward.’
Beneath all the word salad, there are a couple of takeaways. The first is a reacknowledgement that Xbox will maintain the ‘play where you want’ mentality, with Microsoft’s next console, Project Helix, serving as a ‘foundation’, and the cloud bringing ‘that experience to any device’.
‘Xbox will be built to be affordable, personal, and open,’ it reads. ‘We will offer flexible pricing so it’s easy to get started and keep playing. The experience will adapt to you, letting you customise how you play, helping you find what you’ll love, and connecting you with the right people.’
This emphasis on flexibility looks to include some form of partnership with Discord. Sharma previously teased a collaboration on X, and a datamine of an upcoming update (via ResetEra) refers to an ‘Xbox Game Pass (Starter Edition)’, which will apparently be given to paying users of Discord as part of their Nitro subscription.
Sharma states the ‘new north star’ for Xbox in terms of metrics is ‘daily active players’, with plans to expand into China and ‘mobile first audiences’, while promoting ‘creator-centric platforms’ like Minecraft and The Elder Scrolls Online.
Crucially, she confirms Xbox is considering a new stance on game exclusivity – something Microsoft has steered away from over the past few years in light of low Xbox Series X/S sales. ‘Along the way, we will re-evaluate our approach to exclusivity, windowing, and AI, and share more as we learn and decide,’ it adds.
It’s not confirmation that Xbox will pivot back to exclusive games, but it’s a sign that the current strategy will change in some way. Interestingly, Sony appears to be moving away from a multiplatform tilt too, with reports it is no longer planning to release PC ports for its first party games.
The only other takeaway is a rebrand from Microsoft Gaming to ‘Xbox’. ‘Our best work happens when the full stack moves together,’ the post reads. ‘Microsoft Gaming describes our structure but it does not describe our ambition. So, we are going back to where we started and changing our team’s name. We are Xbox.’
Considering no one outside of Microsoft likely ever called its gaming division ‘Microsoft Gaming’, it’s an entirely performative annoucement. Nevertheless, when sandwiched next to its recent (and now dropped) ad campaigns, which downplayed Xbox consoles, it’s a clear attempt to reassert the brand in the public consciousness.
As ever with Microsoft, it’s a lot of bluster without much to show for it – but we’ll have to see if Project Helix can actually make Xbox an appealing prospect again in the console space when it does launch, supposedly sometime next year.
While Microsoft tries to drum up enthusiasm around Xbox, the company appears to be preparing for another round of layoffs. According to CNBC, Microsoft is planning to offer voluntary buyouts for up to 7% of its employees in the US. In corporate America, this is often a prelude to mandatory layoffs.
Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.