In recent years, Xbox has been undergoing a profound strategic change, to the point that some players are wondering if the brand still remains loyal to its historic fans. This shift, focused towards a more global vision and less focused on console owners, raises legitimate questions from the brand’s historical players. A revolution is underway, but it risks leaving historical fans behind.
A predictable strategy with the arrival of Phil Spencer on the Microsoft board of directors
When Phil Spencer, head of the Xbox division, joined Microsoft’s Senior Leadership Team in 2020, many saw it as a clear signal: Xbox was no longer a simple gaming branch, but a cornerstone of the Microsoft’s global strategy. With this promotion, Spencer obtained a place at the table at which the major strategic directions of the group were decided, which allowed him to push a vision very different from that which dominated at the time of the Xbox One.
This change was clearly both good and bad news for the Xbox brand. A good one, because it gives Xbox more means to achieve its ambitions, alongside other decision-makers at Microsoft. And a bad one, because by being closer to power, Xbox has also been more exposed to all eyes, including that of big financiers.
Long gone are the days when the brand was run by a few enthusiasts in a corner of a little-known Microsoft building. From now on, Xbox is at the heart of the American giant’s strategy, and it must generate revenue. The significant increase in Xbox Game Pass prices, numerous layoffs and studio closures are just recent examples of this new paradigm.
Let’s also remember that among the biggest products launched by Microsoft to try to reach the general public in its history, Xbox is one of those that has survived the longest. Windows Phone and Zune were not so lucky.
By Phil Spencer’s own admission, the Xbox One almost killed the Xbox brand. The market is lucrative, but also very competitive. Xbox being one of the only successful consumer products by Microsoft over the last 20 years, it is therefore necessary to take care of it and make it a profitable brand.
Unable to compete with PlayStation, Xbox looked for another door
Xbox has never been able to match Sony. Whether in terms of brand image or catalog of major games, Sony has almost always dominated. The only time Xbox managed to gain traction was during the days of the Xbox 360 and PS3, when Microsoft bet big on exclusives, while Sony offered an overpriced console with a release a year later .
We know that the Xbox brand was built to compete with PlayStation and seeing that Sony’s lead was difficult to catch up, Xbox began to buy out major studios such as Rare, Ninja Theory, Bethesda and more recently Activision. Blizzard King.
Tens of billions of dollars to afford premium games without the need to set up studios from scratch, a long and risky task. But alongside buyouts, it should be noted that video games have also evolved a lot over the past 20 years.
- The range of games available today is overwhelming. On Steam, 50 games were released every day on average in 2024, almost three times more than in 2017.
- Today we can play everywhere and all the time, in particular thanks to mobile, portable consoles and the advent of games available in the cloud, made possible thanks to the deployment of better telecom infrastructures.
- Online gaming is now largely democratized and is accelerating. Studies show that the younger you are, the more you like to play online.
- Playing has never been more accessible. We can play today without spending a cent thanks to the many free games available and the offers offered on platforms like Amazon Prime or Epic Game Stores.
- Google, another GAFAM, sought to conquer the video game market, but failed and closed. But Amazon continues, and Netflix also intends to carve out a place for itself in the industry. At the same time, giants like Tencent are also starting to conquer the Western market, new competitors for Microsoft that did not exist in this market ten years ago.
Seeing the market evolve and the competitive landscape intensify, Microsoft has therefore chosen its camp, that of a broader vision to reach an audience other than that of its historical market, which has reached a glass ceiling.
Reaching 2 billion players: Xbox fans are no longer the priority
Phil Spencer has repeated many times, Xbox’s ambition is to reach two billion gamers around the world thanks to cloud gaming and Xbox Game Pass. When we know that around 200 million Xbox consoles have been sold since the creation of the brand, we understand that historic Xbox fans are a small minority compared to Microsoft’s ambitions.
To achieve its dream, Microsoft has long sought, even deceived, but when we look at the chronology of events, the relative or total end of exclusive Xbox games is only a logical continuation.
- 2014: Microsoft buys Mojang and does not make upcoming Minecraft games exclusive
- 2016: Xbox begins systematically releasing its games on PC and launches its Xbox Play Anywhere program.
- 2020s: After purchasing numerous studios, Xbox did not choose to make all of the acquired franchises exclusive
- 2024: Xbox announces release of some of its exclusive games on PlayStation and Switch
Although Xbox executives talk about a “case-by-case” exclusivity strategy, we should still note that each recent announcement of a big new Xbox game has been accompanied by a release on PS5. This was the case for Indiana Jones and the Elder Circle, DOOM: The Dark Ages and The Outer Worlds 2.
This strategic change resulted in an expansion of the Xbox ecosystem through initiatives such as Xbox Game Pass, cloud gaming via Xbox Cloud Gaming, and the integration of services into PC and mobile phones.
Clearly, Xbox is no longer just a console brand, but a gateway to the world of Microsoft video games in the broad sense. This strategy was all the more predictable since Microsoft, historically, has always focused on software ecosystems rather than hardware. Xbox is therefore only aligning itself with the group’s overall vision.
Between vague communication and broken promises, Xbox disappointed
If Microsoft’s overall strategy seems quite coherent on paper, the communication around this vision often leaves something to be desired and Xbox sometimes gives the impression of wanting to do everything, and be everywhere, but with little consistency in its words, or even big inconsistencies sometimes. The latest being the stated desire to give players the choice to play as they want and where they want, while certain Xbox exclusives are deprived of games in disc version. This is particularly the case of Avowed, whose physical version with steelbook does not include any disc, but only a code to download the game.
The messages oscillate between ambitious promises on a global scale and commitments to Xbox players, without it always being clear which priority prevails. In seeking to champion an inclusive and holistic vision of gaming, Xbox sometimes seems to lose sight of the importance of speaking directly to its fan base.
The most striking example is that of exclusive games, which are increasingly being released on consoles competing with the Xbox. Even The Outer Worlds 2 was announced as an Xbox console exclusive and will ultimately be released on PS5 at the same time as the Xbox version.
Another example concerns Game Pass, which saw its price explode in a few years even though Microsoft had promised that the price would not increase with the acquisition of Activision. Not only has the price of Game Pass increased by 40% in one year, but Microsoft has also revised its offers by withdrawing the Xbox Game Pass Console subscription in favor of Xbox Game Pass Standard, the latter no longer giving rights to games from first day of their release.
Historical Xbox fans also feel left out by the fact that it is now much more affordable to play Game Pass on PC rather than on Console, with an overall price 30% cheaper to access Day One games. To drive the point home, we now know that the best console versions of certain Xbox games are today available on PS5 Pro with more advantageous graphics or framerate (Diablo IV, Sea of Thieves or Call of Duty Black Ops 6), this which makes Xbox consoles lose even more legitimacy.
The next generation of Xbox consoles will be a turning point
These important changes, although in line with the brand’s expansion strategy, are sometimes perceived as a lack of commitment to the players who made the brand successful and who today feel frustrated and neglected, even betrayed.
While questions still remain unanswered, particularly on the actual strategy of Xbox exclusives, all eyes are now on the next generation of Xbox consoles. Will the brand contradict itself and only release consoles without a disc reader or on the contrary continue to leave the choice? Will the Cloud end up keeping its promise and coming out of its beta version? Will all Xbox games eventually be released on PlayStation?
Regardless, we know that Xbox will continue to produce new consoles, including a portable one, and that the strategy of releasing its games on other machines will expand. Sarah Bond, the president of Xbox, promised in February 2024 “the achievement of the greatest technical advancement ever seen in a generation of hardware”.
It remains to be seen whether all of the strategic changes will pay off in the long term or whether Xbox will have to adjust its focus to rebalance its attention between the general public and its most loyal players. In any case, we are already seeing some first repercussions in the comments and on the Xboxygen Discord, where some historical players say they are abandoning Xbox consoles in favor of another machine or a PC.
