Important takeaways
- The new “This is an Xbox” campaign has drawn criticism, as fans worry that the company is moving away from the console business.
- Microsoft Gaming chief Phil Spencer says new Xbox hardware is coming, but console sales have stagnated, with more gamers preferring PC or cloud gaming.
- An Xbox handheld is currently in development.
Microsoft Gaming boss Phil Spencer has responded to console gamers' criticism of the company's latest ad campaign that calls almost every gaming device a Xbox. Fans of Xbox have a lot to be excited about for the rest of 2024, including Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl coming in November, together with MachineGames Indiana Jones and the Great Circle in December.
Microsoft's latest “This Is an Xbox” ad campaign has sparked some controversy among fans. The ads point to laptops, smartphones, tablets, VR headsets and other devices and label them as Xboxes due to Xbox and Game Pass being available on them. This has drawn heavy criticism from die-hard Xbox console fans, who feel that Xbox is increasingly moving away from the console business and becoming more of a third-party entity. This feeling has only become more prominent since the Xbox came out with games like Sea of Thieves, Hi-Fi Rushand Based to Switch and PS5 earlier this year. More recently, Xbox confirmed it Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, a triple-A first-party title from Bethesda's MachineGames, is coming to Sony's PlayStation 5 next year.
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Speaking to Rolling Stone, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer sought to ease the anxious minds of console gamers by addressing their concerns about the future of Xbox consoles in the wake of the “This Is An Xbox” campaign. Spencer assured fans that Xbox will “definitely make more consoles in the future”, pointing out that, compared to Xbox's growing PC and cloud numbers, the brand's console business has stagnated, moving consoles away from Xbox's bread and butter. Spencer also mentioned how such a shift will ultimately benefit console gamers. “The console space is not growing, across all of them. We love those customers, but in terms of continuing to expand and grow Xbox, it's about PC, it's about cloud and it's about making our games more available in more places,” he said .
Phil Spencer responds to “This is an Xbox” criticism
You could say that Xbox's newfound focus on PC and cloud was born out of the success of Game Pass and the stagnation of its console sales, but such a shift in priorities may well ensure that Xbox's console business never grows again. Nintendo's Switch and Sony's PlayStation 5 have also encountered sales problems recently, but both brands' reliance on their high-quality first-party games has usually been enough to keep profits high. While it's true that revenue streams from PC and cloud will help fund more games for all Xbox players, console fans' concerns about the future are well-founded.
We will definitely do more consoles in the future…The console space is not growing, over all. We love those customers, but when it comes to continuing to expand and grow Xbox, it's about PC, it's about cloud, and it's about making our games more available in more places.
Despite the controversial ad campaign, Phil Spencer has recently announced that Xbox is working on a handheld device that will arrive in a few years. In addition to that, Xbox leadership has mentioned on several occasions future console hardware that is in the works. While the Xbox isn't offering a PS5 Pro-like mid-gen update, it certainly has new hardware on the way.
