It appears that the Xbox is no longer just a box. Earlier today, the company’s official accounts ran a new 30-second ad spot, showcasing the brand’s new campaign messaging: “This is an Xbox.”
To the sound of Black Sheep’s 1991 hip-hop track “The Choice is Yours,” the video begins with a Series X console and the bold green text reading, “This is an Xbox.” It then pivots to a smart TV, a phone, a handheld PC, and a laptop — all of which are now considered Xboxes.
On the surface, the campaign makes total sense. Xbox Cloud Gaming launched in 2019, and Xbox games have been available on PC for even longer. If players have an Xbox account, they can stream their purchased games or the Xbox Games Pass library on a variety of devices, anywhere they have a high-speed internet connection.
So, why are people concerned about the messaging?
On social media, many fans have expressed displeasure at the idea that Xbox is somehow abandoning the home console market. It’s true that this generation of hardware, which is led by the Xbox Series X and less powerful Series S, hasn’t been a huge success for Microsoft, with reports in May indicating that Sony’s PlayStation 5 has been outselling Xbox consoles nearly 5 to 1.
Many have declared that the “console wars” are over, referring to the old nomenclature for the rivalry between companies like Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft that swept up much of the internet discourse in the 2000s.
But is Xbox really sunsetting its console market in favor of cloud gaming? The answer is no, but it’s more complicated than that.
Rolling Stone recently met up with Xbox CEO Phil Spencer in New York to discuss the future of the brand, where he touched on the themes behind the campaign ahead of its official launch.
“It’s an interesting topic because as we look at the brand, as we’re changing the brand, [it] means something different,” Spencer said. “It literally was a box when it first launched. It was the Direct X box. What it’s grown into now is more accessibility. Xbox isn’t just one device, Xbox is on your smart TV, Xbox is on your PC, Xbox is on your phone, and we’re in the middle of that transition.”
To his credit, Spencer knows very well that some fans would ultimately be turned off by the campaign, having said that some people “long for the simplicity of a single box, single platform, single game,” but also noted that, “today’s largest games are bigger than any of the individual platforms.”
Spencer has spent essentially his entire career at Microsoft and Xbox, beginning as an intern in 1988 and moving to the Xbox team during its launch in 2001. Knowing the company’s past, he believes that the DNA of Xbox remains the same even as the company evolves. “I think the thing that should really have longevity are the games, characters and world — and the platforms should enable us to experience those games where we want to play. That’s how we think about Xbox today.”
The number of games Xbox has for those platforms have increased substantially since its acquisition of both ZeniMax media (owners of Bethesda Game Works, id Software, and Arkane Studios) in 2021 and Activision Blizzard in 2023. In three short years, the industry saw a big shift, with properties like The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom, World of Warcraft, Diablo, and the juggernaut Call of Duty franchise now belonging to Microsoft. But the company hasn’t forced most of its games to remain exclusive, allowing cross-platform launches and support on day one for many or staggered releases with games like the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle arriving on PlayStation 5 a few months after its Xbox and PC debut.
But even with the acquisitions, it hasn’t been an entirely smooth road, with high profile games like Redfall (2023), Starfield (2023), and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II (2024) arriving to tepid reception from fans and critics. Although sales for Starfield were initially strong, the game’s player base has waned even with the recently released Shattered Space expansion. The weak performance of these first-party titles and the continued support of other platforms has only stoked the fire for players who say Xbox will soon drop out of the console game.
Speaking about consoles, Spencer said that he loves that people are buying Xbox hardware, but notes that it isn’t a growth market. “Our biggest growth in Xbox players is on PC and cloud,” he said. “The console space all up isn’t 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, ad it’s about making our games more available in more places.”
In regard to whether the company’s emphasis on cloud streaming and anywhere devices means that the they’ll cease developing new home consoles, Spencer had a definitive answer.
“We’ll definitely do more consoles in the future, and other devices.”
Those “other devices” are likely to include a mobile version of Xbox hardware to compete with the booming handheld PC trend that’s taken off over the last few years with systems like the Asus ROG Ally (which Spencer himself plays on) and Valve’s Steam Deck. These handheld versions of PCs are often Windows-based, meaning that they’re still running in Microsoft’s ecosystem, and allow players to play Xbox games on the go, with seamless transition between their home consoles and PCs using cloud storage for their saved data.
During the conversation, Spencer alludes multiple times to wanting to create a handheld Xbox, a detail he later confirmed with Bloomberg. Asked about whether there will be a mid-cycle hardware refresh like Sony has with the recently released PlayStation 5 Pro, he doesn’t give a clear answer, but implies that it isn’t necessary given the diminishing returns developers are seeing with increased horsepower.
“We think about hardware that can create unique value for our players or creators on our platform,” he said. “We don’t need to do incremental hardware for our own benefit. Does a new device really give you a unique experience on screen in some way? [It’s] less like the old days, going from the original Xbox to 360; that was standard definition to high definition. Now, [it’s] harder to show the benefits.”
For Spencer, the legacy of Xbox is top of mind, and how the brand continues to evolve in the future. Xbox Cloud Gaming is at the heart of that mission — the DNA of the Xbox needs to remain more than just the streaming service and software library.
“We are trying to expand, ‘What does an Xbox mean?’ I want Xbox to be something 20 years from now,” he said. “I think in order for Xbox to be vibrant, be successful, it needs to be about multiple pieces of hardware.”