skins for the Xbox FSE should be Nr. 54839756 on their task list 
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The only B.S. is the âtrustâ you somehow think I should have in this gaming company after every stunt theyâve pulled, including this one. Thatâs the confrontational vibe Iâm getting from you here. I sat there and watched Booty, Spencer and Bond perform a cringeworthy âweâre just releasing 4 games on other systemsâ video special 2 years ago so the fact theyâve been in constant pr mode for a very long time isnât up for debate. They always wanted to have their cake and eat it too: keep the hardcore onboard and chase $$$ short term elsewhere.
I really donât get how right here, right now, after they just âretiredâ Spencer and put an unknown (whoâs only credential is AI for Christâs sake) in charge of the brand should somehow equate to me and others reading your wall of text and thinking âyup, these guys are following a plan and they know what theyâre doing! Oorahâ.
Just no.
By the way, the customer is king (pun unintended) so they can every every desire to chase 2 billion players but since theyâre struggling to expand Gamepass beyond the 30 million range right now and the Series consoles have tanked harder than any Xbox console in history over the past 24 months (sales are practically inconsequential now), I think itâs safe to say it hasnât worked. Thereâs no long-term promised land here. No hallelujah weâve arrived in the future. Thereâs just the market rejecting the brand. Repeatedly. And no, I wonât cheer a multiplatform future for Xbox because becoming just another third party is not something to cheer for. Why would I? Xbox was an experience. Booting up Halo on PlayStation is not even a novelty, itâs just pointless.
And being multiplatform didnât end well for EA or Ubisoft either so nothing is a safe bet anymore in this industry. Meanwhile Nintendo is doing well. So go figure.
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Thereâs literally video of Phil Spencer saying over the years that they want you playing the games you want to play where you want to play them. He has said on multiple occasions that you donât need an Xbox to play their games.
Everything right now fits under what he said years ago. I would agree that they tried to maintain both the hardcore Xbox console players and build up the cloud-based subscription service with Game Pass on literally everything.
Do I believe that he wished to port Xbox games to PlayStation? No. I think that was the fallback after Playstation said no to Game Pass and Game Pass not meeting its aggressive growth targets.
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What can they actually do to address those artificial concerns? Xbox is literally bigger and more stable than ever. Itâs the ONLY console platform that has respected libraries with backwards compatibility, free cloud saves, and Xbox Play Anywhere. People are terrified of Microsoft turning off the lights when Xbox is doing better financially than ever and the platform now exists beyond the console. People act like the Series consoles were a complete flop when even controversial estimates put total console sales aggressively average at over 30 million in five years. The WiiU didnât even do half that in the same time and people were less concerned about Nintendo. Which you know why werenât they because Nintendo 100% didnât respect libraries because they never do. You can buy their games all over again and lose your progress and thatâs it.
Microsoft and Xbox have publicly stated over and over again that they arenât going anywhere and the next Gen Xbox is on the horizon. We can see them expanding things like Xbox Play Anywhere and making it so gamers can play the games they own on the cloud. Libraries arenât just safe, theyâve been expanding in how you can play your games and growing in value. Whether gamers believe Xbox is up to them. It is business and a business can lie, but also⌠why are people uniquely worried about Xbox? Hardware sales arenât actually terrible (theyâre just mediocre; the big issue is the same for PS and thatâs that thereâs not really any growth compared to last Gen) and even if they are Xbox Cloud Gaming which is majorly going runs on Xbox infrastructure and even if it didnât Xbox Play Anywhere is now even putting some backlog games on PC and even if none of that were true, video game consoles donât have a history of protecting libraries as is. Up until the last minute people were unsure if Nintendo would have backwards compatibility and a way to transfer saves because both those things are RARE for Nintendo. No other console even has free cloud saves. Dedicated backwards compatibility is also iffy outside Xbox.
I donât care for what she said, but otherwise I donât think it matters much. She canât do anything that Xbox hasnât already done to alleviate fears of the brand entirely dissolving (for whatever reason people think thatâs even on the table).
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Incorrect. Credentials are beyond only AI.
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The Series sales arenât a linear graph. They fell off a cliff. This is literally a point where theyâre not selling consoles beyond a puny number. Xbox isnât âeverywhereâ because people just donât care. Something thatâs been lost here is consumer habits and yes, people like âinvestingâ in a product. Like Apple does so well. Xbox meanwhile has done so little to curate their own base and this is the result. The Series consoles sold well enough until roughly 2023 when the collapse started. And that collapse is still ongoing.
Iâm also very, very curious to see where the Game Pass numbers are now since ultimate had its severe price hike. Looking at how anecdotally a game like Kingdom Come Deliverance II is soon landing on Game Pass Premium tier and not just Ultimate, Iâd say a lot of people defaulted to the cheaper option. Is that good business or part of the âplanâ? Doubtful since that tier (which used to be called Standard last year) never got day one third party major drops like that.
Iâm saying it as it is. Not as some people want to imagine. The Xbox brand had the best ecosystem and best controller (by far). It was my place to play since the early 2010âs and I also thought the backlash against the Xbox One was highly performative by bad faith actors in the media who were nothing more than mouthpieces for PlayStation (& to this day it still pisses me off when Digital Foundry fudge comparisons to undermine the Xbox version, like with Silent Hill 2 Remake which really does run better on the Series X).
But really, Xbox is in a very bad place here. I donât see how you can argue otherwise.
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âBeyondâ to the extent sheâs a reassuring (or even logical) pick to be head of Xbox? That would be a stretch, especially since if youâd asked anyone here 24 hours ago they would have all said Sarah Bond was next in line.
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How are we measuring doing well? Because in terms of revenue Xbox and Playstation both dwarf Nintendo. In terms of margins Nintendo has those dreaded 30% margins that are supposedly killing Xbox now. I think itâs very interesting to bring up the market rejecting Xbox and choosing Nintendo because do you think Xbox would be seeing success following Nintendo strategy? No theyâd be laughed out of the room. We know that because they were laughed out of the room when they tried selling an $80 game. Weâve seen exclusive games like Forza Horizon 5 see endless praise and then get snubbed for awards.
Nintendo isnât growing in terms of users anymore than anyone else. The market still canât escape a 2 decade old peak. What weâre seeing is Nintendo successfully use their clout to increase prices for their customers while also control for costs, and at the same time Nintendo is actually the smallest gaming business. Weâre making conclusions off of perceptions and feelings and largely basing everything on console hardware sales here, but Xbox has made it clear that they want to be a platform and ecosystem first above all else. ABK did massively accelerate those plans as did probably the general stagnation in the industry and rising costs. Weâll see how they continue to succeed in doing that, but weâve known what Xbox is doing for a while now.
The way I read the leadership change, especially with Bondâs memo and that sheâll be staying as an advisor for a while, is that Phil and Sarah have finished their era of Xbox. Theyâve had their milestones and the platform is setup to do what they set out for it to. Now weâll enter into a new era and someone brand new will define it. We donât know what that means, but theyâve reiterated again that the next gen Xbox is coming and that Xbox overall isnât magically disappearing overnight. Weâll hopefully get more information soon, but I donât expect to actually see any major long term strategy changes until maybe 2027. Most likely everything is already set in stone and the Dominos will continue to fall. Unless there is some serious upheveal, itâll probably be until like 2028 or 2029 that we see what the new CEOs Xbox actually is.
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Not what I said. I donât go off the hinges to say things without it being based in reality. You donât need to make up lies to support your views. You should try it.
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If I recall correctly, both are staying on in Advisory Roles until August.
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Itâs a surprise yes, and if we start to see evidence that theyâre pivoting away from a hybrid next gen or from Game Pass or something else we can worry then.
But at the moment itâs just a leadership change - given the people most vocally doom and gloom right now are also the people saying Phil and Sarah were shit, surely theyâd be happy theyâre changing things up?
The fact is we have to give it time - the new head might be less nostalgic and more likely to crack the whip to get delivery, or may just carry on their legacy while also being popular enough with the board and the other departments to get further investment and even better collaboration for the hybrid Xbox.
Only with time and actions will we see the path theyâre taking - words are often hollow, and while this is a shock itâs no reason to completely doom and gloom.
Some people seem less sad about Phil and Sarah leaving (I hate change so was always going to shake me a bit) and more just using this as another bar to hit Xbox with - and arenât really discussing things in good faithâŚ
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That is a good idea to be honest, give time to properly help the new ceo to ajust and all that jazz.
Good argument there, canât deny that. I admit i donât like change but sometimes its needed especially if someone is getting on with the years and feel like they need to leave and all that.
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Thatâs a weird anecdotal to use to determine game pass subscriber numbers. Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 came out in February 2025. Itâs over a year old. When Xbox raised the price of Ultimate they committed to their own games coming to premium after a year. Why would they hold a third party year old game for Ultimate in the first place? How is them doing that a sign that everyone downgraded to premium? If they did, why is that a bad thing? Premium is only $5 less than Ultimate had been and doesnât have as many benefits. I fundamentally donât understand the logic.
Thereâs not an argument to be made here, because we havenât even defined âbadâ. Arguing online is stupid and Iâm not going to do that. I will suggest for your concerns that you define âbadâ for yourself, because Iâm going to say straight up that I donât see going from owning like 5 studios to owning 40 as bad. I donât see the fact that the only Xbox Game Studio to close in nearly a decade following aquistions was one that had nothing to show after nearly a decade and was still making design decisions after nearly a decade. I donât see waning sales later in a console life as bad especially when overall sales have surpassed a healthy number and thereâs still Xbox games on One consoles and thereâs increasing growth on Cloud and PC which uses the same platform systems. The donât see the growth of Xbox Play Anywhere or Cloud Gaming as bad. I donât see the current experience I have playing on Xbox as bad. I donât see the fact that the series generation has seen the most growth in third party support as bad.
Itâs all perception and I think that in gaming especially we get really, REALLY stuck in that. If youâre really fearful it might help to better define why youâre fearful. Iâm going to say none of what you says make sense to me why âXbox is in a really bad place.â now especially if youâre going to tell me that you joined up in the disastrous early 2010s and thought the Xbox One era backlash was performative. Speaking of performative, Xbox Game Passâs first party promise was exactly that bad then because first party games were so few and far between and of such varying quality. The fear is of developers and publishers leaving but that was never more of an issue than during the Xbox One (well, actually it probably was during the OG Xbox). âbadâ is subjective. I really just propose this, what are the other consoles actually doing and what have they done? How do Series Consoles compare to the worst selling consoles of Nintendo? Nintendo literally flopped home hardware every other console. How does library protection hold up on Nintendo and PlayStation? What do game and hardware prices look like at Nintendo and Playstation? How does Xboxâs content release compare to all other publishers and Nintendo and PlayStation? How does Xboxâs creative freedom compare? Compared to the industry how is Xbox layoffs and studio closures?? How bad is hardware actually doing when the generation literally started with shortages, had several dry stints with COVID having delayed development, and now AI shortages? This is the first generation weâve seen consoles be more expensive as time went on and Sony started that. If anything the Xbox Series sales (and PS for the same reason) are impressive considering all the industry problems. Still the biggest is that consoles just arenât growing. They need something else. Perception is important for reaching new audiences, but itâs also not reality. I donât know what your âbadâ is but you just canât tell me that Xbox is in a worse spot than Nintendo was with the WiiU and hardware sales donât change the fact that the Xbox One was a desert.
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None of the conversations around Xbox are in good faith. Itâs so frustrating because what are they even supposed to do? People have the most unrealistic standards for Xbox that donât exist for Playstation or Nintendo, and even then they want to get mad when Xbox plays into what they said they wanted. The conversation is âGP is too much value and will ruin gaming.â up until they raise the price and restrict day one games and then itâs âXbox is failing and this is proof. Now theyâve gotten too greedy.â Everyone wants Phil gone and hates Sarah until that actually happens.
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Karma is gonna catch up to pricks like that. Itâs only a matter of time, really.
I have a feeling gaming journalism is going to go in a different direction if Xbox decides to blacklist big ones like IGN, which I feel is a very good possibility, since Phil is no longer there to play nice, but we never know. If that happens i think many of these journalist should be fully aware of what that entails.
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And you donât have to run defense force for the latest CEO pick because itâs an easy opt out of critical thinking. It cuts both ways.
I can play xbox games I bought nearly 20 years ago while other platforms have cut you off at some point during that time.
Xbox and PC are the only platforms that respect your past purchases.
I donât know why anyone would be concerned for their xbox library compared to other platforms.
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Yeah gotta agree with this. Blades dash wasnât actually good. Comes off a bit clueless. Like she asked somebody to suggest something she could namecheck for cred with nostalgic fans.
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Yes. Of all the concerns that people cite about the future of the Xbox ecosystem, some of which are legit, this one makes the least sense to me.
Even if Microsoft decides to get out of the hardware business tomorrow, it doesnât mean that your Xbox account or purchases go away. Feels like a bit of online FUD.
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