Following Xbox stuck in a difficult transition period, the “This is Xbox” marketing campaign appears to have been scrapped. The Xbox has gone through various eras in its long history, thriving with the Xbox 360 but becoming somewhat stagnant in recent years. This popular console has sold more than 86 million units worldwide, while the current Xbox line of consoles has estimated sales of up to 35 million units worldwide. With this generation of consoles approaching for the past couple of years, various fans have been asking what has caused this decline in console sales in the mainstream gaming market.
The general opinion shared online attributes these declining sales to the “This is Xbox” marketing campaign and Xbox's overall shift away from consoles. During this generation, Xbox focused heavily on its Cloud Gaming, Play Anywhere, and Remote Play features. Cloud Gaming allows users to stream games from Xbox servers, Play Anywhere allows games to be played on any supported device after purchase, and Remote Play allows users to stream from a console to a supported platform such as a phone. While great and useful features in their own right, their inclusion has resulted in various drawbacks, and many fans attribute the decline in console sales to not needing an Xbox to play games. Add to that criticism of Microsoft's inclusion of ROG Xbox Ally in this marketing, and the latest update with this campaign comes as no shock.
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The main “This is Xbox” page is no longer accessible
With the recent appointment of Ash Sharma as CEO of Microsoft Gaming, along with this new CEO of Xbox acknowledging fans' demands for exclusive consoles, the main page of the “This is Xbox” marketing campaign is no longer accessible. This marketing was promised as the next era of Xbox where fans would be able to play their favorite games anywhere, although it seems that is no longer the case. What was the only surviving link that contained news about the ROG Xbox Ally has now also met with the same error, with seemingly no surviving websites and an abandoned marketing campaign. This likely marks the end of the “This is Xbox” era, and a new CEO also brings a new focus.
This news follows a recent rumor from an industry insider that the “This is Xbox” campaign has allegedly offended many Xbox employees. The insider also said that multiple sources told him that if they didn't follow former CEO Sarah Bond's vision for the campaign, they were “out,” a sentiment that appears to have changed with the leadership change. Despite this change, the focus on cloud gaming and accessibility remains prevalent, with the upcoming Project Helix blurring the lines between traditional home console and gaming PC. A combination of leadership changes, new goals, and overall public acceptance seem to have led the company to take a new approach to marketing.
Regardless of why this marketing campaign was seemingly abandoned, the future is not bright for Xbox users. Now that Microsoft has revealed more details about the next-gen Xbox console, there is at least some certainty that Xbox will maintain some focus on producing classic consoles. Thanks to the current RAM crisis, this future console was previously reported to cost more than $1,000, although this number is in no way connected to Microsoft or Xbox. If this price tag is accurate, then Project Helix would surely have to have some incredible technical specifications and performance, a performance that various Xbox fans would probably welcome. Whether Xbox Project Helix will meet or exceed fan expectations remains to be seen, but the seeming scrapping of the “This is Xbox” marketing campaign seems to have left fans with faith in Microsoft Gaming's new CEO and direction.
- Date of establishment
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April 4, 1975
- Headquarters
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Redmond, Washington, United States
- CEO
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Satya Nadella
- Subsidiaries
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Activision blizzard, Microsoft Studios, Mojang Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox Game Studios
Source: Game Developer
