When a new CEO takes the helm of a legendary but stumbling brand like Xbox, the industry tends to expect change. And the same goes for words. Lots of words. It doesn't matter whether you target primarily investors or less frequently consumers. So far, Asha Sharma has had an incredible time focusing on the latter group.
Still known to many in the Internet industry as 'Phil Spencer's successor', the executive is making sure his voice is heard loud and clear. Whether it's his internal thoughts that Game Pass is too expensive (albeit a course correction even at the expense of day-and-day Call of Duty), Sharma appears to be making all the right moves. And now, if widespread rumors are true, she and her colleagues are looking to consolidate the Xbox brand image in the most striking way yet.
It's about going back to the roots.
Update: Just minutes after pressing publish on this article, a full internal email confirming what was reported was published on the Xbox News site. I adjusted the text to confirm the name change.
This division is Xbox
Remember last year when Max reverted its name to HBO Max? Because “Max” didn’t move the needle. Wasn't that a stronger modern brand name, despite management claiming evidence to the contrary? Because no one cares about Max. Are they interested in HBO? Well, not at all, but kind of. Microsoft's Xbox division became Microsoft Gaming a few years ago, but now it looks like Microsoft Gaming will soon become Xbox.
Earlier today, The Verge reported that it spoke with a source who claimed Asha Sharma hosted a new company-wide town hall. At the center of her gathering was a plan to ditch “Microsoft Gaming” from the company's post-processing lingo. Is there a big picture here? “Xbox has to become who we are,” Sharma said (which certainly echoes what she’s been saying since it was released to the public over the past month).
Xbox has publicly posted company-wide emails following a report from The Verge. You can read the full story here. There's a lot to dig into, but most importantly, it confirms Sharma's claim that he wants to reject Microsoft Gaming on its terms. See below:
“Our best work happens when the entire stack moves together. “Microsoft Gaming” describes our structure, but it doesn’t describe our ambitions. So we’re going back to where we started and renaming the team.”
In fact, Microsoft's Xbox campus itself has been revamped with plenty of talk about the “return of Xbox,” including a redesigned logo design like the one you see above. De-prioritizing Xbox and using a bland Microsoft Gaming name with similarities to HBO and Max is a small but strategically powerful step toward getting the point across that Xbox is serious about its next-gen product. Being an Xbox again. It's Xbox for Xbox's sake, rather than just putting the Xbox name on it as part of a broader plan.
It's a bit like what would happen if Sony decided to put “Sony Gaming” on everyone's lips instead of “PlayStation.” No matter how many times the executives say this, I don’t think it will go well. It dilutes the nomenclature familiar to millions of longtime gamers, and it's unlikely that courting the console space will magically catch up to a generation of Roblox-only teenagers who will become increasingly more important as time goes by.
I am not one to praise individual executive leadership like the Second Coming. The phrase “Phil is one of us” has always sickened me. (No offense, Phil. I'm sure you love video games and all that.) But right now, Sharma seems to be making all the right moves. We'll see how it goes.
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