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Asha - We are Xbox

adamsapple said:
Monarchy rules, last queen, beloved as she was, has been replaced. 👑
Click to expand...
vpbvYIY58hTQK0HY.png
 
I hate MS as a company, they've always been cynical above all, which is the ultimate sin to me. In other words, every step they take has always felt like a subterfuge, like they actually despise the player, and despise gamers and gaming in general if they had a choice, but see them as a necessary stepping stone to reach other objectives (living room takeover, windows dominance, whatever).

That said, it could be worse. The return of Xbox branding in this way seems okay, and statements like "makers over managers" are probably bullshit but at least sort of the right note.
 
And here I was thinking that the E in CEO stood for executive; turns out it stands for Essay.

Good luck to Asha Sharma and everyone who believes Xbox is finally byyyyaaaaack. We've seen this exact same rhetoric from multiple Xbox execs over the last 13 years, and the consistent conclusion has been "Overpromising, underdelivering."
 
Just bring exclusives back so that we have a very good battle of super quality games from xbox , sony and nintendo just like in the golden age of gaming of 90's and early 2000.
 
ResurrectedContrarian said:
I hate MS as a company, they've always been cynical above all, which is the ultimate sin to me. In other words, every step they take has always felt like a subterfuge, like they actually despise the player, and despise gamers and gaming in general if they had a choice, but see them as a necessary stepping stone to reach other objectives (living room takeover, windows dominance, whatever).

That said, it could be worse. The return of Xbox branding in this way seems okay, and statements like "makers over managers" are probably bullshit but at least sort of the right note.
Click to expand...

Crazy that the right note is a lie.
 
HeisenbergFX4 said:


Dear team,

Xbox has always been different.

We started with a simple idea. Games should bring people together through shared experiences. That led to the first Xbox in 2001, Xbox Live in 2002, and new ways to connect, from friends lists and achievements to parties and play across devices. Today, Xbox reaches over 500 million players around the world, with some of the most important franchises in entertainment.

From the beginning, Xbox was built by people willing to try things that others wouldn't. We placed a consumer bet inside an enterprise company because we believed gaming would define the living room, and we were at risk of missing it.

That spirit has carried us through the last 25 years, and it is required to carry us forward.

We have work to do

Players are frustrated.

New feature drops on console have been less frequent. Our presence on PC isn't strong enough. Pricing is getting harder for people to keep up with. And core experiences like search, discovery, social, and personalization still feel too fragmented. Developers and publishers are asking for more, too: better tools, better insights, and a platform that helps them grow faster.

At the same time, a new generation of players is coming online with different expectations. Their time is split across games, media, and everything else competing for attention. They expect more content in familiar places, want to shape the worlds they play in, and want to create and socialize together, not just play together.

These changes are happening as the industry reshapes around us.

Console remains large and stable. Windows now represents more players and more hours and is increasingly where competition is most intense. Players have access to more games than ever, even as the cost and time to build blockbuster titles continues to rise, putting pressure on what gets made and how risk is taken. Some of the biggest recent hits are coming from small teams or even single creators, and places like Roblox are producing experiences that rival major franchises in scale. More players are also choosing subscriptions and services as their primary way to play, with expectations set around instant access, ongoing value, and libraries that evolve continuously.

The industry is becoming global and competitive. More than half of the market's revenue, players, and growth are happening outside of our core markets. But the rest of the world is not just a large market. Developers there are increasingly competing with the most established Western studios, combining scale, speed, and a willingness to reinvent genres many once considered mature.

The model that got us here won't be the one that takes us forward.

Xbox will be where the world plays

What does Xbox become in this next era?

Xbox will be where the world plays and creates. We will build a global platform that connects players and creators everywhere. Console is at the foundation, delivering a premium experience, and cloud brings that experience to any device. You can play where you want, and your games, progress, friends, and identity stay with you across console, PC, mobile, and cloud.

Xbox will be built to be affordable, personal, and open. We will offer flexible pricing so it's easy to get started and keep playing. The experience will adapt to you, letting you customize how you play, helping you find what you'll love, and connecting you with the right people. And we will be open to all creators, from individuals to the largest studios, giving anyone the tools to reach a global audience and keep their games growing over time.

Our new north star will be daily active players.

We will execute this through four priorities: hardware, content, experience, and services.

Hardware

  • Stabilize Gen9 as a healthy and high-quality base
  • Deliver Project Helix to lead in performance and play your console and PC games
  • Lead in comfortable, personal, high-performance accessories
  • Build a strong ecosystem that expands choice and reach
Content

  • Grow and extend an enduring portfolio of franchises players love
  • Evolve our 3P partnerships and strengthen our 5-year slate
  • Expand into China, emerging markets, and mobile-first audiences
  • Maintain and grow in live games and long-term stewardship
  • Elevate creator-centric platforms like Minecraft, The Elder Scrolls, and Sea of Thieves
Experience

  • Fix the fundamentals for players and partners
  • Make Xbox the best place for developers and creators to build and grow
  • Overhaul discovery, customization, social and personalization to connect the community
Services

  • Fortify Game Pass with clear differentiation and sustainable economics
  • Return the business to durable growth with strong cost discipline
  • Make cloud play feel native, fast, and reliable across TVs and low-cost devices
  • Use M&A deliberately to accelerate growth where organic paths are too slow
Along the way, we will reevaluate our approach to exclusivity, windowing, and AI, and share more as we learn and decide.

We are Xbox

To achieve our master plan, the way we work must transform.

Our best work happens when the full stack moves together. "Microsoft Gaming" describes our structure but it does not describe our ambition. So, we are going back to where we started and changing our team's name.

We are Xbox.

We are a high agency culture where wild and wonderful ideas thrive. Our job is not to smooth over our differences, but to connect everyone into something greater than any one studio or product.

We have to be honest about where we are. We're a challenger, and meeting this moment will require pace, energy, and a level of self-critique that should feel uncomfortable. At our best we:

  1. Earn every player
  2. Protect our art
  3. Stay rebellious
  4. Progress over perfection
  5. Signal over ceremony
  6. Core before more
  7. Outwork the problem
  8. Speed is learning
  9. Makers over managers
  10. Clarity is kindness
Over the last five years, Xbox and the industry have been through an unimaginable amount of change, and this team has continued to deliver through it for our community. Thank you for staying focused on what matters. 62 days in, we're proud of how we've honored our commitments of great games, return of Xbox, and future of play. We're here to do the most creative and courageous work of our lives, and that's what we'll do together.

With gratitude,

Matt & Asha
Click to expand...

That hurts, women CEOs are really good at that and I mean it in a positive way.
 
Hyper_hyper said:
Looks who is talking about console fanboyism, an Xslop


Are you fucking obtuse? Sony is publishing Nioh on PS, but it is not their IP, for example

www.gamedeveloper.com

Kojima Productions acquires Death Stranding's IP rights

The original Death Stranding comes to Xbox Series X|S as Kojima Productions develops its sequel, due out next year.
www.gamedeveloper.com

Move along
Click to expand...

So glad I've woken up to you being banned.

Typical Sony fanboy who thinks only competitors to their fandom can be unhinged crazy fanboys and then we have to read your pathetic posts every day.

Look in the mirror. There's a few more of you that need to go too. Hopefully having to accept that you've all been wrong for a couple of years will finally send you over the edge to say things to get you permed.

Not that it will do much, you only have to see the amount of new accounts that all seem to have started since 2020 that are pretty constant Sony grifters.

Which side has the shills again?
 
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Queen Asha is doing good work! Damn is she fast in righting the ship that Bond fucked up!

I mean this even puts Phil in a bad light, how did he allowed Sarah so much leeway to destroy Xbox?
 
Rather than daily active players I'd make the north star the number of consoles and accessories sold and the amount of profit generated from physical and digital games sales, microtransactions & game pass subscriptions.

There can be lots of daily active players without a lot of profit generated; especially if they're just playing free to play games (without spending much on microtransactions) or spending time playing games in the lower tier game pass subs.
 
There's no way Microsoft green lights a new M&A project after Activision anytime soon. At least not anything major and certainly not in 2026 or early 2027. Something like IO interactive or Warhorse Studios would work.
 
DenchDeckard said:
So glad I've woken up to you being banned.

Typical Sony fanboy who thinks only competitors to their fandom can be unhinged crazy fanboys and then we have to read your pathetic posts every day.

Look in the mirror. There's a few more of you that need to go too. Hopefully having to accept that you've all been wrong for a couple of years will finally send you over the edge to say things to get you permed.

Not that it will do much, you only have to see the amount of new accounts that all seem to have started since 2020 that are pretty constant Sony grifters.

Which side has the shills again?
Click to expand...
Fuck that was nice to read. Some home truths around here finally. Let's hope the circle jerk is over, hopefully Demicuck is next.
 
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DenchDeckard said:
I would love to know the dirt demigod demigod has on one of the mods :messenger_tears_of_joy:
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Says the guy that pussied out and edited his post fearing he would eat a ban.

DenchDeckard said:
Not that it will do much, you only have to see the amount of new accounts that all seem to have started since 2020 that are pretty constant Sony grifters.

Which side has the shills again?
Click to expand...
This is rich coming from you, Mr. 2021.
 
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Town hall meetings are where words and promises go to die, we've already seen this corporate Merry Go Around movie dozens, if not hundreds of times already. People, (mostly referring to those corporate slaves on X) must be on some really hardcore hopium, if all they got from that insane cherry picking, textbook corpo speak is a return to full time exclusivity.

Like, come on people, do you honestly think they'd give up the one thing that gives their in house studios any shot at profitability? Do you think gamepass will pay back all the money they invest in game production, when renting games on a rental service doesn't really give them a considerable RoI, if any whatsoever?

Basically forcing Microsoft to pay considerable sums of money to keep these games in the service and sustain the devs otherwise you'd witness more pulled funding, studio closures and mass layoffs alongside broken promises and more slop games that play it safe rather than taking risks.Going full exclusive at any point and you'd basically witness the above situation repeating endlessly. From less sales to less profit, less stakeholder confidence, and less funding to more studio closures, mass layoffs and safe, sanitised ip's,

Try going that route, see how "well" it all works out. Damn, these Twitter corpo slugs and their room temp iq make actual grown men laugh. Seeing how she initially acted prior to assuming her role, like making people believe she was no-lifing video games while on the path of becoming a CEO while her playtimes were executed by other people to her formulaic, almost AI generated responses. Those initial actions didn't inspire much confidence then and they sure don't do now.
 
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Giallo Corsa said:
SNooFsCQ0GNiQZz1.jpg
Click to expand...
Klo looks like a person who's never carried in more than one grocery at a fucking time and actually has to ask for freaking directions. Those guys put the "ick" in the word Bootlicker in ways that would make even PlayStation warriors blush and that's really saying something.
 
HeisenbergFX4 said:


Dear team,

Xbox has always been different.

We started with a simple idea. Games should bring people together through shared experiences. That led to the first Xbox in 2001, Xbox Live in 2002, and new ways to connect, from friends lists and achievements to parties and play across devices. Today, Xbox reaches over 500 million players around the world, with some of the most important franchises in entertainment.

From the beginning, Xbox was built by people willing to try things that others wouldn't. We placed a consumer bet inside an enterprise company because we believed gaming would define the living room, and we were at risk of missing it.

That spirit has carried us through the last 25 years, and it is required to carry us forward.

We have work to do

Players are frustrated.

New feature drops on console have been less frequent. Our presence on PC isn't strong enough. Pricing is getting harder for people to keep up with. And core experiences like search, discovery, social, and personalization still feel too fragmented. Developers and publishers are asking for more, too: better tools, better insights, and a platform that helps them grow faster.

At the same time, a new generation of players is coming online with different expectations. Their time is split across games, media, and everything else competing for attention. They expect more content in familiar places, want to shape the worlds they play in, and want to create and socialize together, not just play together.

These changes are happening as the industry reshapes around us.

Console remains large and stable. Windows now represents more players and more hours and is increasingly where competition is most intense. Players have access to more games than ever, even as the cost and time to build blockbuster titles continues to rise, putting pressure on what gets made and how risk is taken. Some of the biggest recent hits are coming from small teams or even single creators, and places like Roblox are producing experiences that rival major franchises in scale. More players are also choosing subscriptions and services as their primary way to play, with expectations set around instant access, ongoing value, and libraries that evolve continuously.

The industry is becoming global and competitive. More than half of the market's revenue, players, and growth are happening outside of our core markets. But the rest of the world is not just a large market. Developers there are increasingly competing with the most established Western studios, combining scale, speed, and a willingness to reinvent genres many once considered mature.

The model that got us here won't be the one that takes us forward.

Xbox will be where the world plays

What does Xbox become in this next era?

Xbox will be where the world plays and creates. We will build a global platform that connects players and creators everywhere. Console is at the foundation, delivering a premium experience, and cloud brings that experience to any device. You can play where you want, and your games, progress, friends, and identity stay with you across console, PC, mobile, and cloud.

Xbox will be built to be affordable, personal, and open. We will offer flexible pricing so it's easy to get started and keep playing. The experience will adapt to you, letting you customize how you play, helping you find what you'll love, and connecting you with the right people. And we will be open to all creators, from individuals to the largest studios, giving anyone the tools to reach a global audience and keep their games growing over time.

Our new north star will be daily active players.

We will execute this through four priorities: hardware, content, experience, and services.

Hardware

  • Stabilize Gen9 as a healthy and high-quality base
  • Deliver Project Helix to lead in performance and play your console and PC games
  • Lead in comfortable, personal, high-performance accessories
  • Build a strong ecosystem that expands choice and reach
Content

  • Grow and extend an enduring portfolio of franchises players love
  • Evolve our 3P partnerships and strengthen our 5-year slate
  • Expand into China, emerging markets, and mobile-first audiences
  • Maintain and grow in live games and long-term stewardship
  • Elevate creator-centric platforms like Minecraft, The Elder Scrolls, and Sea of Thieves
Experience

  • Fix the fundamentals for players and partners
  • Make Xbox the best place for developers and creators to build and grow
  • Overhaul discovery, customization, social and personalization to connect the community
Services

  • Fortify Game Pass with clear differentiation and sustainable economics
  • Return the business to durable growth with strong cost discipline
  • Make cloud play feel native, fast, and reliable across TVs and low-cost devices
  • Use M&A deliberately to accelerate growth where organic paths are too slow
Along the way, we will reevaluate our approach to exclusivity, windowing, and AI, and share more as we learn and decide.

We are Xbox

To achieve our master plan, the way we work must transform.

Our best work happens when the full stack moves together. "Microsoft Gaming" describes our structure but it does not describe our ambition. So, we are going back to where we started and changing our team's name.

We are Xbox.

We are a high agency culture where wild and wonderful ideas thrive. Our job is not to smooth over our differences, but to connect everyone into something greater than any one studio or product.

We have to be honest about where we are. We're a challenger, and meeting this moment will require pace, energy, and a level of self-critique that should feel uncomfortable. At our best we:

  1. Earn every player
  2. Protect our art
  3. Stay rebellious
  4. Progress over perfection
  5. Signal over ceremony
  6. Core before more
  7. Outwork the problem
  8. Speed is learning
  9. Makers over managers
  10. Clarity is kindness
Over the last five years, Xbox and the industry have been through an unimaginable amount of change, and this team has continued to deliver through it for our community. Thank you for staying focused on what matters. 62 days in, we're proud of how we've honored our commitments of great games, return of Xbox, and future of play. We're here to do the most creative and courageous work of our lives, and that's what we'll do together.

With gratitude,

Matt & Asha
Click to expand...

That's the text length when your gf wants to chat with you about something you did in her dream.
 
Last edited:
Hardware

  • Stabilize Gen9 as a healthy and high-quality base
Click to expand...

After years of the snake oil salesman Phil Spencer over promising and under delivering? With Matt Booty as head of Xbox game studios?

7pKzGhtBKH0sOgGS.gif
 
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UltimaKilo said:
There's no way Microsoft green lights a new M&A project after Activision anytime soon. At least not anything major and certainly not in 2026 or early 2027. Something like IO interactive or Warhorse Studios would work.
Click to expand...
If EU allowed it, Middle Earth Friends and Group aka Embracer group is the only one that would make sense. You get Tombraider, LOTR rights in every non book medium, Crystal Dynamics, Warhorse. And they're only few billion dollars worth.
 
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new leadership

same corporate blah blah blah

Xbox is dead, there's no changing that. Rebuilding a console brand depends on the legacy it created, and Xbox created more negative things than positive ones.
 
Pop said:
And just wait for when they announce the new PC hybrid is 1200
Click to expand...
This is when I want to see if "someone will be the Xbox," knowing that you can buy a PC with an Nvidia GPU that will be a better PC.

it's no use, consoles need exclusive games and their own identity, not just paying for multiplatform games so they aren't released on the competition; it needs to be something organic. If Microsoft pays for temporary exclusives, I will simply boycott Xbox and the game. Tomb Raider basically died as a franchise after the partnership with Microsoft.
 
Pop said:
And just wait for when they announce the new PC hybrid is 1200
Click to expand...
I am pretty convinced the pricing will be in the same ballpark as the playstation 6.

As time moves on, I am more and more convinced this console will be very console like and not very much like a pc at all.
 
Mr Reasonable said:
I am pretty convinced the pricing will be in the same ballpark as the playstation 6.

As time moves on, I am more and more convinced this console will be very console like and not very much like a pc at all.
Click to expand...
This sounds like a new Xbox Series X (a console that was less successful than the Xbox One).

 
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