{"id":626588,"date":"2026-04-23T22:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/626588\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T22:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:14:10","slug":"microsoft-gaming-changes-name-to-xbox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/626588\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Gaming Changes Name to Xbox"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microsoft\u2019s gaming business is going back to its original name: Xbox<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Four years after the tech giant changed the division\u2019s name to Microsoft Gaming<\/a>, its leaders have decided to change the name back to Xbox and laid out their vision for the next stage of the business.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Microsoft\u00a0Gaming\u2019 describes our structure but it does not describe our ambition.\u00a0So, we are going back to where we started and changing our team\u2019s\u00a0name,\u201d CEO Asha Sharma<\/a> and chief content officer Matt Booty said in a memo to staffers Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo achieve our master plan, the way we work must transform,\u201d Sharma and Booty said in the memo, titled \u201cWe Are Xbox.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharma, most recently president of product development for Microsoft\u2019s CoreAI division, took over leadership of Microsoft\u2019s games division in February following the exit of Phil Spencer<\/a>. The company had officially adopted the Microsoft Gaming name in January 2022<\/a>, when Microsoft announced its deal to acquire Activision Blizzard in a $69 billion deal (which closed in October 2023<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Sharma and Booty laid out the challenges for the Xbox team. \u201cWe have work to do,\u201d they wrote. \u201cPlayers are frustrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issues, as spelled out in their memo, include the following: New feature drops on console have been less frequent; Xbox\u2019s presence on PC isn\u2019t strong enough; pricing is \u201cgetting harder for people to keep up with; and core experiences like search, discovery, social and personalization still feel \u201ctoo fragmented.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The two execs name-checked Roblox: \u201cSome 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Microsoft\u2019s games division announced it was dropping the price of its\u00a0Xbox Game Pass\u00a0subscription plans while also holding back new \u201cCall of Duty\u201d titles<\/a> for about a year.<\/p>\n

Sharma and Booty said about Xbox\u2019s future strategy, \u201cConsole 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going forward, they wrote, \u201cOur new north star will be daily active players.\u201d<\/p>\n

They said Xbox will execute that strategy through four priorities: hardware, content, experience and services.<\/p>\n

In terms of hardware, the Xbox team must \u201cstabilize Gen9 as a healthy and high-quality base\u201d and deliver Project Helix to \u201clead in performance and play\u201d on console and PC games. Xbox also will \u201cbuild a strong ecosystem that expands choice and reach,\u201d the execs wrote.<\/p>\n

On the content front, Xbox will \u201cgrow and extend an enduring portfolio of franchises players love,\u201d as well as expand into China, emerging markets and mobile-first audiences, according to the execs. The division also will \u201cmaintain and grow in live games and long-term stewardship\u201d and elevate creator-centric platforms like Minecraft, The Elder Scrolls and Sea of Thieves.<\/p>\n

Regarding experience, Xbox must \u201cfix the fundamentals for players and partners\u201d and \u201cmake Xbox the best place for developers and creators to build and grow,\u201d Sharma and Booty said.<\/p>\n

In services, Xbox will \u201cfortify Game Pass with clear differentiation and sustainable economics\u201d and \u201creturn the business to durable growth with strong cost discipline,\u201d per the execs\u2019 memo. Xbox also will \u201cuse M&A deliberately to accelerate growth where organic paths are too slow.\u201d In addition, they said, \u201cwe will reevaluate our approach to exclusivity, windowing, and AI, and share more as we learn and decide.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Microsoft\u2019s gaming business is going back to its original name: Xbox. Four years after the tech giant changed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[249127,64,63,257621,105,7476],"class_list":{"0":"post-626588","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-asha-sharma","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-microsoft-gaming","12":"tag-technology","13":"tag-xbox"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}