Lee Garbutt: "The Nintendo Switch has been revealed - Here's what we think we know about it!"
Gamesbeat caught up with Blackley to extract some wisdom about Microsoft’s journey in games, what he thinks Sharma should do, and where gaming can go next. Part of his message is hopeful, but Blackley sees a lot of peril on the road that Microsoft is following. And it makes him worry about the future of gaming.
Sarah Bond's "Xbox everywhere" strategy and controversial "This is an Xbox" campaign have been blamed for alienating Xbox employees and failing to deliver results, with multiple sources telling they're relieved by her departure.
This adds more clarity to the situation. She was in charge of marketing so I 100% do. Believe this was her. The fact that she pissed off a lot of ppl with this campaign was interesting. The kicker she kicked you out if you questioned her moves. Sounds like a Satya move to me.
Ok when it comes to the marketing of the Xbox maybe not get rid of where Xbox is at but advertise the console, bundle 1 month of GP and have "xbox everywhere" as a side thing or just a minor thing. It's too late for Series consoles but do this with their next console. If GP is 30$ this needs to justified ASAP put all of ABK. Remake remaster popular games and put those out on the service. Have a handful of AAA games come day one even. Perma exclusivety is dead however they can be timed. The would at least give ppl a somewhat of a reason to invest. Satya will not allow permanent exclusives again.
Do I still think Xbox is dead? Depends, how much will Satya not get involved and let Asha and Matt figure something out. The more I think about it, I think Satya only really gets involved if the financials aren't lookin so hot. I think Xbox going multiplat was a result of wanting make their money back from ABK and of course raise their unreasonable and near unrealistic margins.
Anyway, things did get interesting and adds nuance just how Xbox is ran.
I’ve read that article they put out on this and it just sounds like a massive hit piece on her. They’ve basically thrown her under the bus.
I highly doubt all of this was just her idea, especially the multiplatform stuff.
Ever since the Zenimax and Activision deal all eyes have been on the Xbox department. There’s no way she’d have acted alone with decisions as big as these, Phil Spencer and Satya Nadella would have been all over this aswell, especially with them both being higher than her.
When they brought her in I thought to myself she’d be used as a scape goat and here we are.
It’s the exact same thing they did when Don Mattrick left “oh it wasn’t our idea, it was all Don, our new leader Phil Spencer is a gamer and will turn things around”.
Exactly, they always have to pin it on someone. Everything was Don Mattrick's fault before. Now everything is Sarah Bond's fault.
People act like these companies don't have focus groups, board meetings, focus testing, etc for these ideas before they hit.
They'd rather blame her rather than the product they asked her to market. How else was she going to market playing your xbox games on any device? Has anyone stopped to think that the marketing was bad because the product itself was bad?
But I don't feel sorry for her, she knew the kind of people she was working with
Would it still be a hit piece if it was actually true? If she really was behind the whole everything is an xbox... then I say they took the chance and it didnt pay off. Most companies let people go over bad decisions like that.
That's just it darth72, it more than likely isn't the truth because we know she didn't have control over everything at Xbox. That would be Phil Spencer, who has Don Mattrick's old position.
And to be fair, even he can't be blamed for everything since it's highly unlikely all this goes on without Nadella's blessing at some point
While I am sure she played a key role in “everything is an Xbox” it is still a hit piece. We can’t forget that Phil was in charge and at the very least gave it his blessing.
this was definitely Not her own idea.
phil and others had their grubby hands all over it.
i never particularly liked her cause she so lived in delulu land, but i guess she did what she could, given in the bad state xbox was and still is
If you read Kotaku even semi-regularly, you already know that Xbox has been in a weird spot for some time now. And with today’s news that both Xbox boss Phil Spencer and President Sarah Bond are leaving and the new head of the brand will be a former Meta exec who previously lead Microsoft’s AI division, I think it’s time to call it. Xbox is dead. Time of death: February 20, 2026
This brand died in the last 2 years of 360 since Kinect announcement.. downfall started all of a sudden until reaching the point of no return with xbox 1 DRM disasters
So ready to defend that you posted it twice.
In any event, I have a more accurate quote: "It's dead, Jim".
Also Mark Twain:
I have never wished death on anyone but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.
While I normally agree... The future of xbox is on shaky ground. Well, xbox as we know it. Im not sure what they are shooting for but who they put in charge mixed with Phil retiring and bond just flat out leaving. It's not looking good.
Im with you but in western countries I have noticed a trend to put women in control to prevent any kind of critics.
Copilot is running the xbox division now, its first official act was fire Spencer and Bond then sell Xbox for scraps.
Oh come on, Xbox has been dead for at least 10 years now. I think what’s more important right now is Playstation’s death that is very slowly but surely happening through mismanagement and greed.
He's being clowned on by the entire internet but i have been clowning on him way before he became CEO. I hate modern PS so much man. To this day i have no idea how Astro Bot happend in this terrible PS era but that was clearly a miracle.
Every. Time! They compare the closing of a studio (one I liked, mind you, but they know their business better than internet dwellers) to the departure of not one but TWO major figureheads at Xbox. On top of Xbox's other problems, they are also now selling their games everywhere (not just PC).
Sorry diehard Xbox fanatics, we've been down this road before. PlayStation has closed studios. It happens. Maybe they weren't pulling their weight. Maybe they have a restructure in place. What ever the case, it won't come any close to tanking their brand. Xbox isn't in that boat. As a piece of hardware, it is all but irrelevant (hanging on only because of Game Pass at this point). It serves no other purpose because you don't even need that console to play its games. If it was just Xbox/PC, that would be different, but here we are.
So, this isn't the SonyToo that y'all love to hang on. Things are not good for Xbox hardware. At all. It is about time to start accepting that.
Respectfully, This is probably one of my least favorite tactics in making an argument.
I'll give you an example: If I like the color red, it doesn't mean I hate the color blue.
People lamenting the (potential) demise of the xbox brand has nothing to do with sony or playstation. It has everything to do with xbox. Now, for the sake of argument, you could say that Sony and Microsoft are two peas in a pod, and that they've both made absolutely baffling and worryingly stupid decisions in the recent past. But I truly believe that Xbox would be shooting itself in the foot regardless of Sony's presence (I look at you, Xbox One reveal with always online DRM and the inability to share games).
Sony, on the other hand, is making stupid decisions to stay competitive with the market, and like Microsoft, is seemingly forcing by proverbial gunpoint talented developers to try to make the next GAAS experience and never learning their lesson. I believe that Microsoft squandering RARE is the equivalent of Sony squandering Naughty Dog. Neither platform really knows what they want to be, BUT Sony is alot further along in figuring it out before Microsoft pulls out another revolver and takes aim at another of it's own toes.
Xbox died after the Xbox 360. The Xbox One was mediocre, the Series X was game shy. I'm glad Phil is retiring.
Exaggerated projection of xbox problems onto Sony. This is what gave xbox the extra slack all these generations to eventually run themselves into the ground.
This is why the views and comments are low, with lame articles that use divide-and-conquer pretensions.
To be fair "divide and conquer pretensions" have been present in the comment section of this website for years regardless of the articles title, composition or intent. It's therefore unlikely that's what's playing a part in low viewership and commenting.
