Asha Sharma has made another big change for Xbox by removing the name “Microsoft Gaming” and bringing back “Xbox” as the official name for Microsoft’s gaming division. In an Xbox Wire post called “We Are Xbox,” CEO Asha Sharma and Chief Content Officer Matt Booty explained the reason behind this move. They admitted that the division has been losing players because of higher prices and console features that have not improved enough. In their words, “We have to be honest about where we are.”
Sharma believes that Xbox has to be the brand’s identity, and that the old Microsoft Gaming name felt more like a corporate label than something that matched the team’s “ambition.” Microsoft first started using that name in 2022 during the Activision Blizzard deal, when the company was trying to show that gaming was expanding beyond consoles into PC, mobile, and cloud gaming. It was also connected to the “This is an Xbox” campaign, which has now been removed.
Xbox is also changing how it looks at success. Instead of mainly looking at console sales or total Game Pass subscriptions, Xbox will now focus on daily active players as its new “North Star.” This means the goal is to have more players using Xbox every day. They also confirmed that they are “reevaluating” their approach to exclusives and artificial intelligence.
Some recent changes already show this new direction. Sharma introduced Project Helix as the next generation of Xbox, lowered the price of Game Pass, and made several changes to strengthen the Xbox brand and bring the focus back to the console itself.
In other news, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has publicly invited former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden to “chat sometime” after he shared a “grim prognosis” for the Xbox Game Pass model.
