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Microsoft XBox (Games)

Billions of Dollars Later and Still Nobody Knows What an Xbox Is (theverge.com) 65

Posted by msmash from the existential-crisis dept.
Microsoft has spent more than $76 billion acquiring game studios and publishers over the past few years in an attempt to turn Xbox into a Netflix-like subscription platform, and the result is that nobody -- possibly not even Microsoft -- can clearly articulate what Xbox actually is anymore, The Verge writes.

The brand started as a powerful video game console, but Game Pass and cloud gaming pushed it toward a hazier identity: the "This is an Xbox" ad campaign tried to redefine it as any device that could play Xbox games, whether a PC, a smart TV, a phone, or a Windows handheld. Microsoft then went further and started publishing its biggest franchises on PlayStation, making it one of the largest third-party publishers on a rival's platform.

Phil Spencer, who led the division for over a decade and drove the subscription pivot, announced his retirement last week, and incoming CEO Asha Sharma has pledged "the return of Xbox" -- though her memo also talks about expanding across PC, mobile, and cloud, which sounds a lot like the status quo.
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Billions of Dollars Later and Still Nobody Knows What an Xbox Is More

Billions of Dollars Later and Still Nobody Knows What an Xbox Is

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  • Autoplay video (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2026 @12:09PM (#66007750)

    Oh great now we see ads for twitch.tv that autoplay and sidestep uBlock origin.

    • Is that what Privacy Badger has been telling me about? I can't remember now who recommended it to me (Drinkypoo?), but it killed the thing you're talking about.

    • Where? Here on Slashdot?

      Just leave javascript disabled on Slashdot and you'll not encounter stuff like that. (I use noscript for that purpose, you may need something else depending on what you use for a web browser.)

      • I tried that and it pretty much broke the comments.

        -pause to allow people to say they'd prefer it if I couldn't comment-

        Thanks to my friend/foe drinkypoo, I was able to ditch the ads with some ublock tweaks and Privacy Badger.

    • Slashdot has made it clear that they are not content with the money that can be made from the tame, well-behaved ads that ad blockers allow through, and they must impose obnoxious adds on us that ruin our reading experience and expose us to risks of malware.

      I have noticed that any time they manage to skirt AdBlock Plus, after a few days AdBlock Plus blocks their trick again. It's a cat-and-mouse game I suppose.

      The simple truth is none of us need Slashdot. This site just aggregates news from other sites.

  • Let Linux be an Xbox (Score:4, Interesting)

    by xack ( 5304745 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2026 @12:27PM (#66007786)
    Time to get some goodwill and market share and officially support Linux with Xbox games. You can't use the "no demand" excuse anymore when Linux has more users than MacOS on Steam.
    • I have to point out that this is in part due to MacOS deprecating all 32-bit programs in 2019. Huge swaths of 'MacOS' games on Steam wont run anymore.

      • Which is not entirely a bad thing. If the studio is (was) still earning money from macOS players but were still x86 32bits... maybe they can recompile for 64 bits or even better for ARM so it can run natively on Apple CPUs.

        My son likes to play terraria and the latest update a few weeks ago is now native and it really helped with the performance on his M1 MacBook.

        Now if folks really really want to be able to play these older titles it is always possible to run older macOS versions, legally, through emulation

    • You can't use the "no demand" excuse anymore when Linux has more users than MacOS on Steam.

      Except MacOS is also an example of "no demand", so beating that is like being the second weakest kid in the school and declaring yourself an entry into a powerlifting contest. The only "demand" for Linux gaming has been driven almost exclusively by the Steamdeck, and that has shown Linux gaming works quite well (except for online competitive) without official support.

      I wish Linux gaming had marketable demand, but it simply doesn't.

      • I wish Linux gaming had marketable demand, but it simply doesn't.

        There is a large group of Windows users that cannot migrate to Windows 11 because MS deems their hardware as insufficient even though users have shown that Windows 11 will run fine on that same hardware in a VM. If the primary use of a Windows machine is gaming, a user does not have to upgrade/buy a computer to keep gaming.

  • Xbox? (Score:1)

    by Z80a ( 971949 )

    Xbox is that thing that microsoft probably seem as "the thing consumers force us to have".
    If was what microsoft actually wanted, Xbox would not exist, and instead they would have a dominant online marketstore built-in to windows where people buy all their everything, instead of something like steam existing.
    Dumbass consumers choosing something that is more or less good for em instead of something that is good for microsoft.

  • Define "nobody" (Score:3)

    by unixisc ( 2429386 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2026 @12:32PM (#66007802)
    Xbox has been around a while, and has its marketshare. It is also available on PCs, and anyone w/ a Microsoft account can access it. And it's not like Microsoft has a marginal presence in the overall computer market

    • Re:Define "nobody" (Score:5, Insightful)

      by UnknowingFool ( 672806 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2026 @12:44PM (#66007854)

      Xbox has been around a while, and has its marketshare. It is also available on PCs, and anyone w/ a Microsoft account can access it. And it's not like Microsoft has a marginal presence in the overall computer market

      Did you read the summary or even the article? The problem is not nobody knows the brand "Xbox". The problem is MS marketing has been shifting the branding to include PCs, phones, smart TVs, etc creating lots of confusion. In October 2025, Asus launched the ROG Xbox Ally; it cannot play Xbox games but PC games. Anyone buying it would have to read the fine print that it cannot play their Xbox games they may have previously purchased.

      • XBox used to be a good console, but now that you can play all XBox games on your PC or laptop, the console is meaningless.

        • XBox used to be a good console, but now that you can play all XBox games on your PC or laptop, the console is meaningless.

          Only if there is a PC version. While many Xbox games are on PC, not all Xbox games are on PC.

          • If there's a PC version (like you used to have to buy a PC version or a Mac version of Warcraft II), then what's the point of having an XBox version?
            If some XBox games aren't PC-playable... what prevents them from being PC-playable (aside from a greedy money grab)?

            • Some games only have an Xbox version especially older titles. No one created a port that works on PC due to time, money, licensing, etc. Some PC games never got an Xbox version for a variety of reasons. For example games that require a full keyboard like RTS games ie StarCraft2

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        Xbox has been around a while, and has its marketshare. It is also available on PCs, and anyone w/ a Microsoft account can access it. And it's not like Microsoft has a marginal presence in the overall computer market

        Did you read the summary or even the article? The problem is not nobody knows the brand "Xbox". The problem is MS marketing has been shifting the branding to include PCs, phones, smart TVs, etc creating lots of confusion. In October 2025, Asus launched the ROG Xbox Ally; it cannot play Xbox games but PC games. Anyone buying it would have to read the fine print that it cannot play their Xbox games they may have previously purchased.

        The problem isn't that no-one knows what the XBox brand is, it's pretty much common knowledge.

        The problem is no-one wants the Xbox brand, not even most XBox owners (they're just stuck with it.

        Marketers and managers refuse to accept the obvious and simple reality that no-one wants their product and services because better alternatives exist (GOG, Steam, et al) so they think that it must be no-one knows about it and this can be fixed through the Magic of Marketing. Not like we haven't seen umpteen singl

        • The problem is no-one wants the Xbox brand, not even most XBox owners (they're just stuck with it.

          No the issue being brought up has nothing to do with "want". The issue brought up is brand confusion. By marketing "Xbox" as everything and anything MS deems, it causes confusion as to what that brand means. Honda has a popular car model named "Civic". Honda also manufacturers motorcycles, generators, and lawnmowers. The analogy would be if Honda decided to name their different machines as now all "Civics": 2026 Civic Touring Bike, Civic 2200W inverter generator, Civic 8Ah battery lawnmower . Yes right no

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kriston ( 7886 )

      I have Xbox Live for my Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.
      None of those games run on the Xbox app on my Windows 11 PC.

      Explain.

  • It's about the games that aren't on competitors platforms.
    • Sucks for Microsoft that the studios they spent all of that money on aren't making games that most people care about. Sony isn't faring much better with their own acquisitions either in that regard. It was even more pointless for MS to even try that when a lot of those titles come out on PC as well. If TES: VI doesn't turn out to be a complete turd I can get it for PC. They would have better spent their money funding dozens of small teams to develop entirely new IP for their console. Even if 80% of them flo
      • Breaking up the studios might be a good idea. Put people to work on new ideas that aren't too expensive to flop, instead of focusing on "Assassin's Creed 23.8 - The Return of Enzo's great-great-great-great grandson, but in space this time."

        Side note - I hate them for taking what was supposed to be a tight trilogy and turning it into a forever IP.

  • It's a video game console. (Score:3)

    by Qbertino ( 265505 ) <moiraNO@SPAMmodparlor.com> on Tuesday February 24, 2026 @12:35PM (#66007818)

    Obviously. Yeah, they spread themselves a little to thin and tried everything and the kitchen sink for current gen, right after initially botching their last gen launch epic style, but it's still a console and anybody who knows anything about videogaming knows this. This sensationalist headlining is super-annoying, isn't it?

  • Xbox? (Score:5, Funny)

    by TwistedGreen ( 80055 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2026 @12:35PM (#66007820)

    They should just rename it to X, since there is no longer a box involved.

    Problem solved.

    • Or make Xbox into a steam box competitor? Like Xbox becomes known as an emulation layer that allows you to play your game that you purchased in one place anywhere that Xbox runs.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Falos ( 2905315 )

      "Please stop calling it the X-Bone."

  • GamePass breaks the feedback loop between player and developers and makes Xbox gamers a 'renter' class.
    • Which makes Xbox but a landlord.

      • That was always true because they always locked everything down, albeit poorly in the case of the original Xbox.

        • You could say that about every console though, right? I remember that when I worked at Electronics Boutique, people would come in with Playstations that had slightly damaged cd readers on account of the wacky process people used to play pirated games on it. We'd usually just swap them out, especially if the customer was a regular. The consoles would still work fine unless you tried the disc-swapping trick, so they just got resold.

          • Indeed I do not know of any consoles which were not wholly opened back in the day. As far as I understand, the modern Xbox and Playstation are actually some of the most successfully hardened computers in history. There are immense numbers of parties attempting to defeat them, and any interested party can get their hands on them, so it's not at all surprising.

            I used to have a chipped PSX and a chipped Saturn, and I modded the software on the Xbox a whole lot. After that it got to be something of a hassle and

            • I had a college roommate with a chipped Xbox (fist gen), with XBMC loaded on it, but I never tried anything of the sort with my PSX. It just didn't seem worthwhile, especially since I do the bulk of my gaming on PC.

              XBMC blew me away though. We had it running NES emulators and all sorts of wacky stuff.

    • Gamepass incentivizes shovelware for sure, but then again most people seem content to wallow in slop so maybe it's What the People Want.

      • No, it's what some psychopathic C-suite executives want. No one else likes the model which is why it's failing miserably. Those people need to be beaten with a hose until the mere thought of software as a service makes recoil in terror.

  • I do. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JustNiz ( 692889 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2026 @12:44PM (#66007852)

    It's a locked down overpriced low spec gaming pc that you can't install your own software on.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by 0123456 ( 636235 )

      The ultimate goal is presumably to eliminate all functionality from the "low spec gaming PC" and charge you by the hour to run the games on Microsoft's servers with the video data sent to you over the Internet.

      Microsoft is already well into the rentier phase of big business decline where they can't produce anything new that people want but they can charge increasingly-high rent to people who are locked into their systems.

    • It's a locked down overpriced low spec gaming pc that you can't install your own software on.

      Overpriced might be misstating it, given modern prices. I enjoy my XBox a lot more than my PC. It works a lot better with my kids and on a TV than any PC does. Some want to sit at a desk all by themselves and play on a PC. I like playing couch co-op games with my kids. While I am not sure I made the right choice in picking XBox over PS5 5 years ago, it was a LOT cheaper than the gaming PC I bought and it worked a lot better. We tried hooking the gaming PC up to a TV. It was a fucking nightmare with

  • How about do your job as a reporter and ask Microsoft instead of making stupid remarks that show you haven't done your job?
  • I use my kid's Xbox as a streaming console since it's much more capable than the built-in hardware in my several-years-old Smart TV.
  • Split Xbox to hardware - Xbox Home & Gaming Hub or similar, that can play Xbox games, stream an owned Xbox game to another device, stream media from all the various sources, and act as a voice activated Home Assistant with your smart connected devices - and to software XBox App, that plays streamed games (from your own XBox or MS gaming studios) and streamed media on non-Xbox hardware. If gaming hardware is getting too expensive, have a different SKU Xbox Home Hub that drops the gaming GPU and all that

  • Microsoft has spent more than $76 billion acquiring game studios and publishers over the past few years in an attempt to turn Xbox into a Netflix-like subscription platform, and the result is that nobody -- possibly not even Microsoft -- can clearly articulate what Xbox actually is anymore

    In somewhat related news, WTF is this Copilot thing all about?!

  • I don't know what the Xbox app on my PC is for.
    It won't play the games I paid for on my Xbox.
    It won't use my Xbox controllers.

    I just never understood what Microsoft was is trying to achieve, here.

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