Xbox has been going through some pretty tumultuous times over the last few months, as longtime head honcho Phil Spencer took a step back to be replaced by Asha Sharma, who stepped into the role of Executive Vice President and CEO of Microsoft Gaming, after spending two years as the President of Core AI Product at Microsoft.
That sudden and unexpected change thrust the future of the platform into doubt, with fans undoubtedly looking for some clear indications of what the company plans to do next. The reveal of Project Helix, the next generation of hardware, probably served up more questions than answers, but things are definitely happening.
As part of that, the company has now quietly ended one of its biggest marketing campaigns, and it could be a great indicator of their approximate plans for the future.
Xbox Has Ended One Of Its Biggest Campaigns
As of March 11, Microsoft has quietly withdrawn one of their most significant marketing campaigns of the last decade (via Windows Central), with all traces of the “This is an Xbox” advertising disappearing from all of their sights overnight.
If you don’t remember it, it essentially equated a bunch of different items to an Xbox in one form or another, with the idea being that players could play and interact with the company’s ecosystem in more ways than ever before. It tangentially led to novelty items like the Xbox fridge, and while it was undoubtedly fun at the time, it may not have been the best move in the long run.
A large portion of the fan base, as well as plenty of experts, argued that it didn’t really do anything to show off how unique and impressive the actual consoles they were making were, and it’s likely that line of thinking that has led to the decision to withdraw it entirely,
It could be the first sign that the new leadership is really intending to dial in on what exactly they want the Xbox brand to be moving forward, and how they can set it apart in a very competitive industry.
What Does The Future Hold For Xbox?
As mentioned earlier, we already know about Project Helix, and integration between the Xbox platform and PC gamers is only likely to go up from here. Though we don’t have specs for the new hardware yet, it’s almost certainly going to be a hyper-premium release (relative to normal console prices) that can comfortably play any Xbox and PC games that players want to boot up.
Outside of that, we’ll have to wait for more from Sharma et Al. to know exactly where Xbox is headed, but a change of direction was undoubtedly needed, so hopefully they can hit the right notes over the next year, and get this new era started positively.
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
