Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced during an all-hands meeting on Thursday that the company is scrapping the 'Microsoft Gaming' name in favor of returning to the original 'Xbox' identity. The change, which was confirmed via an official Xbox blog post, marks a major shift for the division's branding strategy.
According to a report from Kotaku, the announcement was part of a company-wide memo shared by Sharma and Chief Content Officer Matt Booty. The move aims to revitalize a brand that has recently struggled with high pricing, low console sales, and public backlash regarding Microsoft's involvement in the Israel-Palestine conflict, as reported by The Verge.
In the memo, Sharma and Booty addressed the shift in branding by emphasizing a unified mission. “Our best work happens when the full stack moves together. Microsoft Gaming describes our structure, but it does not describe our ambition. So, we are going back to where we started and changing our team’s name. We are Xbox,” the executives wrote.
Reevaluating Exclusivity and AI
Beyond the rebranding, the new leadership is signaling a potential departure from the recent trend of multi-platform releases. In the same memo, Sharma and Booty stated that the company will “reevaluate our approach to exclusivity, windowing, and AI, and share more as we learn and decide.”
This signals a possible reversal of the strategy used over the last two years, during which Xbox has ported titles like Sea of Thieves, Forza Horizon, and Gears of War to PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. While recent hits like Starfield have successfully launched on PS5, the new directive suggests the era of platform-agnostic releases may be under review.
Existing release schedules for upcoming titles currently remain unchanged. For instance, the Halo: Combat Evolved remake is still slated to arrive on PlayStation at or shortly after launch later this year. However, the future of titles like Gears of War: E-Day, which is scheduled for a 2026 launch on Xbox and PC, remains uncertain if the exclusivity model is retracted.
A Return to Brand Identity
Internal changes at the Xbox office appear to be well underway. The Verge reports that a new logo is currently being tested and that the office walls have been decorated with the slogan “return to Xbox” alongside messages like “Great Games” and “Future of Play.”
This rebranding effort follows the 2022 decision by former CEO Phil Spencer to rename the division Microsoft Gaming. That name change was intended to reflect the expansion of the brand beyond consoles following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, a deal that closed in October 2023.
Sharma and Booty noted that the team has already begun implementing these changes. “62 days in, we’re proud of how we’ve honored our commitments of great games, return of Xbox, and future of play,” the executives stated in the shared letter.
