Today during an Xbox all-hands meeting, recently appointed CEO Asha Sharma reportedly announced to employees that the company was scrapping the Microsoft Gaming name for its game division and was going back to calling the department Xbox. The company later confirmed the change via a blog post.
On Thursday, The Verge first reported that Sharma announced the plan to scrap the Microsoft Gaming branding as part of her larger efforts to revitalize and repair the Xbox brand, which in recent years has faced numerous issues including high prices, low console sales, and ire over Microsoft’s continued involvement with Israel and its war against Palestine. According to the outlet, sources say Sharma announced the change back to Xbox while explaining that “Xbox needs to be our identity” and noting that the “Microsoft Gaming” name was a departure.
Kotaku has contacted Xbox about the change.
Later that day, shortly after the report went live, Xbox’s official blog confirmed the news and shared a message that was sent to Xbox employees from Sharma and chief content officer Matt Booty.
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.
Microsoft switched the Xbox division to Microsoft Gaming in 2022, around the time it named former boss Phil Spencer CEO of the newly named division. This happened around the time Microsoft announced plans to buy Activision Blizzard, a massive deal that took nearly two years and many, many court appearances before it was finally wrapped up in October 2023. The idea was for this name to represent that Xbox was growing beyond consoles. Now, as Sharma signals a “return to Xbox” and possibly even a return to exclusive games, plans are changing again, along with the department’s name.
The Verge also reports that a new logo is being tested out by Xbox and that its new logo and the slogan “return to Xbox” have been plastered around the walls of the Xbox office this week alongside messages such as “Great Games” and “Future of Play.”
“62 days in, we’re proud of how we’ve honored our commitments of great games, return of Xbox, and future of play,” said the two Xbox execs in the letter shared on the blog. “We’re here to do the most creative and courageous work of our lives, and that’s what we’ll do together.”