Xbox CEO Asha Sharma changed the Xbox brand name to XBOX after holding a vote on Twitter. Sharma took over as Xbox boss from Phil Spencer in February 2026 and has made several changes at the company, particularly to its look and branding. In May, the company changed the Xbox logo and updated its current consoles with a matching nostalgic boot-up screen. The black logo features translucent neon green branding reminiscent of the original Xbox.
Despite only holding the role for three months, Sharma has made numerous changes that have been received well by fans. In particular, Xbox cut the price of Game Pass in an attempt to return the service to its roots as an affordable option for players. While subscribers need to pay every month for the service, it allows them to choose from a large library of games that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to. In exchange, Call of Duty will no longer be available on the subscription service at launch, though this trade-off has been seen as positive by Xbox players, not all of whom play the popular shooter series.
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Xbox Changes Branding to XBOX
Sharma is known to take feedback from Xbox users, but the latest marketing trick has put its players firmly in the driving seat. Posting a poll on Twitter, the CEO asked her followers to vote for either Xbox or XBOX. The capitalized version of the Xbox name has been used frequently on logos and in marketing over the years, but the lower case version is still used in other forms of writing. Part of Sharma’s strategy is to harken back to the Xbox 360 era, which was one of the company’s most successful. This includes removing the ‘This Is An Xbox’ marketing campaign, which claimed various tech items like phones and computers under the Xbox moniker, and changing the name of Microsoft Gaming back to Xbox.
The poll received more than 19,000 votes, with almost 65% of respondents preferring the XBOX name over Xbox. Xbox’s social media pages later changed to the fully capitalized name, though it still uses the lower-case version in posts and other writing. While this move is likely just to pay lip service to players’ choices, it’s part of Sharma’s wider stance on catering to Xbox users. She has frequently asserted that she is listening to player feedback, such as calls from players to bring back Xbox-exclusive games. While Xbox’s latest release, Forza Horizon 6, is only a timed Microsoft exclusive, Sharma has already acted on other player demands, such as canceling the development of Copilot for Xbox.
GameRant Quiz
Easy (15s)Medium (10s)Hard (5s)Permadeath (5s)
Sharma has stepped up within Xbox at a time when it hasn’t reached Microsoft’s revenue goals for many years. Following the last financial report, she acknowledged that Xbox’s revenue is down compared to the same quarter last year, and that work needs to be done to bring Xbox back to its best. With the changes that she has already made over the last few months, Sharma seems determined to try a different approach at the company, which has suffered thousands of devastating layoffs over the last few years.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)
Forza Horizon 6 is the first Xbox Studios game to launch under her leadership, and it has been released to great success. Not only did it quickly become the highest-rated game of the year, but it sold more than a million copies in its early access period alone. It won’t be made clear if Sharma’s player-forward approach has translated into increased revenue for Xbox until the next financial quarter, but given the response from fans, things are looking positive.
