Microsoft's Xbox transition moves into high gear | Opinion

gamesindustry.biz:

It's been clear for quite a few years that Microsoft's notion of what "Xbox" actually means has evolved past physical consoles alone. It now describes a whole ecosystem of software and services that spans all sorts of devices, and which is itself just one outlet for Microsoft's enormous game publishing business.

It's taken a while for the industry to wrap its collective head around this change and some of the unusual bedfellows it has created – such as Microsoft now being one of the biggest third-party publishers on PlayStation. Given the novelty and complexity of the situation, there's been an open question about how it would be communicated to consumers. How do you tell the world what Xbox actually is now?

This week, we got a good look at Microsoft's first real attempt at solving that problem – the "This is an Xbox" marketing campaign, which will use that slogan to highlight the fact that phones, computers, streaming devices, VR headsets, and smart TVs are all "Xboxes", as are the existing Xbox Series S and X consoles.

The messaging is simple and fun, and it's a good effort at communicating an incredibly complex evolution of the Xbox ecosystem in a way that disposes of much of that complexity and instead highlights the core benefit to consumers.

It's probably going to go down like a lead balloon with a lot of Xbox core fans nonetheless. This evolution is a bitter pill for them to swallow, especially since it brings with it certain changes that – while entirely commercially sensible – look awfully like capitulation to a certain breed of veteran console warrior.

Microsoft's game titles steadily becoming multi-platform by default and picking up plenty of their sales on PlayStation is a tough thing to accept for people who have pinned part of their identity to Xbox consoles. They question what future there can be for game consoles whose platform holder has lost interest in the idea of software exclusives; a valid question in light of decades of industry logic about