This is the end of an unpopular Xbox marketing era, as Microsoft appears to have quietly axed its “This is an Xbox” campaign following the recent shakeup in Xbox leadership.
For those uninitiated with the now seemingly deceased campaign, “This is an Xbox” was a tagline used by the company to promote the Xbox brand as something more than just a console, but rather a comprehensive service that could be accessed across a wide variety of platforms, including laptops, TV’s, handhelds, or VR headsets.
While the logic was sound, this campaign proved controversial and unpopular, and many saw it as a move by Xbox to focus on other devices instead of the console of its namesake, leading many to believe that this shift in priorities could signal the demise of the long-running gaming console.
Now, following the departure of gaming CEO Phil Spencer and his assumed successor, Sarah Bond, both the brains behind the campaign, the company has seemingly decided to shake things up. First spotted by Game Developer, the original blog post that kicked off the marketing campaign has been completely removed from Xbox Wire, with the page now leading to a 404 error. Additionally, searching for the campaign tag across the entire Xbox Wire site also leads to the same error page, meaning Microsoft have intentionally scrubbed all mention of the campaign.
This quiet campaign removal seems to be a tactical move by new gaming CEO Asha Sharma, as previous reports, such as ones from The Verge, have claimed that the strategy had led to discourse among some Xbox employees, who found fault with how it was communicated and were displeased by the company’s apparent pivot away from consoles.
Sharma looks to be having an already busy few weeks since starting her new role in February, as she also recently confirmed that the next-generation Xbox, titled “Project Helix”, would be able to play both Xbox and PC games.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
Si Jia
