It appears that the Xbox is no longer just a box. Earlier today, the company’s official accounts released a new 30-second commercial, showcasing the brand’s new campaign message: “This is an Xbox.”

To the sound of Black Sheep’s 1991 hip-hop track “The choice is yours” The video begins with a Series X console and bold green text reading “This is an Xbox.” It then pivots to a smart TV, phone, handheld, and laptop, all of which are now considered Xboxes.

On the surface, the the campaign makes perfect sense. Xbox-Cloud Games launched in 2019 and Xbox games have been available on PC for even longer. If players have an Xbox account, they can stream their purchased games or the Xbox Games Pass library to various devices anywhere they have a high-speed internet connection.

So why do people concerned about the message?

On social media, many fans have expressed their displeasure that the Xbox is somehow abandon the home console market. It is true that this generation of hardware, led by the Xbox Series and the less powerful S series, hasn’t been a huge success since Microsoftwith reports in May indicating that Sony’s PlayStation 5 was outperforming Xbox consoles by almost 5 to 1.

Many declared that the The “console wars” are overreferring to the old nomenclature for the rivalry between companies like Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, which swept through much of the Internet discourse in the 2000s.

But is Xbox really putting an end to its console market in favor of cloud gaming? The answer is no, but it’s more complicated than that.

rolling stone recently met with the CEO of Xbox Phil Spencer in New York to discuss the future of the brand, where he discussed the themes of the campaign ahead of its official launch.

“It’s an interesting topic because when we look at the brand, as we change it, it means something different,” Spencer said. “It was literally a box when it launched. It was the Direct X box. What has become today is greater accessibility. Xbox is not just a device, Xbox is on your smart TV, Xbox is on your PC, Xbox is on your phone and we are in the middle of this transition.

To his credit, Spencer is well aware that some fans would ultimately be turned off by the campaign, having said that some people “yearn for the simplicity of one box, one platform, one game,” but also noted that “the biggest game today”. the games are bigger than any of the individual platforms.

Spencer spent most of his career at Microsoft and Xbox, starting as an intern in 1988 and joining the Xbox team when it launched in 2001. Knowing the company’s past, he believes that Xbox’s DNA remains the even as the business scales. . “I think what should really last is the games, the characters and the world – and the platforms should allow us to discover the games we want to play. This is how we think of Xbox today.

The number of games offered by Xbox for these platforms has increased significantly since the acquisition of ZeniMax Media (owners of Bethesda Game Works, id Software and Arkane Studios) in 2021 and Activision Blizzard in 2023. In just three years , the industry has seen a big change, with properties like Ancient scrolls, To fall, Loss, World of Warcraft, Diabloand the heavy weight Call of Duty franchise now owned by Microsoft. But the company hasn’t forced most of its games to remain exclusive, allowing cross-platform launches and day-one support for multiple or staggered releases with games like the next one. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle arriving on PlayStation 5 a few months after its debut on Xbox and PC.

But even with the acquisitions, it hasn’t been an entirely smooth road, with high-profile games like Red fall (2023), Star Field (2023), and The Saga of Senua: Hellblade II (2024) receiving a lukewarm reception from fans and critics. Although sales for Star Field were strong at the start, the game the player base has decreased even with the recently released Broken space expansion. The poor performance of these first-party titles and continued support from other platforms has only fueled the fire of gamers who claim that Xbox will soon abandon console gaming.

Speaking of consoles, Spencer said he loves that people are buying Xbox hardware, but notes that it’s not a growing market. “Our biggest growth in terms of Xbox players is on PC and in the cloud,” he said. “Console space is not growing overall. We love these customers, but to continue to grow and grow Xbox, it’s about PC, cloud, and making our games more available in more places.

As for whether the company’s focus on cloud streaming and anywhere devices means they’ll stop developing new home consoles, Spencer had a definitive answer.

“We will definitely do more consoles in the future, as well as other devices.”

These “other devices” will likely include a mobile version of Xbox hardware to compete with the burgeoning portable PC trend that has taken off in recent years with systems like the Asus ROG Ally (which Spencer himself plays on) and Valve’s Steam Deck. These portable PC versions are often Windows-based, meaning they still work within Microsoft’s ecosystem and allow gamers to play Xbox games on the go, with a seamless transition between their home consoles and PCs using cloud storage for their saved data.

During the conversation, Spencer repeatedly alluded to his plans to create a portable Xbox, a detail he later addressed. confirmed with Bloomberg. He was asked if there would be a mid-cycle hardware refresh like Sony did with the Recently released PlayStation 5 Pro, it doesn’t give a clear answer, but suggests it’s not necessary given the diminishing returns developers see with increasing power.

“We think about hardware that can create unique value for our players or creators on our platform,” he said. “We don’t need to create additional material for our own benefit. Does a new device really give you a unique on-screen experience in any way? (It’s) less like the old days, moving from the original Xbox to the 360; it was from standard definition to high definition. Now, (it’s) more difficult to show the benefits.”

For Spencer, the Xbox legacy is a priority and how the brand continues to evolve in the future. Xbox Cloud Gaming is at the heart of this mission: Xbox’s DNA must remain more than just the streaming service and software library.

“We’re trying to expand the question: ‘What does an Xbox mean?’ I want Xbox to be something in 20 years,” he said. “I think for Xbox to be dynamic and successful, it has to rely on several pieces of hardware.”