Mike Ybarra: Drop the Xbox consoles and focus on publishing games instead

Mike Ybarra, former head of Blizzard, believes Xbox urgently needs to figure out its identity — and seriously consider whether the hardware business is even worth keeping. In a series of posts on X, he voiced frustration over Xbox "spinning its wheels," trying to be both a hardware manufacturer and a game publisher. According to Ybarra, Xbox can't keep sitting on the fence. On X, he wrote:

"It's simple to me. Xbox should strive to be the world's largest publisher of entertainment content.

"Get rid of everything else and get focused. Do not be afraid to say what you are. Embrace the lane."

Ybarra argues that Microsoft's massive acquisitions in recent years — Activision, Bethesda, Blizzard, and more — are proof that the company has already established itself as the world's largest game publisher. So why keep pushing hardware, especially when it's not selling all that well? Especially now that the games industry is increasingly about attracting players across platforms like Game Pass, Steam, and the cloud.

He believes Microsoft should go all-in on publishing — much like Sega did when they pivoted to software and abandoned the console business altogether.

What do you think — should Xbox drop console manufacturing and fully commit to the games instead?