Now that the dust has settled, it seems that Phil Spencer's unexpected departure last month was planned, but had to be brought forward slightly due to leaks. It also seems clear that the then Xbox boss Sarah Bond knew nothing about the company's plans and was simply let go, without even being given the opportunity to comment officially on the matter alongside Spencer, Microsoft boss Satya Nadella, and the new leadership team headed by Asha Sharma.
The usually very knowledgeable The Verge editor Tom Warren shared what he knew about the matter and wrote, among other things, that the much-criticised 2024 campaign "This is an Xbox" - which claimed that all electronics could be an Xbox in the future - was her work. According to sources, this had "offended many Xbox employees internally," as it essentially encouraged people not to buy an Xbox.
Now there is evidence that Warren was probably right. On the Xbox Wire website, where Microsoft releases all its Xbox press releases, all traces of the campaign have disappeared (thanks Game Developer). If you search there today, you can't even find any sign that the campaign ever existed other than dead links, which suggests that they were extremely dissatisfied with the message.
Sharma seems to want to restore the prestige of Xbox hardware, and we can probably expect a completely different message in time for this year's Christmas shopping season, but we'll have to wait and see what that will be. Either way, not everything will be an Xbox from now on.
<bild>What did you think of this campaign?</bild>