Talking Point: Could You Ever See Microsoft Selling The Xbox Brand?

I know Microsoft tried to buy Nintendo at the start. But did they approach Sega. The Dreamcast had a powered by Windows CE sticker. Honestly I wish Microsoft would just have bought Sega and branded powered by Microsoft. It would have given them IP and some gaming cache.

At some point Microsoft may get too big and governments might break the company into pieces but seriously - no!

Sell the Xbox brand? No.

Abandon Xbox all together and sell the studios to interested parties/make them independent again? Yes, but it would take years of absolutely no ROI for that to happen.

I think a much more likely scenario would be Microsoft going the way of Sega: stop making dedicated hardware and just become a third-party publisher/gaming service.

It's hard to predict the distant future when there is different leadership but in the near future (5-10 years) there is no chance of them selling or quitting. I think that is evident by the nearly 100 billion worth of investments in xbox recently.

Gaming is bigger than music and film...why would they want to exit that market? Pretty sure that $70B investment is a sign they looking to be a big player in the future

Consoles yes and become software only as Xbox and game pass. For as many devices as possible.

Who would they sell it to? Amazon? Apple?

According to Phil Spencer, MS almost abandoned the brand after the Xbox One launch. So it's not like they haven't come very close before — and recently (and it's not like they don't have a history of doing it with other products and brands): https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/11/spencer-microsoft-almost-abandoned-xbox-brand-after-the-xbox-one-launch/

And in that official Xbox doc from last year they mentioned some close calls earlier in the brand's life where MS leadership threatened to pull the plug.

So I guess anything's possible; they're a for-profit business at the end of the day and they'll save money where they can. I don't see it being likely any soon, but there's always a chance given the historical precedent. But sell? No way. They'd just quietly defund it and turn off the lights before they sold it.

Maybe if the xcloud/streaming part of it all fails or never catches on.

Who are these pundits/idiots? Seriously.

Nope, Xbox is best 💚

@GamingFan4Lyf totally agree with your comment. I can definitely see the day where its not in their interests to manufacture console hardware any longer. I wouldn't be surprised if they went down the publisher route along with gamepass and xbox controllers only

yes. to xbox being dropped, once cloud can handle everything. i think they will do a rebrand for the sub service.

Yeah if the ABK deal doesn't go through like I said before.

I doubt anyone would want to enter the hardware space at this point even if they were acquiring the Xbox brand. We are already at a point where it's not really possible to have good specs and profit off a $500 unit. I don't think you can be confident enough of getting an audience large enough to get a solid store front going to make that gamble.

I think its more likely that xbox becomes a steam like platform available on any device. Which honestly is not a bad future for gamers. Games are so cheap on PC compared to consoles where you don't have multiple platforms and multiple key vendors competing for your purchase.

yikes things aren't lookin good for team green when you see headlines like this

The ABK deal outside of games is to essentially have ABK run xbox with Kotick leading the department, even if not officially

It seems to me as though the Xbox brand plays and important role in supporting Microsoft's software services and products, eg: Windows and DirectX.

I doubt it. They've been in the console business for over 20 years. No point in selling it. Though ending it altogether is not out of the question.

Unlikely, although I guess if it started losing them a ton of money they may decide to cut their losses. Would surely be a tough deal for whoever bought them to go through though.

I definitely think 2023 will not be the year of Xbox
They already double delayed FM and Starfield to past the promise end of June 2023 plan.

Console sales wise they will lose more of the market to Sony and Nintendo this year worldwide.
They already got bashed to hell in January 2023.

So if Xbox are happy with how many game pass subscriptions they have and it makes it worth their while then guess they will hang around.

But can see them leaving the console hardware market for sure one day and go software only, it actually suits them as well better I think.

I can't see MS giving up on Gaming and selling off 'Xbox' as a Brand name - its linked directly to DirectX (box) and Windows too - its the entire Gaming brand. I think if they were 'unsuccessful' in the direction they are trying to go, I could see them abandon Gaming - but I think that they see 'Xbox' as a way to get into every home, every hand etc - much like they wanted MS Office in every household...

What I can see though is them leaving the 'Console' market. It's not necessarily commercially viable - especially if they have to sell at a Loss to try and get people to play - not something they 'necessarily' need now as their games are on PC and Cloud. Its possible that they could allow 3rd Parties to make 'Windows' based Hardware - a PC in a 'Console' type format, and use the Xbox branding rather than make their own - HP, ACER, ASUS for example - making 'Premium' licenced Gaming Hardware to play 'Locally' with 'Premium' Quality PQ/Performance.

As people can play locally on PC's anyway or on ANY device via Cloud, I could see them licensing out the Xbox brand to third Parties to make various Xbox branded Hardware - from Cloud based handhelds to Steam Deck type handhelds to Series S and Series X type Console boxes to the 'high-end' PC gaming rigs. At least that way, they won't be losing 'money' on Consoles when their own console is no longer 'necessary' to play any Xbox game. The days of EVERYONE on the SAME hardware and getting the 'SAME' performance for a more 'even' multiplayer experience has LONG gone with cross-platform play, multiple hardware specs (especially on PC) and with Mobiles too. Some maybe playing Fortnite for example at 720/30 on a mobile, whilst another has 4k, RT and the best draw distance, playing at over 120fps with the lowest latency and input lag.

Cloud is obviously the 'entry' tier - cheap, very limited library and accessible on any compatible device - but also limited to 1080/60 with compression artefacts and increased latency/lag

Series S is 'entry' hardware tier - still 'cheap' (relatively) but you do get a much bigger Library (all the thousands of BC Xbox games as well as all the new releases and most aren't on Game Pass, let alone to 'stream'), improved PQ upto 1440p native and upto 120fps with lower latency/lag.

Series X (like PS5) is the 'Premium' Console tier - which gives the 'best' PQ and/or frame rates. It also will likely have 'more' choices in modes (like XB1X before) with more 120fps options as well as a Disc Drive too but has a 'Premium' upfront cost too.

PC's are obviously the 'highest' tier with the biggest Library and, if your willing/able to pay, the 'best' possible PQ and/or Frame Rates.

As such, I can see them abandoning their 'own' Consoles and licensing out to others to make 'Consoles' which is basically a PC nowadays anyway. ASUS for example could make a 'dedicated' gaming box with 'nvidia' GPU and 'intel' CPU and enough RAM - offering DLSS etc and it would 'kill' Xbox if they priced it competitively as people would buy it to play Xbox games on anyway...

But Xbox as part of MS, I can't see that being Sold off - its the biggest growing entertainment sector and MS have established themselves as a big player in that market - not the 'biggest' - but a major brand...

everyone’s anticipating the day microsoft makes the xbox brand a streaming & subscription service by basically expanding gamepass to be the steam/netflix of games .

buy a computer/phone/tv

download the xbox app

make an account

pay to access the games with free online like steam

gamepass has the high potential of killing off xbox consoles and just making it a service like steam.

I feel like Microsoft is still too entwined in PC gaming for them not to have a brand in it. They already have an effective and widely known brand: Xbox.

@nomither6 I can see it myself - Consoles are a loss maker for the Company. They lose between $100 and $200 per Series console sold - that's a 'year' that they'd need to subscribe to Game Pass before it they ever start making money - assuming that person only plays Game Pass games and doesn't purchase anything of course.

Consoles tend to sit as the 'entry' level into 'Premium' games - games built to run on Premium Hardware and anyone who doesn't have Premium Hardware, can't play. MS have broken that with 'Cloud' - that is the 'entry' level, but not every gamer will be 'satisfied' with playing 'Premium' games that way and a decent PC to rival the Series X is more 'expensive' but they could licence out Xbox brand to 3rd Parties to make 'Console' like hardware to fill that gap if they themselves decide to drop out. They would still have the Sales as it would have the Xbox Store to buy games, as well as Game Pass for PC - can drop Gold too of course - and still keep Xbox as a their Gaming brand, keep their studio's and everything they do now - just not be the ones making the Windows PC in a Console shaped box...

A better question would be if they'd get rid of the box, and just keep the brand. I do not honestly see there being a Playstation 6 or a sequel to the XBOX Series systems.

I can see something like the Amazon Fire Stick, with a SSD in it for local storage, that connects to a central server with all your games on it.

Microsoft have said a few times they want xCloud to be able to support most, if not all, their library, and it's seemingly still in partial beta because it only has the capacity for Game Pass's library.

When the next console generation comes along, I see you going to the store, picking up a $20 USB dongle, maybe some controllers and that's it. You won't need a console. 50/50 if the dongle will be universal for all three companies.

Yes, the prices won't go down, but you'll not be paying $1000 for the inital buy-in, since all the parts that make it expensive... won't be in what you buy.

There is no way that will ever happen because:
A - Microsoft really doesn't need the money
and
B - Xbox has become integrated into Windows and is now their all-around gaming brand for all devices, even mobile phones now with their Xbox streaming app.

Anything can happen, but I don't see Xbox as a device or brand dying off anytime soon. I feel like we've had these discussions before, 20 years ago, just replace "microsoft" with "nintendo". I'm old enough to remember during the GameCube days, endless articles suggesting that Nintendo will likely leave hardware and go software only.

Very interesting to see how times and the discussions have changed, and yet are still the same in other aspects.

I don’t see them selling. I mean anything’s possible but I think if they were going to sell, they would have done so when things were really bad last gen. I think MS is in it for the long haul.

Andy Robinson is a clown, That's all you need to know..

They don't need to sell, they can just spin off Xbox, keep a percentage for themselves and sell the rest in the stock market. If the shareholders believe this will net them higher gains than Xbox bring as part of microsft it can happen

Shane McMahon rocks up at Microsoft and shocks the world!

Not a chance, Microsoft is the only big tech US company that actually has a consolidated gaming business and it’s the fastest growing industry of entertainment currently, Google just failed with Stadia, Amazon is taking baby steps still, Apple isn’t even trying (although they get billions out of MTX on mobile games) and Meta thankfully is still not involved in the gaming industry.

Besides, Xbox is already so engrained into Microsoft’s services strategy to the point that some executives receive bonuses when they beat expectations; with Mojang, Bethesda and all of Xbox Game Studios that business could be valued even higher that the price of Activision-Blizzard itself, and no one could buy it in whole, perhaps Tencent but US regulators would never allow a Chinese company to buy a US business.

So I really don’t know how anyone could be stupid enough to suggest this idea, and I’m really getting the sense that Andy Robinson just wants Xbox to fail.

Not really, but I often like to entertain the idea of them spinning off Xbox into its own entity, keeping a large stake on the new company, to lower potential regulatory pressures that are rooted exclusively on its ties to parent Microsoft.

Xbox have already adopted policies to ensure that supplying hardware boxes is not where their buisness will be in the future.
This makes sense, they are primarily a software and services company and some time in the future the infrastructure will be good enough to support global streaming services instead.

Meanwhile games are designed to a lowest common denominter to ensure they run on everything and will always be so. We won't see any crazy good software doing what we thought was impossible on series X, thats simply not their direction and many people will benefit from that. I'm a core gamer wedded to exploring what the medium can do if you push it, so Its not pushing in a direction I'd prefer, but the buisness sense is undeniable.

I doubt they will kill xbox the brand, but they will stop releasing hardware for sure, the only question is when. If I were a betting man I'd bet on them releasing one more gen of machines, but who knows?

Sell Xbox as a whole nah
If they really want to get out of the console market they'd just cut their losses like they did with mixer and windows phone

But I don't see MS ever leaving gaming as a whole, Minecraft and Flight sim for example will always be in Microsofts hands they'd never let them go with or without the xbox brand

@Titntin

Xbox have already adopted policies to ensure that supplying hardware boxes is not where their buisness will be in the future.

I heard this hypothesis before, but it misses the fact that the policies include XCloud, entirely built on Xbox hardware, not PC hardware.

So long they have to build those servers, they might as well also sell the hardware to end users, they just don’t ever need to be the best selling box in the market.

@GunValkyrian as my reply above note, the cloud relies on the dedicated Xbox console existing.

it will never happen, what could happen tho that xbox division cease to exist, in their documentary they told us it's almost happen, no xbox one era and no xbox series era a sad though that only pityful fanboy can wish to happen, gladly they have avoid the iceberg this time around let's hope a brighter future for them and great first party to years to come! =)

Amazon closed Stadia, i don't see them or any other company investing $ 100-200 billion to a gaming platform that is not Nintendo or Playstation. Microsoft pulling out would be the death of Xbox

@sixrings the OG xbox was essentially a dreamcast with aot of extra power its a true successor to the dreamcast, and alot of segas team gave input on the OG xbox... not only that Sega tried to get MS to let the OG xbox actually be backwards compatible with dreamcast games but MS didn t wanna do that... Why ms didnt buy sega back then idk...but sega was more involved with MS and XBOX then most realize.

Strategically it does not make sense for Microsoft to sell XB. XB is a pipeline to new features for Windows. Essentially they do R&D through gaming and Windows is the cash cow that gets the benefit. The R&D always has to be done, so getting rid of XB makes zero sense. Most companies have to pay for R&D and get no direct economic return. MS gets to put money into R&D and sees a return from it!

My latest videos about this guys tweet (and the conversation that followed it).

Personally I’ve always felt it inevitable Xbox will one day get out of the console selling market. But before they can do that they need a steady stream of their own content - which they’re always so far away from delivering right now to warrant a monthly gamepass sub on the other platforms.

Until they’re at that point they’ll stay in the console making market.

As for giving up Xbox completely…no. There’s still plenty of value in the brand. And MS still don’t want to be left behind when it comes to being part of every bodies entertainment devices - they still also desperately want that mobile gaming money. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s potential to just buy king if the deal doesn’t go through.

I think ms invested too much in the gaming business for them to sell it all. Unless they only sell the xbox brand, but keep all the gaming IPs. Like they could go the third party route like how Sega went. I think that would be good, but then there'll be no competition for Sony, and they might just keep increasing their prices. So that wouldn't be good. But I think I'll just switch to PC gaming coz I don't like either playstation or xbox. I just like the playstation controller that I use on my pc.