Fellow Xbox gamers, we’re getting screwed over yet again. If you remember from last year, Xbox did a fun “Wrapped” style recap called Xbox Year in Review. Everyone is doing these yearly recaps these days, and they’re always fun ways to look back. But, as all Xbox players have probably already realized, Xbox isn't doing its Year in Review this year. And the reason why is a disappointing one.
The pro-Microsoft website Windows Central broke the news earlier this month and revealed that they spoke to someone at Xbox who said the company wasn't doing an Xbox Year in Review because of a shift in the “marketing budget."
The source provided numerous examples of where Xbox’s marketing budget is being reallocated to, citing upcoming anniversaries for Halo and Blizzard, the BlizzCon convention, and the ports of Bethesda’s Starfield to PS5 and Switch. Again, Windows Central is a Microsoft sycophant, so they framed this all as Xbox having “a good reason” why there’s no year in review. But if you look at the facts, you see something entirely different – Xbox’s marketing budget is being used for everything except Xbox. It’s going to Microsoft’s game studios instead.
Just another example of Microsoft giving up on its console
Like so many other Xbox players, I have to once again pose the question: What exactly is Xbox doing? Xbox keeps making it excruciatingly clear that it simply doesn’t care about its own console or its players. Xbox X/S sales are in the toilet, the GamePass price hikes caused so many users to unsubscribe the website crashed, and the console’s reputation has been tarnished (likely beyond repair).
But after buying up the entire gaming industry, Microsoft doesn’t seem to care. Now that they have studios like ActivisionBlizzard, Bethesda, MachineGames, id Software, Arkane, Mojang, Rare, and more, Microsoft is fully committed to its gaming output and clearly doesn’t give a crap about its own console.
As I’ve said before, if they had come out and been like SEGA after the Dreamcast and said, “Hey, we lost the console war, we’re sorry. We’re a game company now, not a hardware developer,” I would be less mad. But instead, Xbox refuses to admit defeat. They refuse to admit they failed. That their consoles failed. That they failed their own players. They keep pretending like everything is fine. Xbox is the Titanic, and Microsoft is the band that keeps playing as the ship sinks to keep everyone calm.
Microsoft has clearly given up on Xbox, so it’s time we do too
Using Xbox’s marketing resources for the gaming division instead of Xbox is just the latest example of Microsoft completely abandoning its consoles (and its fanbase), because they see the gaming side as more lucrative. So, my fellow Xbox gamers, remember all this during the next gaming generation, when it’s time to buy a new console. It might be time to make the switch to PlayStation. You’ll still be able to play Xbox games since they're porting everything, you’ll have a much bigger player base for online games, and you won’t be supporting a company that doesn’t give a crap about you...or its own product.