Xbox chief says old hits are not enough without new games
Xbox will not survive if it only brings back the past.
That was the warning from Asha Sharma, chief executive of Xbox, Microsoft's gaming division, at an internal staff town hall held in the past week. She said the business must back its strongest series while also finding new game worlds that reach new players.
Details of the closed meeting come from unauthorised transcripts shared with Windows Central, which said it checked them with multiple trusted sources. Windows Central The session was Sharma's first company-wide town hall since restructuring across Microsoft's gaming division over the summer.
Sharma told staff that Xbox is backing its strongest franchises. She said she wants its strong games to become strong global billion-dollar franchises. GameSpot
She named Fallout, Call of Duty, Candy Crush and World of Warcraft as the series to double down on, according to the report. Each is a long-running series with sequels, spin-offs and millions of players across console, PC and mobile.
Old hits pay the bills. Sharma also said Xbox must continue to create enduring new IP, industry shorthand for intellectual property, meaning new characters, worlds and stories a company owns and can build on for years.
She said Xbox will not survive if it only revives the past, and said the company must find new ways and have the courage to invent new IP that reaches new groups of players.
The remarks follow a difficult summer. Restructuring involved thousands of job losses through cuts and divestitures. Three studios, Ninja Theory, Double Fine and Compulsion, have left Xbox through spin-offs or closures. Sharma said Xbox moved Halo and Sea of Thieves under Activision, the Call of Duty publisher Microsoft owns, as part of simplifying how its studios are organised.
One test of that new-IP plan is already dated. Clockwork Revolution, a first-person role-playing game from InXile Entertainment, is set for release exclusively for Xbox Series X|S, the current Xbox consoles, next year.
Sharma also told staff that after an all-time low, Xbox has started to return to growth. GamesIndustry.biz That comment was reported from the same round of internal meetings, her first address to all staff since the summer layoffs.
For fans, this means two things at once. Favourite series are staying at the centre of the plan, and Xbox is publicly committing to new worlds as well, even after cuts that reduced the number of teams available to build them.
