Another major shift is underway at Xbox, and this time it is not just about a service tweak or a new piece of hardware, but about identity itself. Asha Sharma, the company’s new chief, revealed in an internal meeting that Microsoft is dropping the Microsoft Gaming label and going back to the name players kept using anyway: Xbox.

On paper, that may sound like a simple branding adjustment, but the signal behind it is much larger. Microsoft Gaming became the formal name of Microsoft’s video game division in 2022, when the company announced its bid to acquire Activision Blizzard and Phil Spencer was elevated to CEO of that broader organization. Officially, it was supposed to define the structure. In reality, it never truly took hold with the public. Players kept calling the whole thing Xbox, and now Sharma has effectively admitted that they had it right all along.

According to Tom Warren of The Verge, Sharma told staff that the Microsoft Gaming label had distanced the brand from its roots. That is why the company is reversing course, because Xbox needs to be the identity again. This is not just a cosmetic rename. It is a fairly blunt admission that the brand drifted too far from the image and emotional anchor that built it in the first place.

The Internal Memo Was Even Harsher: In Their Own Words, Gamers Are Frustrated

The reporting from Warren lines up with an internal letter sent to employees by Asha Sharma and Matt Booty. In that memo, they were remarkably direct: gamers are frustrated. Console releases have slowed down, Xbox’s presence on PC is not strong enough, prices keep climbing, and basic areas such as search, discovery, social features, and personalization still feel too fragmented. At the same time, developers and publishers want better tools and a platform that helps them grow faster.

The memo also says that newer generations of players are entering online ecosystems with very different expectations. They do not just want to play. They want content in familiar spaces, they want to shape the worlds they spend time in, and they want to create and socialize together rather than merely play alongside each other. Microsoft’s answer to that is a sweeping promise: Xbox will be where the world plays and creates. To get there, the brand says it will become more affordable, more personal, and more open, with daily active players becoming one of the key guiding metrics.

Then comes the part that really matters for the future. Sharma and Booty also said that the company will reevaluate its approach to exclusivity, release windowing, and artificial intelligence. In other words, this is not just a nameplate being swapped on a door. It is a much wider strategic review, and it strongly suggests that more disruptive changes are still coming.

That would fit the pattern of Sharma’s first weeks in charge. Microsoft has already teased Project Helix, the next Xbox console, a device that is expected to combine high-end performance with a more open ecosystem that can welcome third-party storefronts. It has also already lowered the price of Game Pass, making the Ultimate and PC plans cheaper while removing day-one access to future Call of Duty releases. From that perspective, the message is clear enough: Asha Sharma did not arrive to preserve the old shape of Xbox. She arrived to tear into it, reframe it, and try to rebuild it into something that feels coherent again, even if that means first admitting how much of it stopped working.

Source: 3DJuegos