Microsoft quietly drops its “This is Xbox” advertising campaign

The gaming division’s fresh leadership is acting as if the initiative never existed.

Following a recent reshuffle in its upper echelons, Microsoft appears to be pivoting its Xbox branding strategy. The company is reportedly distancing itself from the polarizing “This is an Xbox” marketing blitz, a campaign that previously sparked a wave of skepticism among both the gaming community and internal staff.

As highlighted by Game Developer, the original announcement page for the campaign has been scrubbed from the official Xbox Wire blog. Users attempting to access the post are now met with a standard “Oops! That page cannot be found” message. Furthermore, all metadata tags associated with the campaign have been deactivated, though the promotional videos currently remain viewable on YouTube.

Launched in 2024, the “This is an Xbox” campaign was designed to redefine the brand beyond traditional hardware. The central premise was that an Xbox could be any device capable of cloud streaming—ranging from smart TVs and VR headsets to mobile phones. This strategy leaned heavily into cloud infrastructure as a way to capture a broader audience in the face of declining console sales.

However, the execution largely missed the mark. The messaging led to widespread confusion and was criticized for alienating the brand’s core demographic—the dedicated console owners who felt their hardware was being sidelined in favor of a more nebulous service-based approach.

According to reports from The Verge, while the campaign was championed by former Xbox President Sarah Bond, it reportedly faced internal pushback. Sources suggest the initiative left many employees bewildered and even offended some who felt it undermined the legacy of the Xbox hardware ecosystem.

Source: iXBT.games