Microsoft has reportedly pulled the plug on its strange ‘This is an Xbox’ marketing push
A report last month claimed the marketing stunt "offended" many employees
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- Microsoft's 'This is an Xbox' marketing campaign has seemingly been retired
- The campaign's web page has been taken down
- This comes after new Xbox leadership was installed last month
Microsoft has seemingly retired its odd 'This is an Xbox' marketing campaign following new leadership changes.
As first reported by Game Developer, the official Xbox Wire post all about the marketing stunt has been removed, suggesting that Microsoft has decided to put it to bed.
When you click the remaining link for the original announcement, a 404 error message appears on a blank web page, with the message, "We can not find the page you are looking for."
Article continues belowIf you go to Archive Today, the original post is still accessible and reads, "This Is an Xbox invites people to play with Xbox across multiple devices and screens. It showcases the evolution of Xbox as a platform that extends across devices, with bold, iconic, fun visuals and a light-hearted tone."
The campaign, which was started in 2024, claimed that tablets, phones, Samsung Smart TVs, Amazon Fire TV Stick, and more, all count as "an Xbox" and essentially pushed the idea that players wouldn't need to buy an Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, or Xbox One to play their favorite games.
According to a report from The Verge last month, the advertisement campaign "offended many Xbox employees internally" and was said to have been pushed at the time by former Xbox president Sarah Bond, who resigned from her position last week following the retirement of Microsoft gaming CEO Phil Spencer.
Following Spencer's retirement and Bond's resignation, Asha Sharma, an executive of Microsoft's CoreAI division, took over the role of Xbox Gaming CEO and released a statement at the time, promising "the return of Xbox".
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Although Microsoft hasn't formally announced anything, it appears that under new leadership, the 'This is an Xbox' campaign is no more.
In other news, Microsoft has shared new details about its next-generation Xbox console, Project Helix, and confirmed the alpha version will be provided to developers in 2027.

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Demi is a freelance games journalist for TechRadar Gaming. She's been a games writer for five years and has written for outlets such as GameSpot, NME, and GamesRadar, covering news, features, and reviews. Outside of writing, she plays a lot of RPGs and talks far too much about Star Wars on X.
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