‘This is an Xbox’ campaign gets quietly dumped by Microsoft

We regret to inform you that your Chromebook is no longer an Xbox Back in November 2024, Microsoft launched its "This is an Xbox" marketing campaign, which aimed to reposition its gaming division as a software ecosystem that does not require dedicated hardware. It was certainly catchy and memorable, though perhaps not for the right reasons. Just weeks after Xbox head Phil Spencer announced his retirement and his heir apparent Sarah Bond resigned, Microsoft seems to have removed all references to "This is an Xbox" from its in-house news site, Xbox Wire. Game Developer was the first to report the news, noting that the original announcement for the campaign now leads to a 404 error page. A quiz tied to the campaign has also been removed. "This is an Xbox" had been integral to Bond's strategy of expanding the brand beyond its roots in console gaming, though recent reporting from The Verge claims the campaign had "offended many Xbox employees internally." With hardware sales slowing, the goal was to reach players beyond the console, encouraging them to play Xbox games on laptops, handheld gaming PCs, smart TVs, and mobile phones. For a while, the ads were ubiquitous online and on billbo