By Tom Phillips
Publication Date: 2026-03-27 16:54:00
Microsoft has confirmed that its new gaming boss Asha Sharma personally killed the company’s controversial “This is an Xbox” marketing campaign — because, ironically, “it didn’t feel like Xbox.”
The promotional slogan was announced with fanfare back in late 2024 when Microsoft tried to convince the world that “Xbox” could actually refer to any object that played Xbox games. This meant your smartphone was an Xbox, your dusty old tablet was an Xbox, and even your Smart TV could be an Xbox — something that also rather suggested you no longer needed to buy an actual Xbox anymore.
For a company that was already having issues shifting Xbox consoles, the marketing campaign felt a little short-sighted — a view reportedly also held by numerous staff at Xbox itself, whose job it had been to try and make the Xbox Series X/S not a flop. In recent weeks, fans have spotted “This is an Xbox” marketing pages disappear from the internet, while a report has stated that team members had been…
