By Jaures Yip
Publication Date: 2025-12-21 13:00:00
The Xbox booth during the Gamescom video games trade fair at the Trade Fair Center in Cologne, Germany, Aug. 20, 2025.
Ina Fassbender | Afp | Getty Images
Microsoft’s Xbox has had a tumultuous year.
A slew of layoffs, price hikes and studio closures have led many to declare — not for the first time — that the Xbox is dead.
Laura Fryer, former executive producer at Microsoft Game Studios, said in June that the company seems to have “no desire or literally can’t ship hardware anymore.”
Former Microsoft executive and ex-Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Ybarra slammed Xbox’s “confusing” strategy in a now-deleted X post in October, saying the company is potentially heading for a “death by a thousand needles.”
The company’s overall gaming revenue decreased 2% year-over-year, with a 29% dip in Xbox hardware sales, according to Microsoft’s first-quarter earnings for fiscal 2026.
The broader console industry has been in a major slump, with hardware spending down 27% year-over-year in…