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I previously called out hit-piece articles that attempted to scapegoat Sarah Bond for pushing cloud over console at Xbox, following her departure, and how they didn't hold up to scrutiny. nitter.gq/nib95_/status/20260160… We know that Phil Spencer had prioritised these things 3–4 years before Sarah Bond was even head of Xbox, per his own emails (via FTC leaks) and prior reporting. In a 2020 email he wrote: “From a strategy perspective I believe in our tradeoffs for Cloud and Content in Gaming over console volume,” and added, “With our strategy and opportunity, console volume will still be the thing we constrain to grow our long term ambition.” Both Tim Stuart and Satya Nadella had also indicated they were interested in a larger multiplatform push as well. And both Satya and Phil had spoken about the importance of mobile previously too. And yet, the media and Xbox influencers and fanboys attempted to scapegoat Sarah for these things. It would appear that Xbox, or sources within Xbox, and its fans, have attempted a similar discrediting campaign with ex-Xbox COO Helen Chiang. All I can say is that I hope @eurogamer and The Verge do better with this type of reporting and the sources they rely on in future, because there are shenanigans afoot at Xbox with recent shake-ups and failures that demand greater scepticism.

Much of the Xbox fandom on social media—including aligned influencers and journalists, appears uniquely and incomparably misinformed, easily misled, or out of touch with gaming business and market realities compared to other fandoms. Many of the same people got most or all of the following wrong: - Game Pass as the “Netflix of gaming” that the industry would follow - Day-and-date Game Pass viability - Implications of the ABK acquisition - Mass consolidation being good for employees - Cloud gaming as the future - Xbox being right to abandon traditional business models - Split SKU X/S offering major market-share advantages - PC day-and-date, Play Anywhere, and Game Pass PC helping (rather than harming) the console platform - Series S not holding things back - Google and Amazon being the real gaming competition - Game Pass not cannibalising sales - Lacklustre premium sales having no impact on studios or layoffs - Flip-flopping on exclusivity - An “inevitable” multiplatform future for all platforms - The performance gap between PS5 and Series X - The performance gap between Series X and Series S - Roadmaps vs. actual releases - Phil Spencer bringing Xbox back to greatness …and much more. Yet these same people still question those who accurately analysed and predicted how most of these things would play out. They also continue to regurgitate misinformation about Xbox's current business, champion the latest executive and whatever PR the brand pushes, and downplay or criticise accurate assessments of Xbox's position. Have they no shame? Xbox's situation is dire. Among other issues: - Margins are poor - Revenue growth is declining or stagnant - Game Pass growth has slowed or stalled - Near every Game Pass target this generation has been missed, often by a wide margin - Most game sales have been limited, in decline, or poor, even for tentpole IP - Console sales are at historic lows - Console market share is weak - Game Pass is cannibalising sales - Cloud remains too expensive - Layoffs and studio closures, divestitures or mergers at an unprecedented pace, that make other publishers layoffs look paltry - Over 9,000 people laid off in 2-3 years - Remaining staff and output heavily impacted - Most PC game sales have been low - Helix's bill of materials is rumoured to be extremely high (higher than PS6's) - Messaging and strategy remain inconsistent ...and more. Despite this, the same fans still draw false equivalences with PlayStation and Nintendo—both of which are dominating Xbox in market share, sales, revenue growth, and profitability. Sony has even noted that PlayStation has made more profit this generation than in every previous generation COMBINED. They are not the same. At this point, if you’re still toeing Xbox fanboy and influencer narratives, unsubstantiated PR, false equivalences with PlayStation, and success fluff after two generations of consistent misses, you have to be impressively naive and ignorant, and I sincerely question your intelligence. There is currently no clear turnaround path for Xbox. The company has fewer studios and less output with which to attract new customers, AI shortage price hikes limiting what they can do next-gen, while Game Pass continues to aggressively cannibalise the games it does release. That’s not fearmongering—it’s the current reality.