‘I think Xbox hardware is dead’, says Microsoft gaming veteran

One of the founding members of the Xbox team has questioned Microsoft’s multiplatform gaming strategy, and said they believe the Xbox hardware business is effectively “dead”.

Microsoft left many pondering the future of Xbox hardware this month, following the announcement of multiple partnerships with external hardware companies, such as the ROG Xbox Ally, Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition, and a multi-year deal with AMD.

The ROG Xbox Ally, in particular, hints at the potential direction of travel for Xbox, since it runs Windows and is effectively a portable PC that can even run games purchased from external stores such as Steam.

The handheld is the subject of the latest video from Laura Fryer, one of Microsoft Game Studios’ first employees, who now creates YouTube videos commenting on issues in the gaming industry.

During her lengthy Microsoft career, Fryer shipped numerous games as a producer, including the original Gears of War games, and was the director of the Xbox Advanced Technology Group. After leaving Microsoft in the late 2000s, she was general manager of WB Games Seattle and, later, Epic Games Seattle.

Fryer’s latest video ponders the future of Microsoft’s Xbox business, with the platform holder championing a new cross-platform strategy under its ‘Xbox Anywhere’ marketing, and explains why she’s concerned it could represent the start of a “slow exit” from the gaming hardware business for Microsoft.

In the video, Fryer calls the ‘Xbox Anywhere’ message “just marketing”, and “style, with no substance”, and says she believes the ROG Xbox Ally, as essentially one of Asus’s portable PCs rebranded, offers little attraction to consumers.

“Obviously, as one of the founding members of the Xbox team, I’m not pleased with where things are today. I don’t love watching all of the value that I helped create slowly get eroded away,” she says.

“I’m sad because from my perspective, it looks like Xbox has no desire or literally can’t ship hardware anymore. So this [ROG Ally] partnership is about a slow exit from the hardware business completely.”

She continued: “Personally, I think Xbox hardware is dead. The plan appears to be to just drive everybody to Game Pass. And let’s be clear, it has a lot of value. I’m thinking that might be why they decided to charge $80 for Outer Worlds 2… And here’s the thing, maybe it will work.

“Xbox has a deep portfolio. The remake of Oblivion was obviously a huge success, and they can continue to outsource that work to external companies and make a lot of money releasing their older games. Older games from an era when Xbox knew how to build them.

“But what is the long-term plan? Where are the new hits? What will make people care about the Xbox 25 years from now? I was excited to see Clockwork Revolution in the showcase, but will something like that be enough? Do they have more?

“Next year marks the 25th anniversary of the Xbox, and I’m sure that they will have some big announcements and plans for honoring the milestone. Maybe next year is the year. Maybe next year is the year that the fog will clear and all of us will see the beauty in these latest announcements. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Increasingly, Microsoft has adopted a multiplatform approach for its first-party games, with many titles now releasing for PlayStation 5 close to, or alongside, their Xbox versions.

However, it has committed to releasing a next-generation Xbox console to succeed Xbox Series X and S.

It’s possible Xbox’s future devices will adopt a similar approach to the ROG Xbox Ally, however, with president Sarah Bond stating this month that Microsoft’s gaming arm is “working closely” with the Windows team, to ensure that Windows is “the number one platform for gaming”.

“At Xbox, our vision is for you to play the games you want, with the people you want, anywhere you want,” she said. “That’s why we’re investing in our next-generation hardware lineup, across console, handheld, PC, cloud, and accessories.”