Xbox CEO Asha Sharma Killed This is an Xbox Campaign Because 'It Didn't Feel Like Xbox' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 April 2026 / 2,679 Views
In February of this year it was announced Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer would immediately retire, Xbox President Sarah Bond would resign, and Asha Sharma would be replacing Spencer as the new CEO.
One of Sharma's first acts as the new CEO was to cancel Xbox's "This is an Xbox" marketing campaign.
A Microsoft spokesperson has told Windows Central the reason for this is because "it didn't feel like Xbox." The official website for the marketing campaign has also been taken offline.
"Asha retired 'This is an Xbox' because it didn't feel like Xbox," said the Microsoft spokesperson. "She is personally leading a reset of how we show up as a brand."
The Microsoft Gaming CEO in interviews since taking over Xbox has "committed to returning to Xbox." This is she says "starts with console, that starts with hardware."
Sharma within a matter of weeks of taking over would announce the next-generation Xbox console, codenamed Project Helix. It is a PC console hybrid with the ability to play Xbox and PC games.
Exact specs, release date, price, or what the console will look like are unknown as of this time. IOt will be powered by a custom AMD SOC is codesigned for next-generation of DirectX, and it will support the next-generation of raytracing performance and capabilities.
The hybrid console will be using AMD FSR and is built for the next-generation of neural rendering, ML upscaling, ML multi frame generation, and ray regeneration for RT and path tracing. It will also have neural texture compression and DirectStorage.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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It wasn't the campaign that was harmful but the actual idea which has not been killed. The death of the campaign is just another PR attempt. Xbox's biggest problem is thinking that PR is the answer to everything. What has actaully changed now that this campaign? Or is this really a PR statement about prior PR? PR-ception?
TBF, Microsoft largely operated in this matter before President Donnie found his way to the White House.
To a degree. But I don't remember feeling lied to after I got an Xbox 1 back in the day. They promised me the best online network, best graphics, best audio and the best first person shooter experience in Halo, and that's exactly what I got. With 360, they pretty much delivered on what they promoted, as well.
But Xbox 4? Not so much. At least in my experience. It just felt like some sort of vaporware. Like the Phantom 2.0. A lot of hype, very little substance.. if any at all.
That campaign made me think "What were they thinking!?", so in that sense it did feel a lot like Xbox.
One of the biggest console marketing blunders in the last 20 years. Not the biggest but one of them. Biggest would be Xbox One reveal. 3rd maybe $599 from Sony and their awful ads.
I agree with "this is an Xbox" and Xbox one reveal being awful but what's wrong with releasing a product at 600$ in 2006?. Xbox released the ROG Ally X at 1000$ and that didn't cause any brand damage to Xbox? Yes, it's not optimal to release products at high prices but high prices alone (within reason) cannot destroy a brand. Telling everyone that their device will become a brick if it loses connection to the internet however, will
The PS3 had a very unsuccessful launch and the high price point was part of that. It took pretty much the whole generation to course correct.
I would argue that it was just Xbox being very tough competition that caused so many of PS3's struggles that gen. It's the same as PS5 and Xbox this gen. Xbox didn't make any major blunders but it still got easily beaten by PS5. That's just what competition does. Creates winners and losers. The Xbox one turning into a brick if disconnected from internet would've failed regardless of competition.
Microsoft made a massive blunder with the 360. Remember the RRoD and E74 defects? That was directly down to their negligence, and they spent a long time trying to deny it until it became clear that if they didn't do something, they were looking down the barrel of a huge class action lawsuit.
If Sony had priced the PS3 correctly at the beginning, the PS3 would have curb-stomped the 360. The RRoD would have killed the 360 if the PS3 had been a strong competitor at a good price. But Sony not only released the PS3 at an obscene price, they were tone-deaf in their response to people's concerns. A little under a decade before you had Adam Orth mocking people for not wanting an always-on Xbone, you had Ken Kutaragi telling people that if they couldn't afford a PS3, they should get a second job.
500/600 isn't an obscene price for a console though. MS's deep pockets allows them to be very aggressive with subsidies. They were literally selling the XBSX at 350$ when it costed 700$ to produce! The only thing that has kept console prices so low is the intense competition between Sony and MS and people don't seem to understand that. People just got used to 400$ and took it for granted.
$600 was absolutely considered an obscene price for a console in 2006.
Microsoft has deep pockets. Xbox does not have deep pockets. Their funding is dependent on performance. Microsoft could theoretically subsidize Xbox heavily. But its executives and shareholders are not going to tolerate a single division, largely focused on superfluous entertainment, to be a drag on the whole company's bottom line indefinitely.
The fact that Microsoft is marching in lockstep with Sony on price hikes shows that they are worried about shareholder anger for taking heavy losses on the Series X. The Series S, originally launched as a budget Xbox targeted at Game Pass subscribers, now retails for the same prices as the PS5 Digital Edition, which has every feature of the PS5 except a disc drive. The Series S is $100 more expensive than it was at launch. The digital-only Series X now retails for $50 more than the disc version of the PS5, while the disc drive version of the SX retails for $100 more than the PS5 disc version. Game Pass is also increasing in price.
Throwing money at the Xbox division's problems has not yielded results. They are in third place in hardware behind a Japanese toy company that got its start making playing cards. The same Japanese company that laughed them all the way out of Japan when Microsoft showed up in Kyoto with their checkbook.
And in order to get the price down to a mass-market level, they had to slash features, notably BC. They took out the Emotion Engine in the second revision of the PS3 and relied on software-based BC, and when that still didn't produce the results they needed, they took out the Graphics Synthesizer as well and dropped BC altogether. The PS4 was essentially a complete reboot for PlayStation.
$600 in 2006 is the equivalant of $1000 in todays prices.
I know. That's why I brought it up. No-one is up in arms and crying and calling it a mistake because MS has an "Xbox" product priced at 1000$
Umm, no. Lots of people were mocking Microsoft and Asus for charging $1000 for what is essentially a ROG Ally X with an Xbox sticker.
I read the first few words and had something completely different in my head.
Here's hoping for the sake of humanity and morality that Asha helps wipe off xbox from the gaming industry!!
That was simply cringe marketing
Good stuff, wasnt the best move
Well, I had fun while it lasted.
