Rumours about the imminent demise of Xbox are hardly a new phenomenon — they seem to start swirling around every time Microsoft makes a controversial decision — but we've seen them dialled up to 11 after the recent Game Pass price hikes - and journalist Tom Warren believes they're becoming "a huge challenge for the brand right now".
Yesterday, we covered a story about Microsoft having to come out and make a statement on select US retailers and how they'll continue to stock Xbox products. This was followed up by Target themselves saying that they "continue to sell Xbox consoles, games and accessories" - and this is what the Xbox journalist responded to yesterday:
We have to agree that the brand feels like it's navigating some very choppy waters at the moment. Of course, it should be highlighted that lots of this comes from the vocal minority, but these sorts of rumours spread - it must have gotten pretty bad for both Xbox and Target to come out and make statements like this.
The good news is that the statements are exactly what we want to hear - that both Xbox and its retail partners are committed to stocking and selling these products both online and in-store. The ROG Xbox Ally is up next for Microsoft in terms of a big retail launch, and we'll be on the lookout for stories on how it's performing out in the wild. Just make sure that you take any rumours on that device — and anything else regarding Xbox — with a big pinch of salt!