However, the big quote from that interview that got the most attention was that "Xbox, like a lot of businesses that aren’t the core AI business, is being sunsetted." Here are some of the thoughts he shared at the time:
"Satya Nadella has made an incredible number of bets and invested an incredible amount of money and credibility in the transform model AI future. Xbox, like a lot of businesses that aren’t the core AI business, is being sunsetted. They don’t say that, but that’s what’s happening. I expect that the new CEO, Asha Sharma, her job is going to be as a palliative care doctor who slides Xbox gently into the night."
This very quickly sparked a huge number of news articles and social media posts, and these clearly had a big effect — even as recently as yesterday, Google was hit with plenty of searches about whether Xbox was either "coming to an end", "being discontinued", "shutting down", "ending", and various other forms of this question.
If you go down the list, these "rising queries" are still all regarding the same topic until you get to around the #15 position. It's amazing what the power of the media, YouTube, and lots of social media traction can generate!
Blackley himself was clearly inundated with questions about Xbox being "sunsetted" and "ending", as he took to BlueSky last week to mention how he does not believe Xbox is dead, but that "progress requires introspection and realism".
"I have been asked 59 times now, due to this [GamesBeat] article, if I believe Xbox is dead. No.
I love Xbox as my own flesh and blood. It's the most wonderful thing to me. The distress it's in kills me, haunts me. But progress requires introspection and realism. Learning is pain."
It's understandable that someone so heavily connected to the legacy of Xbox can cause panic when they suggest the brand is being "sunsetted" , especially when that message gets a little distorted when it gets posted out to social media.
It is worth noting, however, that Blackley doesn't work for Xbox anymore, and hasn't for over 20 years. He was simply asked for his opinion — a legend such as himself would always be asked for his opinion on a matter like this — and he gave it. It doesn't mean that Xbox is ending - the answer to that is still "no" from an official standpoint.
The initial quote does sound very doom-and-gloom at first glance, but his follow-up post about Xbox not being "dead" is much more reassuring to read! For what it's worth, fellow ex-Xbox boss Peter Moore also spoke to GamesBeat recently, and told the outlet that the Xbox brand is "not something that they could replace quickly", and that it's an "important part" of Microsoft's business.
We'll share some of Moore's thoughts on the topic down below:
"I saw Seamus’s [initial, pre-BlueSky post] comments. I hope he’s a little misguided.
This is a division that did $24 billion last year. It’s 8% of gross revenues. It’s not something that they could replace quickly. I get that the operating margins aren’t what productivity and cloud are for Microsoft, but it’s an important part of their business. It puts Microsoft in the living room. It puts Microsoft in the world of entertainment. It puts Microsoft closer to the consumer. It emboldens Microsoft as not just a productivity company. That was always what we wanted to do, and what Xbox in particular was meant to be."
Here's the thing — we can't definitively tell you that Xbox won't ever "end" or be "sunsetted", and nor can anyone else (outside of Microsoft boss Satya Nadella) right now. That's also the case for PlayStation, Nintendo and other platform you might enjoy though, and we have no reason to believe Xbox is suddenly about to be shut down.
It's the celebratory 25th year of the brand, we've got multiple massive first-party games releasing this year, a new console is officially in the works, the ROG Xbox Ally has just released, etc. Better yet, Xbox EVP Matt Booty literally mentioned the other day how Xbox wouldn't become "just a publisher" and back away from hardware, so that's very reassuring to hear too!
