A founding member of the original Xbox team has voiced strong concerns over Microsoft's multiplatform gaming strategy, asserting that the Xbox hardware business is effectively "dead." This comes after Microsoft's recent announcements of partnerships with external hardware companies, including the ROG Xbox Ally, Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition, and a multi-year deal with AMD.
Laura Fryer, one of Microsoft Game Studios’ first employees and a veteran who shipped games like the original Gears of War and directed the Xbox Advanced Technology Group, shared her views in a recent YouTube video. Fryer, who left Microsoft in the late 2000s, believes these partnerships signal a "slow exit" from the gaming hardware business for Microsoft.
The ROG Xbox Ally - a portable PC running Windows capable of playing games from various stores - particularly highlights this potential shift. Fryer criticises Microsoft's "Xbox Anywhere" marketing as "just marketing" and "style, with no substance," arguing that the ROG Xbox Ally, essentially a rebranded Asus portable PC, offers little appeal 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," Fryer stated. "I’m sad because from my perspective, it looks like Xbox has no desire or literally can’t ship hardware anymore. So this partnership is about a slow exit from the hardware business completely." She concluded, "Personally, I think Xbox hardware is dead. The plan appears to be to just drive everybody to Game Pass."
Fryer also questioned Xbox’s long-term strategy, highlighting the lack of new "hits" compared to the success of remakes like Oblivion. "What will make people care about the Xbox 25 years from now?" she pondered.
Despite these criticisms, Microsoft has committed to releasing a next-generation Xbox console. Xbox president Sarah Bond recently stated that Microsoft's gaming arm is "working closely" with the Windows team to make Windows "the number one platform for gaming,". It’s going to be an interesting few years for Xbox, but hopefully, with games like Fable and The Outer Worlds 2 on the horizon, the company may have a few more “hits” left in the locker.
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