Xbox Is Trying a New Look

A confirmed handheld, and a new brand tagline.

Author

Robert Scarpinito
November 15, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

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And It’s Going Through a Whole New Marketing Strategy, Too

After years of rumors, Xbox Head Honcho Phil Spencer has confirmed that his company is working on some sort of Xbox handheld, though they’re currently in the prototyping stage. Any consumer-facing product is years away—but on the other hand, we’ve all got phones, right?

And I mean that seriously, just like that one guy at Blizzcon. Xbox’s latest marketing campaign centers around one tagline: “This is an Xbox.” It’s clearly reframing how we should think about consoles and gaming.

They’re putting that slogan on other screens, like phones, because other screens can play or stream Xbox’s games, especially through Game Pass and the cloud. The company’s lagging in the console market, but if their key metrics are based on software, hardware can take a backseat.

All of that sort of makes the official confirmation of a handheld a little ironic, but maybe that goes hand in hand with giving players as many options as possible. Being able to play games on my phone, a handheld, a laptop, or streamed directly to my TV will really lower the barrier of entry. Xbox just needs the right software to make that entry worth it.

In other Xbox news, earlier this week, union workers at Zenimax went on a one-day strike, pushing for better working conditions and more job security.

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