XBOX Rebrand

This is stupid

A rebranding so adventurous it defies ambition, description, perhaps even logic itself: Xbox has become XBOX… yes, really.

This is stupid, and that probably sounds harsh, as well as a little strange given that I’m taking the time to write about it, but I think this change says a lot about what is being considered at Microsoft at the moment.

Xbox (excuse me), XBOX head Asha Sharma held a poll asking people if they prefer Xbox or all capitals XBOX as the name for the Microsoft brand, and people went with XBOX.

Why dose this matter? In the grand scheme of things I don’t think it does; it does look like this talk of getting back to what make Xbox so well liked is more like a thin veneer than an old oak. What made Xbox so popular? To my mind it was the games. The original Xbox had several standout exclusives; yes a great deal of it’s success was also down to the factthat it was American and Americans bought into that (as they should have), driving big sales in the U.S.A. that saw Microsoft’s heavy black box beat both the Gamecube and Dreamcast in sales. But I come back to the games. Father of Final Fantasy Hironobu Sakaguchi was there with Mistwalker and Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon, which brought Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama back to videogames after a long break form the medium; Sega gave strong support with multiple games, including sequels and brand new titles; game that we’d only see on PC like the Elder Scrolls series and Championship Manger landed on Microsoft’s new console; then there was Microsoft’s own efforts by smartly publishing Bungie’s new shooter, Halo, and buying Rare from Nintendo to strengthen their offering of games to fans (imagine the idea, buying a games developer so they can make games exclusively for your console); and then there was the rest, too many titles to mention.

The point I’m typing here is that this rebrand isn’t going to make the next Xbox a great console, neither will reducing the cost of Gamepass (though it could help), or forging a very public connection with fans. The thing that will make the next Xbox a great console would be games, fun games, fun exclusive games. No need to trace those rays so hard the paper tears under the weight of the hardware’s price, just good games that you can only play on an Xbox.

Playing videogames, writing about videogames, considering videogames—that about sums it up. Videogames are the one hobby that I’ve kept since I was only little, zapping ducks on the NES or knocking out MR. X. And when I’m not enjoying classics from the bit generation of games or checking out those earliest of polygons, I’m probably playing something from today’s age of modern gaming: if I’m not complaining about it. Something I’m doing at the moment? Taking the Multisystem 2 for a spin.