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After years of declining hardware sales, Xbox might be making a genuine comeback, having impressed at its recent showcase. What’s going on?
Is Microsoft course correcting Xbox and its wider gaming division?
That seems to be the growing sentiment among fans and experts this week following Xbox’s impressive 2026 showcase, which featured new footage from Halo: Campaign Evolved, Gears of War: E-Day, Fable, Persona 6, and a limited edition, transparent green Xbox Series X in celebration of the brand’s 25th anniversary.
It was Xbox’s first big presentation under its new CEO, Asha Sharma, who has made an active effort to realign the company’s values after years of declining hardware sales and diminishing public trust.
Xbox has spent years gutting small developers, increasing the price of its Game Pass service, and diminishing its console division by pivoting toward a cloud-based ecosystem.
All of its previously exclusive IPs are now available on other platforms, and the original titles it has managed to release – Redfall being the most obvious example – have largely fallen flat.
Previous CEO Phil Spencer faced criticism for steering Xbox in a puzzling direction, where gaming was seemingly secondary to universal accessibility and industry buyouts of major publishers.
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Understanding what exactly an Xbox stood for became challenging as the brand’s messaging and intentions appeared muddled, with long-time gamers declaring Xbox officially ‘dead.’
It looks as though things might be changing, however. In a June 2026 interview with Bloomberg Tech, Sharma outlined a ‘100-day business reset,’ pulling Copilot AI from all Microsoft consoles and delivering what she describes as a ‘mandate to be the number one gaming and entertainment company.’
Her comments came alongside a logo refresh and a price reduction of Xbox’s Game Pass.
Now, with its latest showcase, Xbox appears to be putting games at the forefront of its business strategy once again. It has made a clear effort to bring back beloved IPs with new entries – Gears of War being the most notable – alongside new exclusives that should incentivise consumers to invest in the platform.
It’s still early days, of course. Sharma has a background in AI development and has never acted as the leader of a major company before.
Microsoft, as a business, is also notoriously anti-consumer and bureaucratically stunted. Even if things look great now, it doesn’t necessarily mean that Xbox will be consistent in its practices. We’ve seen too many mistakes and studio shutdowns to give the benefit of the doubt so early on. We need more time.
