Microsoft Quietly Pulls the Plug on Its "This Is an Xbox" Marketing Campaign

Image: THIS IS AN XBOX and Sarah Bond

Microsoft has removed all traces of its "This Is an Xbox" marketing campaign from the internet, and it looks like the brand is officially moving on.

The campaign, which launched back in 2024, was built around the idea that Xbox was no longer just a console. It was a platform. The messaging showed everything from televisions and phones to VR headsets being labeled as an Xbox device.

On paper, it sounded bold. In practice, it became a bit of a joke. People started holding up toasters and hair dryers, declaring them Xbox devices. The internet did what the internet does, and the campaign never really recovered from that.

Now, according to Game Developer, Microsoft's original blog post announcing "This Is an Xbox" has been taken down entirely. Clicking the original link now returns a 404 error. The dedicated tag page on Xbox's website is also gone, greeting visitors with a blank screen. It is a quiet but clear sign that the campaign has been officially buried.

The timing of its removal is hard to ignore. It comes shortly after two major departures from Microsoft's gaming leadership. Phil Spencer, who spent nearly 40 years at the company, announced his retirement last month. Sarah Bond, who was widely credited as the driving force behind the "This Is an Xbox" concept, also departed suddenly.

Reports suggest the campaign had actually "offended many Xbox employees," which adds some context to how things unfolded internally. Many had assumed Bond would step up to succeed Spencer, but that did not happen.

Instead, Asha Sharma was announced as Microsoft's new gaming CEO in February. Since stepping into the role, she has wasted no time in reshaping the direction of the brand.

Along with quietly scrubbing the campaign, Sharma has confirmed that the next-generation Xbox console, currently known as Project Helix, will play both Xbox console games and PC games.

She stated earlier this month that it will "lead in performance," signaling a more focused and hardware-driven vision for the platform.

At GDC this week, Microsoft shared an early overview of Project Helix's features (Thanks to Tom Warren):

• Powered by Custom AMD SOC:

  • Co-designed for Next Generation of DirectX

  • Next Gen Raytracing Performance & Capabilities

  • GPU Direct Work Graph Execution

• AMD FSR Next & Project Helix:

  • Built for Next Generation of Neural Rendering:

  • Next Generation ML Upscaling

  • New ML Multi-Frame Generation

  • Next Gen Ray Regeneration for RT and Path Tracing

• Deep Texture Compression:

  • Neural Texture Compression

  • DirectStorage & Zstd

• Timeline

  • Alpha devkits shipping in 2027.

To be fair, the broader idea behind "This Is an Xbox" has not been abandoned entirely. As per reports, the Xbox team still intends to offer its services across PC, handheld, console, VR, and beyond. The multi-platform ambition remains. What has changed is the messaging around it.

Project Helix is being described as a hybrid PC-console device, which carries a similar spirit but with a far more grounded and hardware-focused pitch.