Former Blizzard Exec Calls Xbox “Dead” While Praising PlayStation’s Success

Former Microsoft and Blizzard executive Mike Ybarra has openly acknowledged PlayStation’s dominance in the console market, bluntly stating that Xbox is “dead.”

The comments came after Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hideaki Nishino revealed at Tokyo Game Show 2025 that the PlayStation 5 has generated $136 billion in sales revenue in under five years, surpassing the PlayStation 4’s $107 billion over the same timeframe. Nishino described the PS5 as the company’s “most successful generation to date,” highlighting not just hardware and games, but the broader PlayStation ecosystem.

Ybarra, who once held senior roles at both Microsoft and Blizzard, took to Twitter/X to weigh in. He praised PlayStation’s execution while criticizing Xbox’s struggles, remarking that the console business “is successful if you do it right”. When one user dismissed him as a “bitter ex,” Ybarra fired back with the sharp retort: “your console is dead.” Another exchange saw him mockingly respond to a comment about “everything being a console” with, “you mean confused enough.”

Ybarra hasn’t shied away from criticizing his former employer in recent months. Earlier this September, he slammed Microsoft’s decision to raise Xbox console prices for the second time in five months. The Xbox Series X 2TB now costs $799.99, up from $599.99 at the start of the year. While the first price hike was attributed to U.S. tariffs, Ybarra argued that the second increase had little to do with trade. “Console price increases are not tariff issues, they are profit issues,” he wrote on Twitter/X, adding that "deeper" problems within Xbox’s business strategy were forcing consumers to bear the cost.

It’s no secret that Xbox has faced turbulence. Since early 2024, Microsoft has cut thousands of jobs across multiple rounds of layoffs, even canceling high-profile projects like the Perfect Dark remake and Rare’s Everwild. According to a February 2025 Take-Two Interactive investor presentation, PS5 sales were outpacing Xbox Series X|S consoles by more than double as of late 2024.

Whether you agree with Ybarra’s blunt “Xbox is dead” statement or not, his words reflect a growing sentiment in the industry: the console war may not be over, but the gap between the two giants has rarely looked this wide.