The official announcement of Microsoft’s “This Is An Xbox” advertising and marketing marketing campaign is not accessible on-line, and seems to have been eliminated in some unspecified time in the future within the final two weeks.
The promotional marketing campaign, begun in November 2024, was meant to spotlight the power to play Xbox video games throughout a spread of units similar to Good TVs, tablets and PC handhelds. However the thought was not properly acquired by followers, or reportedly by even by some Xbox workers internally.
As an alternative, the marketing campaign appeared to recommend, followers not wanted to purchase an Xbox console in any respect — one thing Microsoft was already struggling to promote compared with its console rivals. Current years have seen Xbox gross sales in notable decline, with 2025 {hardware} figures significantly poor.
Now, Microsoft’s weblog publish asserting “This Is An Xbox” to the world is not any extra, one thing initially noticed by Recreation Developer. Evaluation of archived snapshots of the web page by IGN reveals that it had been on-line as of March 1, however is not accessible at present. Accessing it now merely reveals an “Oops! That web page can’t be discovered” message.
One other main web page, the place gamers may reply quiz questions to seek out out “What Is An Xbox” can be now gone, and easily redirects to Xbox.com.
The timing of the pages’ disappearance is fascinating, coming shortly after the current administration upheaval that noticed Phil Spencer retire, Sarah Bond resign, and Asha Sharma named as Microsoft’s new gaming boss. Stories detailing what had led to the reshuffle, and specifically the sudden exit of Sarah Bond, advised that the “This Is An Xbox” marketing campaign had been launched beneath her watch, and had been unpopular amongst different Xbox workers members.
On the similar time, the marketing campaign’s promotional movies are nonetheless accessible through YouTube, together with its shiny marketing campaign advert helmed by Everlasting Sunshine of the Spotless Thoughts director Michel Gondry. IGN has contacted Microsoft for remark.
In fact, Microsoft can be now trying to reassert its place within the console wars with early discuss its subsequent console, codenamed Challenge Helix. It is onerous to picture the corporate eager to proceed telling customers they will simply play Halo on a smartphone when additionally it is now actively selling the promise of a brand new, and fairly possible very premium, next-gen machine.
Yesterday, throughout a session on the Recreation Developer’s Convention 2026 attended by IGN, Microsoft revealed early options of Challenge Helix and confirmed plans to ship alpha variations of the {hardware} to builders in 2027.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s Information Editor. You’ll be able to attain Tom at [email protected] or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social