Microsoft Reportedly Unhappy With Xbox Division

Microsoft is reportedly unhappy with how Xbox has been operating. Over the last decade, Xbox has transformed a lot. The brand was massively successful during the Xbox 360 era and was largely seen as the place to play online games and it also had an incredibly robust lineup of exclusives. However, the Xbox One came along and significantly damaged the brand in its early years before Phil Spencer came in and introduced a lot of brilliant innovations like Xbox Game Pass, backward compatible games, and much more. The Xbox ecosystem is quite impressive now, but there are a lot of lingering problems such as a lack of meaningful exclusive games. In 2022, there weren't any first-party games which was rough since PlayStation had huge hits like God of War Ragnarok.

According to insider Jeff Grubb, even Microsoft itself is unhappy with the Xbox division. Grubb even noted that some people's jobs at Xbox may be on the line as a result, though refrained from naming any names in particular. Given PlayStation is repeatedly putting out major titles that are critically acclaimed, sell consoles, and sell tons of copies, it's easy to see why Microsoft would be upset with Xbox, especially after a year where it had literally no games.

"I can tell you, they are not [happy], they're upset," said Grubb. "We're just trying to diagnose it a little bit right. You know, they didn't release a first-party game last year, and if that doesn't affect you if you always have something to play again, that's awesome, but a lot of people do regret getting their Xbox."

It's worth noting that Grubb also stated that Hi-Fi Rush did not make the money it needed to make to be deemed a commercial success, but Xbox's Aaron Greenberg debunked this. With that said, it's entirely possible Grubb's reporting may not be entirely accurate here, but he has been right before so it's worth listening to and taking some caution before assuming it's objectively factual.