“I See Two Paths Here…” Former Blizzard President Discusses Xbox’s Rocky Future

The last week feels like a horrible fever dream for not only Xbox fans, but the hard-working and talented people across Bethesda Studio’s Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Studios. After only three years of Microsoft acquiring the studios for $7.5 billion, employees found themselves either jobless or moved elsewhere within the company.

While Xbox faces a lot of criticism and anger from fans for this action, and rightly so, former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra issued a personal statement about Xbox’s strategy and how he feels positive that the company can still make things right again.

Pick A Lane And Stay In It

Only a few weeks ago, the former Blizzard boss took to Twitter/X amid widespread shock at Microsoft’s move to defend Xbox boss Phil Spencer. In his post, Ybarra outlined that he has known Spencer for many years and could testify that the studio closers “hurt him as much as anyone else”, while also stating that Spencer is “a good human and he cares deeply for the creative process and developers.”

Now, Ybarra once again wants to publicly express his opinion on Xbox’s current situation. In the lengthy tweet, he begins by offering nothing but love for the company, including its teams and players, and then dives into how Xbox has “always been accountable for its business” and also believes that “pressure and stakes are always high and only get higher as you grow.” Ybarra also goes on to say that, in his opinion, “the market isn’t growing is a PR excuse”, and it’s up to each individual team to “continually shift in a market that moves as fast as gaming does.”

He also thinks that Xbox needs to pick its lane if it wants a chance of success, believing one path should be to go even bigger on its Game Pass subscription with highly rated titles, and the other choice is to solely go all in on being a publisher across all devices and to “100% embrace” that option. “If your North Star is the Game Pass subscription, you have to take that exclusive to your services and HW and be all in across games, HW, and services in an exclusive ‘go big’ plan. Pumping regular 90+ rated games into this will drive consumer affinity and satisfaction.” Ybarra continues, “If you’re not willing to do that, then you’re on another path: you’re a Publisher across all devices and you need to embrace that 100% and be clear.”

Ybarra doesn’t believe there is a middle road for Xbox to choose from – you either take one or the other and if they decide to go down the middle, it’ll “hurt your teams and you’ll have constant churn and chaos.”. He does acknowledge, however, that his opinion on the matter is easier for him to express since he isn’t “in the trenches living the reality of the challenges”, and ends his post on a high note saying he genuinely cares about Xbox and wants nothing but success for the company.

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