Xbox's New Strategy Is 'Right' For The Business And Needs To Be Embraced, Says Former Exec

Image: "Xbox Daily Live @ E3 - Xbox Update Preview"

Former Blizzard president and Xbox exec Mike Ybarra has been weighing in on the brand's new multiplatform strategy over the past few days, advising in a string of social media comments that he feels it's ultimately the right move.

Ybarra acknowledged that Xbox has taken a while to be clear on the strategy, but has since been consistent in its messaging - and told fans that although he understands they may dislike the approach that Phil Spencer and his team have adopted, he believes it's the right thing for the business and that players simply need to embrace it.

"They've been consistent, they are a Publisher now and support all platforms. It's the right strategy for them and their business. Sure it took a while for them to get clear on this (balancing selling HW/managing customers with the reality of the strategy)."

"I love that their games are on PC and PS5. I get loyal Xbox gamers are mad - but that isn't going to change anything. Embrace and move on - play on what you enjoy playing on (if you're a console only person, that probably means PS or Nintendo in the future). But you'll still have "Xbox" games there."

"PS/Nintendo should work with Xbox on some type of friends transfer system etc. Eventually that should be done to help people stay connected with their friends. We'll never see a universal gaming social platform, but I do wish we could!"

As you can see, Ybarra is also questioning whether Xbox consoles will exist in the long-term future - this is despite new hardware having been confirmed not too long ago. He guesses that Xbox may "play the long game" and just slowly move away from making major hardware as time goes on, but ultimately this is just speculation on this part.

Looking at the rest of Ybarra's responses, he's seemingly of the belief that Xbox should double-down on first-party games and Xbox Game Pass while "reducing cost everywhere else". He's not involved in Xbox's plans in any way, of course (he's the CEO of PrizePicks these days), but clearly remains passionate about the brand and the business!