"Pick your lane and stick to it": Former Blizzard president says it's "tough to see Xbox confused" amid "this is an Xbox" branding: "They have to figure out what needs to change... and fast"

Microsoft's Xbox strategy as of late has the likes of Blizzard's former president and one of Microsoft Game Studios' first employees joining the chorus of confusion around the Xbox brand.

The Xbox Series X-era of Microsoft has been one of the weirdest. After kicking things off with buying Bethesda, and what felt like a never-ending Microsoft Activision deal, Xbox decided to go all-in on forgoing exclusives almost-entirely, with previously unthinkable titles like Gears of War and Forza Horizon 5 coming to PlayStation consoles. This was swiftly followed by the "this is an Xbox" strategy and the Xbox branded Asus ROG Ally X – the ROG Xbox Ally – which sure makes it feel like Microsoft is planning to leave the console game – even if it isn't.

Microsoft's bizarre strategy has a lot of people confused about what the Xbox brand even is at this point, including former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra.

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"Tough to see Xbox confused about who it is and what it should be," Ybarra tweets, adding, "Some great people there still. They have to figure out what needs to change... and fast." And while Ybarra maintains he's a big fan and is "cheering the team on from the sidelines," he urges Xbox to "pick your lane and stick to it."

But Ybarra isn't alone, as former Xbox Game Studios (known then as Microsoft Game Studios) producer Laura Fryer has released a YouTube video titled "The Future of Xbox" (spotted by VGC). In the video, Fryer is a bit more negative than Ybarra, saying: "Personally, I think Xbox hardware is dead. The plan appears to be to just drive everybody to Game Pass."

Fryer expressed disappointment over the current state of Xbox, saying, "Obviously, as one of the founding members of the Xbox team, I'm not pleased with where things are today. I don't love watching all of the value that I helped create slowly get eroded away."

Fryer also says that the Xbox ROG Ally partnership "is about a slow exit from the hardware business completely." However, she did mention she had some hope that for the 25th anniversary of Xbox, Microsoft could have something up its sleeve.

GamesRadar+ went hands on with the new Xbox handheld at Summer Game Fest. You can read our first impressions in our Asus ROG Xbox Ally X preview.