Former president of Blizzard Entertainment and former corporate vice president at Xbox Mike Ybarra has been pretty vocal about Xbox's recent decisions since he departed the company in 2024 (having originally left Microsoft for Blizzard in 2019, before Microsoft bought Blizzard a few years later). Last month Ybarra went as far to say "your console is dead" in response to an Xbox user, and with the launch of the ROG Xbox Ally X, Ybarra has commented on Xbox's console strategy.
An Xbox fan asked Ybarra why the ROG Xbox Ally uses Windows instead of just using the Xbox OS, to which he responded: "It makes sense to me since they are out of HW and exclusive games." Given Xbox's recent shift to porting its games to other platforms, with 2024's Indiana Jones arriving a few months later on PS5, while its big 2025 exclusives, Doom: The Dark Ages, The Outer Worlds 2, and Ninja Gaiden 4, all arrive simultaneously on the once-rival platform.
It makes sense to me since they are out of HW and exclusive games. That includes the dedicated OS, which is essential for any console device (ease of use, security, etc). They are a publisher who will embrace Windows. Most will just pirate all the games to the devices unless they…October 19, 2025
"Only a moron would continue to make console HW when the games all go (or will go) 3rd party," Ybarra explained. He believes that in order to shift back to the status of a regular console maker "have to go back to exclusive, make great HW at a loss, and strive to win the living room." However, Ybarra notes, "That’s not their strategy," but the issue arises when Xbox tries to play the middle ground between first and third party. "I said a thousand times, get a clear strategy and rip the bandaid off and focus on execution. Otherwise, death by a thousand needles."
Ybarra also took aim at the "this is an Xbox" campaign that uses tons of devices (TVs, phones, cars) to show that you can play Xbox games on them via Cloud Streaming. He said, "Wrong idea, wrong time. Xbox is about games - games always rule the world. And if they don’t have parity between the console and any other 'device'… then it’s just not an Xbox." He adds that "whoever came up with this clearly doesn’t play games."
