Microsoft-veteran: "Xbox-hardware er dødt"

Laura Fryer arbejdede hos Microsoft i mange, mange år, og var en af cheferne for Microsoft Game Studios før det overhovedet hed Xbox. Hun laver i dag videoer der kommenterer på problematikker i spilbranchen, og efter de sidste par måneder er hun ikke i tvivl; Microsoft er færdige med Xbox-hardware i mere traditionel forstand.

I videoen lægger hun ikke fingre imellem, og mener blandt andet ikke at Microsofts "Xbox Anywhere"-marketingspush har nogen substans. Heller ej tror hun synderligt på ROG Ally Xbox-udgavens chancer på markedet:

"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. I'm sad because from my perspective, it looks like Xbox has no desire or literally can't ship hardware anymore. So this [ROG Ally] partnership is about a slow exit from the hardware business completely."

Og det bliver endnu værre, for Fryer tror også at Xbox snart ikke vil producere hardware overhovedet, og måske heller ikke engang via partnerskaber:

"Personally, I think Xbox hardware is dead. The plan appears to be to just drive everybody to Game Pass. And let's be clear, it has a lot of value. I'm thinking that might be why they decided to charge $80 for Outer Worlds 2... And here's the thing, maybe it will work. Xbox has a deep portfolio. The remake of Oblivion was obviously a huge success, and they can continue to outsource that work to external companies and make a lot of money releasing their older games. Older games from an era when Xbox knew how to build them. But what is the long-term plan? Where are the new hits? What will make people care about the Xbox 25 years from now? I was excited to see Clockwork Revolution in the showcase, but will something like that be enough? Do they have more?"

Hun er dog stadig håbefuld for brandets fremtid, og krydser fingre for en stor fejring af 25 års jubilæet næste år.