Amid Xbox’s restructuring efforts, which will see more than 3,200 jobs cut between now and 2027, with 1,500 layoffs happening immediately, the company has also outlined a bold vision for its future. That’s not all, Xbox is also set to part ways with at least four studios, but unlike Sony’s closures, these teams are being given a second chance, with some becoming independent and others finding new homes under different publishers. If you haven’t caught up with the news yet, Compulsion, Double Fine, Undead Labs, and Ninja Theory are among those affected, while Arkane Lyon’s future is a little more complicated. You can read more about Arkane here.
Within Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s statement, she said:
“These changes are about a bigger future for Xbox, not a smaller one… this year we’ll invest as much in Xbox as we ever have, but we’ll invest with greater focus, greater discipline, and greater clarity, all in service of making Xbox where the world plays and creates.“
Alongside those comments, Sharma also stated:
“I want XBOX to be one of the few companies that entertains more than a billion people each day and gives everyone the opportunity to create and connect. I know we can achieve this goal. XBOX has many of the most beloved franchises in entertainment history, talented studios around the world, and we will return to growth in 2027″
To put that into perspective, Xbox currently reaches around one billion players annually. Meanwhile, Steam has roughly 147 million monthly active users, while PlayStation sits at around 125 million monthly active users. Reaching one billion players every single day would require Xbox to grow far beyond anything we’ve seen from the gaming industry so far.
I’m not entirely sure how Sharma expects to achieve that outside of expanding into regions where Xbox currently has little or no official presence. That includes parts of Africa, South America, and, believe it or not, large parts of Europe, including countries such as Romania. Xbox also doesn’t officially operate in markets including Indonesia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. There are, of course, legal and regulatory hurdles that make expansion into some of these regions difficult, but beyond reaching more countries, I’m struggling to see what else could realistically get Xbox anywhere close to that figure.
Another take would be that Sharma doesn’t refer to “players” directly, but instead says that the goal is that Xbox “entertains more than a billion people each day.” That reading could expand beyond gaming into other features that Xbox currently supports, like Netflix, YouTube, Twitch, YouTube TV, HBO Max, Jellyfin, PLEX, and the other dozen or so media apps that people use daily.
That more liberal reading of using an Xbox daily is certainly more achievable, at least once you cumulatively sell a billion Xbox consoles.
Maybe I’m missing something, though. If you’ve got ideas on how Xbox could realistically reach one billion daily players, let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll below:
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