Xbox President Sarah Bond’s Interview with Bloomberg : An Analysis

Capping off a tumultuous week regarding press for Xbox, President of Xbox Sarah Bond joined Dina Bass on Bloomberg Tech yesterday to discuss the latest within the organization. While nothing was said that I would consider ground-breaking, new information, there were some tidbits worth analyzing.

Given what we’ve known about Xbox’s direction in several areas, I simply offer my thoughts on the commentary provided by Bond below.

The video game industry isn’t growing and we have to find ways to bring in new players. Even in 2023 with several landmark titles being released, growth didn’t follow.

I’ve talked about this extensively as have many others covering the industry. While gaming saw a boom in the earlier days of COVID, it has since trailed off. And some of what we’re seeing in terms of downsizing and restructuring over the past 18 months is the result of that downturn: a fact that Bond alludes to when answering a question about the shuttering of studios. She attempts to offer reassurance that the moves are for the long-term health of the brand and organization, which to be fair is almost always the intent, but whether or not that comes to fruition only time will tell (as I wrote yesterday).

So how do you bring in new players?

The answer seems to be new avenues of accessing the ecosystem(s) combined with new markets. But that has seemingly proved to be more challenging than initially expected. This is further compounded by the data we’re seeing for the youngest generation who don’t engage with games the same way as has been done for decades.

She later goes on to answer a question related to cloud gaming, something, again, we’ve been talking about for years. According to Bond, it is growing at a faster rate than other spaces and they are continuing to invest. But generally there was no new or interesting information provided with the answer.

Shouldn’t the success of Hi-Fi Rush, at least critically and in Game Pass, ensure the future of a studio?

Sadly, this was one of the most disappointing answers from Bond. While she talked about looking at variety of factors relating to the studios, including individual success being unique, not much more of substance was said here.

What we heard from Jason Schreier’s article was that it may have simply been more about bad timing than anything else. With Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin having recently released games, Bethesda needed to contract to be able to focus on fewer overall projects. Take that as you will.

One the key focus areas for growth and relating to the ABK acquisition is mobile. What’s the plan there?

Bond offers comments around Xbox believing there is an opportunity within mobile to offer an experience focused on gamers. They don’t believe there is a gaming platform or experience specifically targeted at gamers (from a single ecosystem perspective). This is why they believed so heavily in acquiring King as part of the ABK deal.

She goes on to announce that in July Xbox will launch their “mobile store experience.” At first it will be web-based only (not an app) and will begin with first-party titles such as Candy Crush and Minecraft. According to Bond, the goal is to have partners join publishing as soon as possible.

While we knew this was coming, launching in July was a surprise to me. While it sounds like an MVP for all intents and purposes, it’s clear that Xbox wants to move quickly to build that foundation. There are a lot of open questions here, and I’m very curious about implementation and expansion, particularly as they drive towards a single app. This is an area I’ll be paying close attention to in the coming months!

Is Xbox de-focusing its own hardware (pointing to releases on other platforms and the energy around the console being challenged). How do they ensure that Xbox is still for those players and “core” gamers?

Bond talks about a few aspects of her focus for the teams, much of what was discussed earlier this year. This includes:

• A next-generation of hardware that is not only a leap forward technically, but really “hones in” on the players’ needs.
• Doubles-down on Xbox’s idea of games being forward and backwards compatible. That they retain the single ecosystem approach including cross-play, cross-progression, cloud saves/gaming, and a unified profile.
• Talks about Game Pass being a pillar and that “all” first-party releases will continue to release into the service. When pressed by Bass about “Activision” games, Bond responds with “across the whole slate…you’re going to see some really amazing things.”

Obviously her last point was the most notable due to the elephant-sized question in the room about Call of Duty launching into Game Pass. Sadly, I wouldn’t consider this a confirmation that 2024’s Call of Duty will fully release into Game Pass just yet, but I certainly understand if people are going to take that away from the comment.

I would have preferred if Bass directly posed the question about COD specifically, though I’m obviously not privy to any of the restrictions she had with the interview. I think it was a good question, and it’s going to be interesting to see exactly how Xbox handles COD later this year.

My guess? They announce it’s launching into Game Pass at the end of the Showcase/Direct in June (with the Direct focusing on this year’s COD). While I’m not sure I actually believe it, I feel like they need that spark for the platform and service. If it doesn’t come to pass, well that will become a much broader conversation about future strategy…

Where do you think A.I. will be important for gaming and game developers?

Bond points out the obvious initially which is that A.I. is everywhere today and that as Microsoft, they are obviously a global leader in the space that bears a lot of responsibility. Specifically relating to gaming, she makes three core points.

• How can A.I. assist in development tools to improve development velocity? And further, how can it open doors for new developers who may not previously had access or knowledge on the tools to build games?
• How can A.I. assist with game discovery? So that when you’re playing on Xbox, they can better understand your preferences and make recommendations from their catalog that will align with those preferences.
• Finally, how can A.I. assist with actual game engagement while playing games?

She notes that these are obviously early days for A.I. in the gaming space. I think most of us understand this well and it’s another area that I’m very interested in as times goes. It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly two years since I published the below video, but in it I detail some of my thoughts of where gaming is headed including how A.I. can positively impact game experiences.

As always, I appreciate the support from the community on my writings and discussions on these topics. I will be in L.A. in June with a load of coverage to come. Stay tuned!