One of the original founding members of Xbox, Laura Fryer, believes the company’s hardware ambitions are "dead."
In a new video where Fryer reflects on her role in shipping the original Xbox and Xbox 360, she describes the company’s current roadmap as "chaos," questions whether the flashy new ROG Ally is truly meaningful, and wonders what lies ahead for Xbox.
"There is literally no reason to buy this handheld," Fryer said about the ROG Xbox Ally. "As one of the founding members of the Xbox team, I’m disheartened by where things stand today. I can’t stand seeing the value I helped build slowly disappear. From my view, Xbox no longer seems to want — or even be able — to ship hardware. This partnership feels like a quiet retreat from the hardware business altogether. Personally, I think Xbox hardware is dead."
Xbox is now focused on driving users toward Game Pass, Fryer added, acknowledging there’s "value" in that strategy — and possibly why Outer Worlds 2 ended up with an $80 price tag — but she still wonders what the company’s long-term vision really is, especially with Xbox’s 25th anniversary approaching."And here’s the thing — maybe it will work," she added. "Xbox has a deep catalog. [Oblivion Remastered] was clearly a huge success, and they can keep outsourcing this work to external studios, profiting off their older games — titles from a time when Xbox knew how to build them well.
"But what’s the long-term plan? Where are the new hits? What will make people care about Xbox 25 years from now?
"Next year marks the 25th anniversary of the Xbox, and I’m sure they’ll have big announcements to mark the milestone. Maybe next year is the year. Maybe next year is when the fog lifts, and we’ll finally see the vision behind these recent moves. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…"
Last week, we reported that Microsoft is allegedly planning significant layoffs in its gaming business, possibly as soon as this week. Microsoft managers have reportedly already been informed about Xbox-related layoffs and broader cuts across the company, with sales teams expected to be hit hardest.
For the gaming division, The Verge reported Microsoft intends to make these cuts ahead of its next-generation console launch. This follows Microsoft’s announcement of a partnership with AMD to power the next generation of Xbox, including its first-party future consoles. Microsoft has not yet revealed when it plans to release the new devices.
