Xbox Drops the Microsoft Gaming Name in Major Rebrand
On April 24, 2026, Microsoft's gaming division officially rebranded from "Microsoft Gaming" back to simply "Xbox." New CEO Asha Sharma announced the change in an internal memo that quickly went public: "Microsoft Gaming describes our structure but it does not describe our ambition. We are Xbox."
The rebrand comes with a new glossy green logo that replaces the black and white design used since 2019. It is the clearest signal yet that Xbox wants to be seen as a standalone brand rather than a subdivision of Microsoft's enterprise business.
Why the Name Change Matters
The "Microsoft Gaming" branding was introduced in 2022 alongside the $69 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition. At the time, the goal was to present gaming as a serious business unit within Microsoft's corporate structure. But internally and externally, nobody ever stopped calling it Xbox. The rebrand acknowledges reality: the brand equity is in the Xbox name, not the Microsoft Gaming label.
Sharma's memo frames the rebrand as more than cosmetic. She positioned it as a cultural shift toward a unified identity across hardware, Game Pass, and first party studios. All of Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, and legacy Xbox studios now fall under the single Xbox umbrella.
Game Pass Price Drop
Alongside the rebrand, Xbox announced price cuts to Game Pass. Ultimate dropped from $29.99 to $22.99 per month. PC Game Pass dropped from $16.49 to $13.99. These are significant reductions that suggest Xbox is prioritizing subscriber growth over per user revenue.
The Call of Duty Decision
One detail buried in the announcement: future Call of Duty titles will no longer launch day one on Game Pass. Instead, they will join the service roughly a year after release. This reverses one of the headline promises of the Activision acquisition and signals that Xbox is reconsidering the economics of putting $300 million AAA titles into a subscription service at launch.
The rebrand is effective immediately across all marketing materials, social channels, and storefronts. Whether the green logo and sharper identity translate into better hardware sales and subscriber growth remains to be seen, but the message is clear: Xbox is betting on its name.
