Xbox is now XBOX — fans voted, and the brand listened
Xbox has a new name — sort of. Under new CEO Asha Sharma, Microsoft's gaming division has dropped the "Microsoft Gaming" label, returned to the Xbox brand, and let fans decide how to write it. Nearly 65% of voters chose all-caps, so the official X account is now XBOX. The rebrand also comes with a shiny green logo and lower Game Pass prices.
The poll that picked a name
Sharma posted a simple two-option poll on X — "Xbox" vs. "XBOX" — and 19,176 people voted. 64.8% picked XBOX, and the company promptly renamed its X account to match. Other accounts, including those on Threads and Bluesky, still use the mixed-case version for now.
The new logo revives the glossy green look tied to the original Xbox console from 2001 — a deliberate nod to where the brand started before years of platform-agnostic experiments diluted its identity.
Xbox або XBOX?
— Asha (@asha_shar) 13 травня 2026
What actually changes for you
The "Microsoft Gaming" name was adopted around the time of the Activision Blizzard acquisition in 2022. Sharma, in an internal memo cited by gHacks, argued the label never landed — it felt corporate and distanced the brand from the players it was trying to reach. Her four stated priorities going forward: hardware, content, experience, and services. Daily active players, not revenue per user, is the new north-star metric.
The refreshed XBOX logo revives the glossy green associated with the brand since the original console launched in 2001.
The price cuts are the most immediate change. Game Pass Ultimate drops from $29.99 to $22.99 per month — a 23% reduction. PC Game Pass falls from $16.49 to $13.99. Both cuts roll back increases from October 2025, which had been widely criticized after Microsoft scaled back on exclusive titles.
A reset, not a revolution
Renaming an X account and trimming a subscription price won't fix everything. Hardware sales have been sliding, and the "everything is an Xbox" strategy — the idea that Xbox is a service you access on any screen — never convinced enough players to abandon PlayStation or Nintendo. Sharma's return to the classic brand signals she's betting on familiarity and affordability over cloud ambition. Whether a logo and a price drop are enough to turn that around remains to be seen.
