Xbox announces Partner Showcase: When is it, how to watch
It’s been a rough and rocky console generation for Xbox, but the company has a product presentation coming to us later this week.
Gaming brand Microsoft announced a new Partner Showcase livestream this morning, set to take place on Thursday, March 26 at 1 p.m. ET. You can watch the stream on YouTube or Twitch at that time.
Xbox has been very clear in emphasizing that Xbox Game Studios’ first-party productions will not be the focus here, as they will instead focus on upcoming third-party releases. These include RGG Studio Stranger than paradise, The Expanse: Osiris Rebornand something new for the already released Stalker 2.
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Former Xbox President Sarah Bond Breaks Silence After Surprise Exit
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While it’s normal for video game companies to periodically show us their products in this way, the timing is a big part of why this stream of Xbox partners is interesting. Last month, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer and President Sarah Bond both left the company simultaneously. Spencer’s exit wasn’t exactly surprising, given the difficult position Xbox found itself in under his leadership, but Bond hitting the ejector seat rather than stepping into Spencer’s shoes was a big deal. Instead, Microsoft put former AI head Asha Sharma in charge of Xbox.
These management changes came after a years-long spiral that left Xbox in quite a difficult situation, financially and in terms of reputation. Significant acquisitions of brands like Bethesda and Activision Blizzard have not resulted in higher output of quality first-party games as some hoped, while Xbox Series hardware lags behind the competition. There is also the fact that the Xbox is a priority target of the BDS movement thanks to Microsoft’s work with the Israeli army; Anecdotally, many people I know have stopped playing Xbox games because of this. Xbox has has revealed very vague plans for its next console, but that in itself hasn’t stopped the bleeding.
If nothing else, it will be interesting to see if Xbox’s marketing changes under the new management team. We can all discover it together on Thursday afternoon.
