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A big Microsoft milestone is coming up for its gaming division.
What you need to know
- Recently, Microsoft conducted a new interview with License Global magazine, which revolved around the merchandising of Halo.
- During the interview, Xbox head of consumer products John Friend revealed that Halo has raked in over $1.8 billion in consumer spending on merchandising and licensed products alone, excluding video games entirely.
- Elsewhere in the piece, John Friend confirmed that Microsoft is planning some sort of 25th anniversary event for Xbox and Halo, which share a birthday.
- Xbox's 25th anniversary would fall on November 15, 2026 — which would be an interesting time to launch a new console generation, no?
Xbox is in a bit of an odd place in 2024. With the game industry struggling to figure out where the next generation of growth is coming from, Xbox has been expanding its vast gaming empire across to PC, mobile, and even PlayStation. Armed with a range of acquisitions that include Bethesda Softworks of Fallout and Skyrim fame and Activision-Blizzard of Warcraft and Call of Duty fame, Xbox overall posted a huge 45% jump in revenue last quarter, while its legacy Xbox business suffered a bit of a dip.
Core Xbox fans have been left concerned what expanding to competing platforms so aggressively might mean for the console business. If fewer people want to buy Xbox hardware, it'll be even harder for Microsoft to bring third-party developers into the fold potentially, potentially leading to fewer games. The original Xbox all those years ago suffered from a large library gap when compared to the massive global footprint of the PlayStation 2, and whether or not Microsoft under CEO Satya Nadella has the mindset to sustain a shrinking Xbox console business remains to be seen. Although, both Nadella and Phil Spencer say Xbox has more players than ever, which should keep it at pace with increasing costs, at least for now.
Regardless of the perception of Xbox in the core community right now, Xbox is still making plans for the future. Xbox President Sarah Bond unveiled a forwards-compatibility team earlier in the year, while confirming that the next Xbox will represent the "biggest technological leap" for the platform. Microsoft has a promising slate of upcoming Xbox games, even if there are questions about whether or not they'll remain exclusive. Microsoft is also gearing up for a large Xbox showcase at the Tokyo Game Show later this month.
But we learned even more interesting bits about what Xbox is planning for the future in a recent interview with License Global magazine.
The original Xbox launched on November 15, 2001, and kickstarted Microsoft's uphill battle to take on
decades-old industry titans in an incredibly risky, competitive space.
During the interview, Xbox head of consumer products John Friend discussed a variety of topics pertaining to licensing and merchandising, which Xbox has been fairly good at in recent years. They license out their games IP to other companies in some cases, such as the upcoming MechWarrior 5: Clans, while also diving deeper into licensed cross-media properties such as the Minecraft Movie, Fallout TV show, and Halo TV show (obviously with mixed success there, ahem.) In any case, Friend confirmed that Halo alone has seen $1.8 billion in non-gaming consumer spend. Microsoft has quite a prolific merchandising operation going on right now, when you consider the legendary Blizzard store, coupled with the Xbox merchandise shop and the Bethesda gear store too.
The interesting snippet we're on to discuss today, however, is that Microsoft is already working on plans for its next big Xbox anniversary milestone.
"We have these massive, fantastic franchises ranging from World of Warcraft –celebrating its 20th anniversary this year — to Halo, Call of Duty, to StarCraft and much more," Friend said. "We’re building plans for the 25th anniversary of Halo and Xbox — we have such a rich heritage and history, and these communities have been active for so long, you have to celebrate that."
The interview dives into how Microsoft has improved its thought processes over merchandising, working more flexibly and reactively to consumer interests. Friend explains that their approach means they can target smaller audiences with merchandise for more niche games like Pentiment, while also building out experiences for the large mass audiences of Call of Duty.
Microsoft has celebrated previous major milestones with some fanfare, including the Xbox 20th anniversary event back in 2021. There, Microsoft opened up the Halo Infinite free-to-play multiplayer servers, added 70 more Xbox backward compatible games, and also opened up a virtual Xbox artifact museum called the Xbox Vault (which is no longer accessible).
Xbox plans for the future
The 20th anniversary Xbox controller was pretty damn sexy.
(Image credit: Richard Devine - Windows Central)
Xbox's 25th anniversary would fall on November 15, 2026, which puts it firmly in range of a new generation of Xbox hardware potentially. Sony just launched its mid-gen console the PS5 Pro, which Xbox has passed on competing with this time around. Instead, it seems Xbox is full-steam ahead with its next set of console hardware, which we tentatively believe based on our sources to include at least both a traditional-style successor to the Xbox Series X, and Microsoft's first real foray into Xbox handheld gaming with its own take on the Steam Deck.
It would be poignant to release those new devices on Xbox's 25th birthday, with the kind of fanfare that I feel the brand has been missing a bit as it navigates strategic changes that haven't always proven popular with its existing customers.
On the merchandising side, Microsoft previously did some rather epic-looking 20th anniversary Xbox controllers, so you can expect some custom options there too no doubt. Perhaps we'd get a custom Halo-style next-gen Xbox as well, perhaps the next Halo game itself will be ready by then too (optimistic, perhaps, but hey). Microsoft's Blizzard team is building out a rather huge and epic set of events to celebrate World of Warcraft's 20th birthday this year, complete with in-game events in Overwatch and WoW itself. Hopefully Halo sees similar, too. A Master Chief skin in Overwatch would look pretty badass, I reckon.
I'll leave you with a quote from John Friend's interview, as someone who does celebrate gaming well outside of the games themselves. Here's to the next 25 years of Xbox.
"Gaming is no longer just a pastime; it’s an integral part of our lives that transcends traditional entertainment boundaries. As we look forward to what the future holds, our goal is to continue pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, ensuring that every player, regardless of their background, feels a part of this incredible journey."
RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend 
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