Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is standing up on her soapbox, telling gamers what they don’t want to hear: gaming hardware is getting too damn expensive. Because of spiking memory prices, players may not be able to afford that shiny new console on the horizon. So Xbox has to do something drastic, and that may require rejuvenating Xbox Cloud Gaming with—you guessed it—ads.
The entire Xbox business is heading toward a “reset,” according to an open memo sent to Xbox employees co-written by Sharma and head of Xbox’s publishing arm, Matt Booty. The situation is dire. Microsoft’s gaming execs told staff that console storage components were already 2x more expensive than they were last fall. Xbox’s leadership expects memory prices to soar to 5x what the company had previously paid a year ago. That’s going to pose a problem for Xbox’s “Project Helix” next-gen console. “While the entire industry is facing a components crisis, we believe we have been impacted more greatly than many of our peers due to the choices we made over the last half-decade,” Sharma and Booty stated in their letter to staff, setting the stage for potential staff cuts and a larger business restructuring next month. “We are currently unable to make as many consoles as players want to buy, and we need a new business model and partnerships for hardware as we remain committed to Helix.”
