Xbox lead says the industry will see "more change happening in the next couple of years than the 25 years that got us here"

ID@Xbox director Guy Richards doesn't seem to think Xbox is having a "midlife crisis" – it's more like a midnight epiphany, and the Microsoft lead says fans of the publisher should expect more change soon. Both for Xbox and the wider industry it's part of.

More change? It already feels like Xbox is going out and getting a new wardrobe every day. Only three months have passed since new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma replaced Microsoft veteran Phil Spencer, but the company has been busy with a rebrand in swapping its name back to Xbox from Microsoft Gaming, another rebrand to make that "XBOX" appear in all-caps, and several leadership shuffles.

But, while he doesn't get into specifics, Richards says of the video game industry, during a talk GamesRadar+ attended at the Digital Dragons Conference 2026: "We believe there's going to be more change happening in the next couple of years than the 25 years that got us here."

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As for what that means for Xbox specifically, the director explains that Xbox is planning "a lot throughout the year" to celebrate its 25th anniversary, with the first Xbox console dating back to November 2001. So far, we know the company is preparing some pageantry for its in-person FanFest community event, which it'll take on an international tour this year. Xbox also announced plans for its next-gen console Project Helix, for which it intends to ship out dev kits at the start of 2027. But Richards says Xbox hasn't revealed all of its summer plans yet.

"There's already been some announcements we've made, like bringing back our FanFest," says Richards. "There's lots of exciting things that we're doing throughout the summer as well that we'll be looking forward to share more about."

All he adds as explanation is, "It's less of a celebration of the past, but more about positioning Xbox for what comes next in the next 25 years." I won't guess any specifics, but considering Xbox's recent tweaks to its Game Pass subscription price and teaming up with Discord for a bare-bones tier, it seems Xbox is eager to appeal to very online gamers seeking non-committal brand loyalty.

Richards gestures at this during his talk, saying, "If you think about what's going on in the industry, in terms of how player behavior is shifting, players are playing across different devices, they're accessing games in different ways, free-to-play, premium, subscription, business models are all changing."

He vows, "We're going to keep meeting players where they are. The world continues to evolve and change, and we're going to make sure Xbox is a great place for developers and players."

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