(This is a repost of an article originally written in 2021)

I know what many of you are thinking, especially if you live in the US, Canada, UK or other English-speaking regions. What last infinity stone? What could possibly be the answer for Xbox to succeed in the market, actually compete with Sony and Nintendo in the gaming world, and reach 2 billion gamers via cloud gaming? 

We can all agree to disagree on the various things each fan would love to see happen with Xbox. Take your pick: a Persona port, SEGA as part of Xbox Game Studios, classic IPs coming back, more JRPGs on Xbox. But the rest does seem extremely positive, right? The communication, the community, the demand and supplies of consoles and games, the hardware, the services. Xbox is indeed a full package.  
It’s certainly impossible to please everyone, but it seems like they are trying hard to find solutions  

Now, imagine you see all this, that you want to enter this fantastic world of Xbox, perhaps with a Series console, or via cloud gaming, and you want to try Xbox Game Pass, or a Forza game. You see the green, the marketing, the trailers, E3 conferences, all the excitement from fans. So, you walk towards it, but a big flat wall seems to bar your way out of nowhere. You feel frustrated, knocking on the glass and asking other fans to listen. They are happy, enjoying it, and they can’t hear you. Your frustration grows, accompanied by sadness and misunderstanding. 

That wall is saying that the country where you live in is what stops you from enjoying Xbox. 

Perhaps that description feels strange or exaggerated for most outsiders, but it conveys the feeling thousands of Xbox fans have today. Xbox is great to their eyes, a home, a tribe, but one they cannot reach in any form. Imagine seeing the excitement in front of you, and not being able to touch it, feeling powerless to do anything at all. 

This is the reality to many fans around the world, especially the ones living in countries where English is not a spoken language. Like all, they see Xbox thrive, and they want to be a part of the community. Who wouldn’t?  

Down the Road 

Xbox changed a lot since 2013 and the launch of Xbox One. It was nearly facing its end by that time, losing a lot of fans to PlayStation due to its DRM policies, a forced Kinect device in an overpriced bundle, weak hardware not feeling as next gen as its competition, and the attempt to build a north-American TV focused entertainment system instead of a gaming console. Its new IPs and exclusives were probably the only good thing, but it was not enough to avoid the fall. 

So, Satya becomes the CEO in February. Then the question is, do we go forward with Xbox? Because we’re getting really outsold by PlayStation in the market at this point. Do we stay invested in it? Or do we make a different decision? (…) But he was willing to make a bet on us as a team.
– Phil Spencer told Shack News. 

We all read articles and stories about how Phil Spencer came in to save the day, showing his leadership qualities by uniting a broken team, reorganizing the talent, and coming up with a strong argument to make sure Xbox should still be a thing.  

All that work paid off. From backwards compatibility to Bethesda joining the family, Xbox today is starting to show the results of years of investment and important decisions.  

Around 7 years later the pieces have moved completely. Xbox Series X|S launched in the middle of a global pandemic, but you can tell that this time, the Xbox team worked hard to plan not only the first year of the generation, but for the remainder also. With Smart Delivery preventing gamers from having any worries with saves and doubled game copies or extra charges, all the efforts made regarding backwards compatibility since 2015, and the 23 studios showing their first results of Microsoft’s investment in gaming. 

Gaming has never been more accessible. Any Xbox fan can pick up a game and play literally anywhere without paying any extra fees, and invite their friends to join for the first time even if they have no Xbox console. With games like Halo Infinite coming, Fable’s return, the RPGs in the works at Obsidian Entertainment and InXile, and Forza looking more and more incredible… What a time to be an Xbox gamer! 

And today, Xbox’s ambition goes as far as attempting to reach the 2 billion gamers around the world via gaming console, PC and mobile. 

There’s only one issue here. How can Xbox reach these gamers if their efforts are restricted to the main English-speaking regions? That 2 billion number is not in the US alone. 

The package is still incomplete 

Unfortunately, being an Xbox fan is not exactly easy for anyone living outside of north-America. 

In some English-speaking regions, like Canada, UK, Australia or New Zealand, the barrier is not so big, because at least the language is the same. No translations needed, not much effort, just some localization, and since everyone knows English, it’s easy to attract fans from non-English countries as well. 

Though Xbox is a north-American brand, we see its products and services around the world. Europe, South America, Asia, Africa and Oceania. There are fans from Mexico, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Germany… Diehard fans that breathe and live Xbox as it was their own tribe.  

But it’s also not just the big places. Small countries have wonderful fans as well, though usually in smaller numbers. Croatia, Portugal, Uruguay, Malaysia, Belgium to name a few. You see, there’s an entire world besides the United States, and Xbox forgot that for years. 

Thinking objectively, we can’t really blame them. It would make no sense to invest globally, especially in localization, if Xbox was winding down operations. Things take time to build and to grow. 

And the time for globalization is now. There’s no doubt Xbox needs this in order to reach that big ambitious number. 

It won’t hurt until it hits you 

The Xbox community is one of the best. Of course, there are toxic elements and bad apples everywhere, but overall fans feel welcomed and at home.  

I’m from Portugal, a beautiful small country by the Atlantic Ocean that is often overlooked, frequently confused with a Spanish province of some kind. Perhaps people know us thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo. We’re a country with 900 years of history though, far more ancient than most. Like any other of the almost 200 countries in the world, we have our culture, pride, language and way of living. And like the rest of the fans, we desperately want to see more Xbox on our land. 

When the Xbox One launched in 2013, only 13 of the 42 currently Xbox Live supported countries had the honor to welcome the new console and generation. Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand were the lucky ones. Portugal was not on that list. 

This was already a difficult scenario to accept. Why would Xbox completely disregard these fans? Of course, many eventually chose PlayStation not only because they felt Xbox One was not a good choice, but because Microsoft didn’t present that choice. I had just arrived to Xbox 360, and some of my friends were angry at Xbox’s policies and strategy, and talked about moving to PlayStation. Some did. 

The localization problems began. Even in this small country there were Gears of War tournaments during Xbox 360 days. I recall knowing of a Halo 4 launch event at a mall. Local Xbox fans describe these times almost as a great golden era. Then out of nowhere, Xbox disappeared. 

When I started my own community group in Portugal, I slowly began to understand the state of things. All I can say guys, is that this is heartbreaking to describe, and even worse to live. 

Stab after stab 

In 2017, when Xbox One X was announced at E3, Xbox Portugal already existed using interns alone. One, to be precise. People that finished their education, and started an internship at Microsoft.  

The people that represented Xbox in Portugal were in their 20s, filled with joy, life and will to help. They were into gaming, but you could tell they had not been chosen for the job as they lacked basic gaming or Xbox knowledge. 

As Xbox One X was announced the intern at the time was asked a few questions on a Livestream, including the launch date of the console. This knew neither this, nor the release date of upcoming exclusive Crackdown 3. I was shocked how Microsoft had allowed this to happen. This wasn’t a one-time thing. 

On a Livestream, a year later, another employee saw a viewer talking about “GoW”. Instead of assuming it was about the Xbox IP, Gears of War, that person thought the viewer was talking about the PlayStation IP, God of War. On another occasion it was clear none of them seemed to know who Bonnie Ross was. You know, just the head of 343 Industries, who are the custodians of the Halo brand, Xbox’s premiere IP. 

Though the gaming community had few events prior to Xbox One’s launch, the coming of Comic Con and the creation of Lisboa Games Week (both premiering in 2014) brought the news and hope for many. Portugal is, indeed, a country of gaming culture now!  

Most events though, have had weak to no Xbox presence, and when Xbox is there, it looks like some gamers decided to have a last-minute LAN party next to Nintendo and Sony’s incredible showcases. Of course, we don’t expect wonders, but being greeted with PlayStation’s statues of Spider-Man and Kratos, a zipline activity, a couple of neat cars and a few rows of gaming stations next to… 10, perhaps 20 Xbox consoles, and a few medium sized banners is, as an Xbox fan, depressing. It shows well the budget Xbox was (and to some extent still is) working with and it just doesn’t look good. 

Lisboa Games Week 2019, Source: Pplware and SAPO Tek 

Lisboa Games Week 2019, Source: Pplware and SAPO Tek 

The retailer’s situation isn’t better. For the last 5 years the Xbox space has grown thinner and thinner, and some strange situations were observed, like a PlayStation 4 being showcased at the Xbox stand at Media Markt, or a FIFA 16 being advertised with the OG Xbox One in the year Control was launched (2019) at Worten, a Portuguese retailer. 

These are merely some examples of the situations many currently live with. In a lot of countries things take strange paths. 

In South Korea, for example, fans keep asking Xbox to stop translating tweets or game descriptions on Microsoft Store to Japanese. Sometimes they mix both!  

In Brazil, gamers continue to complain about the team at Xbox, and believe they continue to struggle at tasks that seem straightforward. Recently they literally translated the names of some Xbox Game Studios, which shows they simply used a Google Translator to post on Twitter. On another occasion, Xbox BR mistakenly put a Microsoft Store link that led people to the Mexican store.  

This wouldn’t be a problem once or twice as all humans make mistakes from time to time, but the frequency of these errors worries fans, and only add up to recent polemics regarding the way Xbox BR distributed Xbox Series X|S consoles to content creators and youtubers.  

Source: Photograph Catarina Ferreira

Source: Photograph Moritz von Schwedler 

Here in Portugal, I personally discussed with interns, PR agencies, Xbox executives and whatnot, for years trying to understand what the reasoning was for what I perceived to be underwhelming support.  

Portugal was a part of Xbox Iberia, which included Spain. It’s not unusual for a company to organize countries in larger parcels. There’s EMEA, ANZ, SEA, and even those designations might have smaller groups in it. 

One of the reasons local Xbox teams usually give for the lack of presence and support is the poor or inexistent budget. This budget stops the teams from doing pretty much anything. Sadly, there are regions that have some budget but the fans don’t see results.

Perhaps hiring a one-person team for this kind of job is not the best solution. Sometimes, younger people are chosen. They might be aware of what’s popular and current in a general sense, but usually they are not required to know much about Xbox at all, and are rarely experienced enough to manage a brand’s localization by themselves. 

Then there are the PR Agencies, whose main concern is on sales and numbers. This is so real, that the reason why content creators and websites get Xbox content is simply because of metrics that show perfectly they can reach a lot of people in the gaming community. This is disheartening for Xbox fans and content creators, as they can feel betrayed by the brand they love so much, especially because many of these known influencers don’t cover Xbox news. If this move makes the Xbox community members feel less valued than others who are less engaged with the Xbox community, perhaps it’s not the best one.

There’s one interesting thing that the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, mentions on the 500th episode of IGN Podcast Unlocked, when asked about localization, June 2021. 

We’re going through a transformation right now on our global approach. Historically we’ve had people in the field but they’ve been more on the sales and kind of order side.  

We’re really doing a transformation of building more community and social leaders in markets, people who can really connect with local community (…) and help amplifying the local voices.

It seems the Xbox team is not only aware of the issue, as the focus should probably shift from sales alone to building a better relationship with the fans. 

We’re not there in all the markets now, we know that. We need to do more localization work both for our platform as well as the content that we ship.

There are two main factors Xbox needs to focus on now: products and content. 

X019, London, UK, Source: Photograph – Catarina Ferreira 

Xbox Products and Services 

There’s no way Xbox can reach 2 billion people if their products are not everywhere. So, before anything, Microsoft needs to make sure people around the world can purchase their products. 

Currently there are only 42 Xbox Live supported countries, compared to the 73 that Sony is supporting with PlayStation. And that’s not all. From these 42 countries, only a few seem to have proper support, from console and accessories stock to games and merchandise. It will be even less likely that these regions ever witnessed proper Xbox presence. Most lack what a few consider to be basic needs: Microsoft Rewards, Xbox Game Pass via cloud gaming, language localization, local team, and so on. Simply put, the main difference between most of these 42 countries and all the others is that Xbox products can be legally purchased. There are countless fans around the world that use other methods to bypass region restrictions to buy consoles, services or games. 

The main wall to overcome is laws. Every country has a set of laws that Microsoft needs to work with in order to sell its products. While some see this as a solid excuse to stop Xbox from reaching a global standard, the arguments fall into place when we observe other Microsoft brands are present there, like Windows, Surface or Office, in addition to Sony or Nintendo’s presence with their own gaming products. Let’s be real. Neither of these two companies are close to Microsoft’s value in economic terms. So how come PlayStation, for example, can reach regions Xbox can’t? How can governments and legislation be the one thing that stops Xbox? 

Microsoft’s Briefing E3 2019, LA, California, USA, Source: Photograph – Catarina Ferreira 

Xbox Communities and Local Strategies 

This is where Xbox can truly shine. Xbox must work closely with key community leaders, influencers and content creators to grow the brand.  The fans are the ones that sell their products, more than any other marketing strategy. Many influencers will do a short video about Xbox and never speak of it again. The simple fans, however, the ones that have been there from day one or the ones that just arrived, are those that probably will stay with Xbox forever. They already chose Xbox, now they need reasons to stick with it. Before helping fans convince friends and family to join, Microsoft should make sure the current clients are satisfied. 

Fans sell consoles. Seems simple, but this is what happens. In community context, I’ve observed plenty of people that bought Xbox products simply because they were advised to. Fans are the best and purest marketing tool, and community leaders, influencers and content creators should be official advocates for Xbox. These are not just fans.  Microsoft could utilize them while also making them feel more valued. Perhaps improving initiatives like the Xbox Ambassadors program would be a good way to boost it, and start giving them a true voice, for example, by letting community leaders and Xbox employees discuss ideas and strategies. Because another thing is really important: localization.  

Source: Forza Horizon 5 Press Kit 

When we talk about localization, we have to understand each region has its own customs and culture. If Mexico is known for its Gears community, and the UK is proud about being the main stage for Forza Horizon 4, each region should be approached differently. Perhaps Japanese gamers are more interested in JRPGs? Maybe there’s specifically localized Minecraft communities around the world. What Xbox IPs are more popular and where? These are only a few examples of how Microsoft could approach the gaming market. Some countries are huge spots for eSports,. Others have more PC players. If there are tons of PC players in a region, maybe Xbox Game Pass would be a fantastic service to advertise more than Xbox consoles per se. Many Europeans were pioneers when they sailed to discover the world. Why not check which communities love Sea of Thieves and make them a part of it?  

Many are missing representation, so why not support local studios so they want to join Xbox’s family as well? In Portugal, for example, Sony invites creators to join and compete with their projects at PlayStation Talents, which is an event that gets its spotlight at Lisboa Games Week, one of the biggest gaming events in the region. This boosts the will to publish games on PlayStation, because the winners obtain official support to make their projects come true. Many incredible games miss Xbox devices and perhaps incredible chances to be a part of Game Pass catalog. If Microsoft ends up developing better relationships with local communities, perhaps developers will feel even more motivated to release their projects on Xbox, if they believe they can count on the local fanbase for support. Portugal is the birthplace of Out of Line, Decay of Logos, Dakar 18, Those Who Remain, Pecaminosa and the home country of Luis Antonio, creator of 12 Minutes. Talent is there, and considering ID@Xbox is a strong program that supports indie developers, perhaps local teams could make efforts to make sure these creators know the advantages of these programs. 

There’s a ton of work to be done, and the communities’ feedback and opinion should be taken very seriously. 

Source: Twelve Minutes Press Kit 

Snap!

Microsoft really needs to open up its game, and focus on using all sort of assets to boost Xbox, making sure that beyond products, the information and communication is properly handled. If people need to be convinced of cloud gaming and whatever other surprises Microsoft is hiding, then they have to be informed and understand where they can find out more. Xbox needs to be present in local events, Xbox needs proper teams that know the region and its people, Xbox needs employees that care about Xbox and people, not numbers. 

With such a bright future, localization is the key to globalize, and Microsoft needs to focus on it now. On the previously referenced IGN interview, Phil Spencer mentioned the next years would see some changes in this.  

We have the resources as Microsoft to make that true. It’s about doing the work, having the right people with the right focus in place. 

This is a real focus for us right now. We know we have to step into that opportunity. We see it and we have a plan, and you’ll feel that from us over the next year or two.

This is exciting for thousands of fans that have been desperately asking for attention for 20 years now. But the question still remains. Can they do it properly?

Either way, of course, nobody wants Xbox to snap its fingers with the  Infinity Gauntlet and erase half of the living beings in the universe once this last Infinity Stone is earned. Xbox is no Thanos. We ALL want to play! 

The words from Phil Spencer show a light at the end of the tunnel. So, we will all watch Xbox’s next steps on globalization and hopefully soon celebrate Xbox as one with the entire world, with no more walls dividing us.