Microsoft kills 'Microsoft Gaming,' goes back to Xbox—and the new logo is very green

Xbox is back—and it looks the part. Microsoft has quietly buried the "Microsoft Gaming" name and is returning to Xbox as the identity for its gaming division. Alongside the rebrand, the company has unveiled a refreshed logo: glossy, neon green, and a clear callback to the classic Xbox aesthetic that fans had been missing since the brand went flat and white.The Verge first reported the changes, which Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced at an internal all-hands meeting on Wednesday.Sharma, 62 days into the job, posted the new logo with the caption "We Are Xbox." She immediately followed it with a string of green heart emojis. Mountain Dew's official account called it a comeback. Razer chimed in with a single word: "Green." Fans were just as loud, with many pointing out that neon green is what Xbox actually looks like—not the sterile white Microsoft had settled on.The rebrand isn't just cosmetic. The new logo has already started appearing on Microsoft's campus walls, alongside slogans like "great games" and "future of play," ahead of the Xbox showcase in June.In a joint memo with Chief Content Officer Matt Booty, Sharma didn't sugarcoat things. "Players are frustrated," the two wrote, citing slow console updates, a weak PC presence, and pricing that's become difficult to justify. The memo sets daily active players as Xbox's new performance benchmark—replacing whatever it was before—and lays out four priorities: hardware, content, experience, and services.One of the bigger questions is exclusives. Microsoft is "reevaluating" its approach to exclusive games and windowed releases, per The Verge, but there's no firm commitment yet. Porting titles like Forza Horizon 5 to PlayStation has brought in real revenue, and unwinding that isn't straightforward.Microsoft originally adopted the Microsoft Gaming name in 2022, when Phil Spencer was promoted to CEO as part of the Activision Blizzard acquisition. Sharma is now walking that back—along with what sounds like several other decisions made during that era.