It’s been quite the week for Xbox fans. Microsoft’s Xbox TV app recently arrived on some Amazon Fire TV devices, and with it came a clear message from Microsoft: you don’t need an Xbox console to play Xbox games. Days later, Microsoft hiked its Game Pass prices.
Microsoft has quietly been saying you don’t need an Xbox console for years with its day-one releases of Xbox games on PC, but this time, it said the quiet part out loud. In a commercial stylized around the ’90s movie Scream, the message is that “you don’t need an Xbox to play Xbox” and “no console required.” The changes come as Microsoft starts to rethink how it can boost Xbox Game Pass subscription numbers and look further beyond the console.
You can now stream Xbox games from Game Pass to Amazon Fire TV sticks, meaning you don’t need to buy an Xbox Series S or X console. Microsoft had the same “no console required” messaging when it launched the Xbox TV app on Samsung TVs in 2022, but there was less uncertainty around Microsoft’s Xbox strategy at the time. Microsoft has since released Xbox-exclusive games on PS5 and scrapped plans for an overhauled Xbox Series X design, leaving Xbox fans nervous about the direction of the Xbox brand.
