New Leadership, Same Story: How Xbox Continues to Fumble the Basics

In a year that should see the brand celebrating a quarter-century of Xbox, Microsoft just keeps pissing off its most loyal fans

In just a few months, the 25th anniversary of the original Xbox's launch will be upon us.

With the recent Xbox Games Showcase that took place earlier this month, along with the recent leadership changes such as Asha Sharma taking over as the CEO of the brand, there was reason to be cautiously optimistic for fans of the mean green machine.

A beautiful remake of the original killer app that became the face of the console and launched one of the most beloved franchises in media, a long-awaited new entry in the Gears of War series which brings the franchise back to the basics and sees the return of many familiar faces, the return of Fable (albeit that won't release until 2027 thanks to Grand Theft Auto 6's fall-schedule-demolishing release)...it looked like a return to form and the ushering in of a new era of Xbox.

For hardcore fans, the announcement of proper Collector's Editions for all three of their major upcoming releases - July's Halo: Campaign Evolved, October's Gears of War: E-Day, and February's Fable - was met with much enthusiasm.

With the increasingly digital world, special edition releases that offer physical goodies for big games have become a big deal for collectors and longtime fans of franchises, offering a lucrative boost to revenue for publishers.

It's nothing new or complicated and has been the norm since the Xbox 360-era, and yet somehow Microsoft managed to screw it up in the year of 2026.

First, the messaging - they announced these Collector's Editions would be exclusive to the "new" Xbox Games Shop in the US, with a typically vague "check local retailers" statement for international markets.

That's where the biggest problems came.

Rather than utilizing the Microsoft Store warehouses that previously handled such items without issue, Microsoft has opted to outsource their re-launched Games Shop to DPI Merchandising, which ships only from the US and clearly has no distribution deals in other countries.

This makes shipping fees to non-US countries egregious and effectively kills off entire markets; take for instance the Halo Collector's Edition, which is priced at $280 Canadian (CAD). Shipping to Canada in my case (I live near the US border, not somewhere far from civilization where expensive shipping is a norm) would cost nearly $100 - that's a roughly 35% markup added to the product.

Then, you're charged a tarriff since it's coming from the US, which is estimated at just over $20 in this case, and $26 for the more expensive Gears of War Collector's Edition.

And before you say you can't avoid tariffs, these products are not being made in the USA and are instead made in China (or another low-cost labour market), then shipped in this case to an American warehouse who sends it to the customer, instead of being shipped from the source to warehouses in other regions to accommodate international buyers.

With taxes, shipping, and tariffs a Canadian fan looking to buy the $280 product is looking at a nearly $450 bill for one of those Collector's Editions. That bill balloons to nearly $600 for the Gears of War CE, which retails at $400 Canadian.

For other markets that have long-established Xbox fanbases like Brazil, those costs are even higher.

Of course, many Canadians are used to seeing huge shipping fees from non-Canadian sites, but Canadian retailers like EB Games, Amazon, and Best Buy have always gotten stock for virtually every collector/special edition of every videogame that's ever been released, which always sell out for big franchises as well, clearly indicating there is a healthy demand up here.

Those retailers tend to take longer to make pre-orders available than their American counterparts do, leading many Canadian and international customers to hold off on ordering and in the hopes that they could pre-order through local retailers like they've always been able to before.

Except this time, it appears that's not going to happen.

Xbox's own press releases said to check local retailers for international markets, yet none of those retailers had any information regarding if they'd ever get stock - trying to ask Xbox support? If you didn't get stuck in a loop with a useless AI chat bot, you're simply referred to their Xbox Games Shop and given no more information as nobody at the company appears to have any idea. Asking their social media channels? You won't get a response no matter how many others like or repost your questions.

If you took any time to weigh your options however, you missed out entirely - the Halo CE was "sold out" within hours from the Games Shop, and Microsoft later made it clear that there would be no restocks or further availability - essentially giving the middle finger to international fans and longtime fans of all stripes that were unable to secure their copy in a few-hour window on one Sunday morning.

It wasn't long ago that pre-orders were meant to give publishers an accurate gauge of how many products should be made come launch day, yet now they're treated as if it's a full product launch where only the perpetually online and those willing to throw money away for needless fees can get their hands on the goods, making these sorts of things a scalper's paradise while legitimate fans are left out in the cold.

To make matters worse, after fans brought up the scalping issues with the Halo CE, Microsoft attempted to gaslight fans in a Q&A by saying they reviewed with their retailers and found no abnormal scalping activity - apparently, all the copies listed on Ebay and similar resellers for 3-4x the price were just figments of our collective imaginations.

For Halo: Campaign Evolved at least, the limited quantities of the Collector's Edition makes some sense given the rushed release date was just over a month away from its announcement, no doubt thanks to GTA 6's November release that would make launching on Halo's actual 25th anniversary a no-go.

Yet faced with clearly massive demand at a time when the company is undergoing waves of layoffs and "restructurings", Microsoft is simply leaving money on the table by not even attempting to get more units available or finding other solutions to appease the market.

Hell, if they can't get more stock ready in time for release, they could simply offer a second run that would email digital codes for the premium edition of the game (so players could still play the game and enjoy it when it actually comes out) and have the physical product, minus the digital code, shipped to them as soon as it was ready, even if that was sometime after the game's release date.

Yet even for Fable, which doesn't release until February 2027 giving them plenty of production time, their Games Shop has already "sold out" and has offered no indication there will be more made, or that international retailers will ever get any stock just like Halo didn't. Instead, their marketing team has already pivoted to selling the premium edition (that contains just digital goods) - making the timing excuse fall flat.

Contrast this with Microsoft's last big launch, Doom: The Dark Ages, which featured its own epic Collector's Edition.

Not only was there more stock available, but they were made available to international retailers just like every other game's launch - hell, I was able to order mine right from the official Xbox store on the console itself (a perfect way to combat scalpers I might add), which offered free shipping; it was shipped from a Microsoft warehouse in Canada to my door before release date without issue, any additional tariffs, or any exorbitant international shipping fees.

It doesn't take a business genius to figure out that limiting availability and making things harder to buy is not the best way to increase sales of your product, yet that's what Microsoft has done.

At a time when the Xbox division is struggling, Microsoft has not only shot themselves in the foot by limiting stock of an in-demand product and clearly not being capable of adjusting to market demands, but this ineptitude also continues to highlight their complete failure to monetize their own products properly, something that new CEO Asha Sharma alluded to recently in her criticism of the brand.

With Xbox Game Pass offering even AAA titles like Halo and Gears of War to subscribers at no extra cost, Microsoft has utterly failed to make any changes to their offerings to accommodate this sales model even though it's been using this model for nearly a decade.

For subscribers, there is of course zero reason to go out and buy a copy of Halo: Campaign Evolved or Gears of War: E-Day given that they're included in the subscription fee - thus premium content and add-ons become the way for such titles to get additional revenue besides simply bringing in or retaining subscribers.

Yet first-party Xbox games' digital offerings have largely just focused on cosmetics and the like, which for some people may be exciting, but for many is not a selling point; this is especially odd with the Halo: Campaign Evolved Premium Edition's content, as it's a first-person, non-multiplayer game that's offering character skins that aren't even shown in cutscenes, making their inclusion at all a baffling choice.

The lone series that seems to understand this model has been Forza Horizon, which offers a premium upgrade that has not just additional cars but offers meaningful expansions post-launch as well, while still delivering a ton of content for base subscribers so it doesn't feel like you're being forced into shelling out extra cash on top of the monthly subscription.

When it comes to physical releases, there is a clear demand for quality collectibles and other physical items for big franchises, yet even before this latest "Games Shop" fiasco Microsoft hasn't even attempted to maximize the sales adoption of their own products.

In much the same way Game Pass subscribers are offered a "Premium Upgrade" where they can purchase the premium contents of a game without buying the base game itself (since it's already included in the subscription), the very simple, obvious answer to meet consumer demand would be to offer subscribers a Collector's Edition Upgrade

Rather than buying the standard Collector's Edition which includes a copy of the base game, offering subscribers (which again would largely eliminate scalpers as this would only be offered to Game Pass members) the chance to get all the goodies from the Collector's Edition at a discount since it doesn't include the base game would be such a simple and effective offering, yet Microsoft has somehow failed to see that even as it continuously sells out of Collector's Editions long before a game has even released.

For upcoming releases, make it so that any Game Pass subscriber who pre-orders before a certain date (so that manufacturers are given enough time to fill demand) will get their copy, regardless of how much "stock" is available; this makes it clear how many need to be made by manufacturers, scalpers are effectively eliminated, all players who want one have a clear opportunity to get one, and Microsoft isn't losing out on tons of potential sales.

For myself, and many others based on social media comments and threads, Microsoft had many longtime fans who wanted to splurge on their favourite franchises yet now not only feel left out in the cold, but disrespected by a brand that no longer seems to care about its most loyal customers.

I alone was willing to give them nearly $1000 CAD ($400 for the Gears CE, $280 each for Halo and Fable's CEs) in additional revenue to being a Game Pass subscriber - now, as someone who couldn't care less about some silly digital cosmetics, I won't even buy the premium editions that are offered and will stick to the base game included in my subscription, meaning they are entirely losing out on any additional revenue - and I'm far from the only person who feels this way.

For a brand that is struggling to turn a profit and has mismanaged so many massive franchises over the years, the fact that a multi-trillion dollar company can't even figure out how to properly communicate or internationally distribute their products anymore is not only ridiculous, it's a deeply concerning indicator of where our once-beloved Xbox is heading.