‘We are Xbox’: New leadership further pledges to bring brand back to its previous glory

A new statement from Xbox leadership is pledging a re-focus on the big gaming brand itself, and that means a “rebrand” back to where it started.

Microsoft Gaming will henceforth be known again as Xbox, according to CEO Asha Sharma and head of Chief Content Officer Matt Booty. A new, lengthy statement released today by the duo veered away from previous “This is an Xbox” marketing and instead promised a pseudo-set of 10 ideals the company will focus on.

“Xbox will be where the world plays and creates,” the statement said. “We will build a global platform that connects players and creators everywhere. Console is at the foundation, delivering a premium experience, and cloud brings that experience to any device. You can play where you want, and your games, progress, friends, and identity stay with you across console, PC, mobile, and cloud.”

The 10 steps highlighted by Xbox are as follows:

Earn every player

Protect our art

Stay rebellious

Progress over perfection

Signal over ceremony

Core before more

Outwork the problem

Speed is learning

Makers over managers

Clarity is kindness

“Xbox will be built to be affordable, personal, and open,” they said. “We will offer flexible pricing so it’s easy to get started and keep playing. The experience will adapt to you, letting you customize how you play, helping you find what you’ll love, and connecting you with the right people. And we will be open to all creators, from individuals to the largest studios, giving anyone the tools to reach a global audience and keep their games growing over time.”

It’s been a whiplash-like first two months for Sharma after taking over as Xbox CEO from Phil Spencer, who was in the role for years after spending decades with Microsoft. But this statement reads like a very self-aware reflection as much as PR speak for what the team is planning on doing moving forward, including calling the brand “a challenger” in the industry now, “and meeting this moment will require pace, energy, and a level of self-critique that should feel uncomfortable.”

The leadership duo said that Xbox’s “new north star will be daily active players,” and this will be driven by growth and focus on hardware (with Project Helix on the way), content, the player experience, and services like Game Pass.

“Over the last five years, Xbox and the industry have been through an unimaginable amount of change, and this team has continued to deliver through it for our community,” they said. “Thank you for staying focused on what matters. 62 days in, we’re proud of how we’ve honored our commitments of great games, return of Xbox, and future of play. We’re here to do the most creative and courageous work of our lives, and that’s what we’ll do together.”

You can read the full statement on the Xbox website.

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There’s a host of different stats in Vampire Crawlers that will define your chances of completing a specific stage. If you’ve played Vampire Survivors, you’ll be well familiar with most of these stats. If not, then you can refer to the following section to understand what each attribute means.

Vampire Crawlers stats explained

The table below briefly explains what every stat means so that you can always stay on top of your deck’s strength and prowess.

Stat	What it Does
Max Health	It raises your Max Health by 10% per rank. You’ll still need to heal and restore your health after increasing the cap.
Recovery	Heals 1 HP per rank after each encounter. Extremely useful to passively restore your lost HP after every completed battle.
Hand	Determines the number of cards you’ll pull when a fresh turn begins.
Mana	Raises the max mana available for you to use.
Armor	Nullify all incoming attacks. You gain +1 Armor per rank, and also increase it by playing Armor cards.
Might	Raise the base damage of all weapons by 10% per level.
Area	Dish out AoE damage from your attacks, which increases by 10% per rank.
Amount	Adds extra projectiles for your weapon cards.
Duration	Allows you to increase the duration of your Crawler’s stay by one per rank.
Magnet	You can draw extra cards per turn.
Revival	Get extra lives.
Luck	Raises all positive stats, along with increasing the quality of your drops. It increases by 20% per rank.
Growth	You can get extra XP.
Greed	You’ll get 10% extra Gold Coins per rank.
Reroll	You can reroll your draw to try and get other options. You get +2 reroll choices per rank.
Skip	You can skip level-up rewards to get extra XP and Gold.
Banish	You can banish cards that you want to avoid from showing up on your run.
Curse	A negative stat that will amplify the damage of your enemy’s attacks. However, you’ll get more XP and Gold.

Typically, the Power Ups you use will have a direct impact on the stat values of your current run. When you upgrade a Power Up, it will permanently raise the applicable stat for your character (the buffs will be available across all runs). However, your attributes will also depend on the cards you draw and the crawler(s) you use.

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