- Cancel your Xbox Game Pass subscription.
- Boycott Candy Crush, Minecraft and Call of Duty.
- Boycott all Microsoft Gaming products.
Some have gone further, selling on or boxing up their Xbox Series consoles in solidarity, while others have continued as before but with greater awareness of Azure’s use at the time thanks to this and the related No Azure For Apartheid movement. Indeed, Microsoft blocked Israel’s use of their Azure technology on September 25. Whether this was a direct result of boycotts, NAFA or a changing attitude towards the state’s actions is unclear. The company does however remain involved with the military outside of their Azure cloud technology.
Microsoft is a massive corporation, with their gaming division bringing in less than Windows, as per their financial reports. Nonetheless, in lieu of sanctions against their higher-profit divisions, the buying public can still make a mark against the company by making these small changes to their media diet. Some may worry about the impact that boycotting the publisher may have on their developers, but Microsoft has been prone to layoffs and studio closures regardless of their overall profits or critical acclaim for their individual titles—potentially as a result of their reported pursuit of an unreasonable 30% profit increase.
Speaking personally, I’ve been involved in many heated conversations this year with others in the games space. To me, not spending money on Microsoft and its games has been the path of least resistance, especially as I mostly play on my Switch (brought to you by restrictive patents and scorched earth campaigns against emulation). I understand that for some a GamePass subscription is their only connection to games, but with the recent price hike it’s never been easier to boycott Microsoft.
If you choose to buy Halo: Campaign Evolved next year, that doesn’t automatically mean that you’re violating the boycott, due to its three tier. And there are many other ways to stand with the people of Palestine, like attending protests in your local community or sending money to all of those vetted accounts you see on Bluesky. That said, if you are a Halo fan who wishes to maintain the boycott, you can potentially buy a copy second-hand, if the remake receives a physical release (Microsoft has largely moved away from physical releases for the Xbox, but has continued to release physical editions of certain games they’ve published for the PlayStation). Whether you’re boycotting or not, you have to appreciate the coincidence of the iconic military shooter being the latest target of the anti-military boycott.
