Microsoft is rebranding Copilot in the most Microsoft way possible

At one point in Microsoft’s nearly 50-year history, the software maker decided that “Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Professional Edition” was a good branding choice for the version of its mobile operating system that shipped on handheld devices with a stylus.

Over the decades, Microsoft has formed a habit of picking bad marketing names for its products and has often had to reverse or change them after they’ve led to confusion or consumers just call them something else altogether. Windows Phone 7 originally shipped as Windows Phone 7 Series, the Windows Store is now the Microsoft Store, for some reason, and don’t get me started on the various Windows 10 update names. To me, it’s the Xbox Elite controller, but to Microsoft, it’s the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2.

Copilot is now up next for a Microsoft rebrand.

Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell me that the main Microsoft Copilot brand name for the company’s AI business efforts is moving to Microsoft 365 Copilot in an effort to push the paid offering of its AI-powered tools. The actual paid version of the service — currently named “Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365” — is also changing its name to Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Microsoft currently uses simplified names to refer to Copilot inside of Office apps, such as “Copilot in Word,” but even that’s going to be more complicated soon. “Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word” is the new brand name that will start to appear next month, I’m told. The Copilots for Sales, Service, and Finance are all moving to the Microsoft 365 brand, too. So that results in “Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales” instead. I’m sure everyone will just continue to call it “Copilot for Sales,” though.

Microsoft is also giving its graph and web-grounded chat experience in Microsoft 365 Copilot its own brand: Business Chat. News of the rebrand has been spreading internally in recent weeks, as teams grapple with how to use these new brand names in their various products.

After speaking to a variety of sources, it’s clear that this rebrand is linked to the fact that nobody really owns Copilot inside Microsoft. In a Notepad issue last month, I wrote about how Microsoft had reshuffled some of its AI and cloud teams to focus on more Copilot opportunities, and the result has been different teams building different Copilots.

That hasn’t yet resulted in the type of internal fights we’ve seen inside Microsoft in the past, but there’s a feeling among some employees that the Microsoft 365 team has always wanted to own the Copilot brand thanks to its hero experience inside Office apps. This rebranding effort makes it clear that Microsoft 365 is winning the brand battle. There’s still no single engineering owner of Copilot in Microsoft, though, and it’s unclear how Microsoft will brand any future business-focused Copilots that are outside of Microsoft 365.

This Copilot rebrand will largely impact the business side of Microsoft’s AI efforts. Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman still controls the consumer side, and I’m not aware of any changes to the main web Copilot brand and mobile apps that consumers can access. Microsoft just appears to be aligning around Microsoft 365 for its business Copilot efforts.

I understand this Copilot rebrand will be unveiled publicly next month, as Microsoft prepares to make more updates to the Microsoft 365 Copilot in the fall. I asked Microsoft to comment on its Copilot rebrand, but the company didn’t provide a statement in time for publication.

There are a lot of Xbox employees in Germany this week for Gamescom. Xbox chief Phil Spencer is at the show, alongside Xbox president Sarah Bond, Xbox games marketing chief Aaron Greenberg, and head of Xbox gaming devices and ecosystem Jason Ronald. A variety of other Xbox staff have traveled to support Microsoft’s announcements this week, including employees from Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, and more.

The biggest news of the week was Microsoft and Bethesda officially confirming that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will come to PS5 months after its Xbox debut. Bethesda says the PS5 release is expected in spring 2025, and I understand that the company has been targeting an April 2025 release. This date could naturally shift depending on development schedules.

The confirmation of the game’s PS5 release comes months after I exclusively revealed Microsoft was working on the port. I wrote in February that Bethesda’s Indiana Jones game would have a rather short period of exclusivity, with Bethesda considering a PS5 launch months after the December 2024 launch on Xbox and PC.

It’s all part of the larger Project Latitude effort inside Microsoft to bring select Xbox games over to PS5. I think we’ll hear about more games in the coming months, as Microsoft gets more comfortable with its release cadence. “We have to anticipate there’s going to be more change in some of the traditional ways that games are built and distributed,” said Spencer in a Gamescom appearance this week. “That’s going to change for all of us. But the end result has to be better games that more people can play.”

While the response from Xbox fans to Microsoft’s games heading to PS5 has been largely negative, Windows Central reports that Sea of Thieves has racked up more than 1 million units sold on PS5 so far. That was a key test game for this new strategy, and the sales numbers are a clear indication that Microsoft has more opportunities to sell Xbox games to PlayStation owners.

Beyond Xbox games, I was also stoked to see Microsoft announce a new Xbox accessibility controller at Gamescom. The Xbox Adaptive Joystick allows you to operate a controller without having to use both hands, making it ideal for players who might have difficulty using the thumbsticks on existing controllers. I love it when Microsoft makes a big deal about accessibility, something the company has increasingly focused on under CEO Satya Nadella.

Thanks for subscribing and reading to the very end. What do you think about Microsoft’s strategy to put Xbox games on PS5? You can reach me via email at notepad@theverge.com.

If you’ve heard about any of Microsoft’s other secret projects, you can also speak to me confidentially on the Signal messaging app, where I’m tomwarren.01. I’m also tomwarren on Telegram if you’d prefer to chat there.