Could this be a genuine reset moment?
The surprising appointment of Microsoft’s CoreAI president Asha Sharma as head of Microsoft Gaming at the weekend – in conjunction with Microsoft Gaming boss Phil Spencer retiring and former Xbox president Sarah Bond suddenly departing – may actually be a genuine attempt by the company to turn Xbox’s fortunes around. This slightly different read on the events of the past few days comes from The Verge, and a report compiled by long-time Microsoft reporter Tom Warren who spoke to “multiple” sources it sounds like were inside the company itself.
The Verge heard that Spencer’s retirement had been a long time coming and was largely expected by staff. But Bond’s more surprising departure – for she had been the obvious replacement-in-waiting for Spencer – came about as the result of her big ‘Xbox Anywhere’ push not working out. Her idea was to move Xbox away from a single console and spread the brand across multiple devices including mobile. This divided focus led to continued drops in hardware revenue, and core parts of the vision – such as a promised Xbox mobile gaming store – still haven’t appeared long after they were supposed to.
Internally this Xbox Anywhere plan apparently “offended many Xbox employees”, The Verge reported, and Bond herself is described as “tough to work with”. She’s praised by employees for striking deals with companies – apparently she was “crucial” in completing the $68.7bn Activision Blizzard deal – but she was also allegedly ruthless if you didn’t stick to her vision. “You were out,” The Verge wrote. “Most of the current and former Xbox employees I’ve spoken to in recent days are relieved that Bond is leaving Microsoft.”
It’s against that backdrop Asha Sharma was brought in, someone who seems ill-fitted to the role of CEO of Microsoft Gaming because she doesn’t have gaming experience, either professionally or personally, and because of her worrying background in AI – a background she’s already had to answer for. But there might actually be a legitimate push here to reboot and refresh the Xbox division.
If Microsoft were only interested in making Xbox a game publisher going forwards, why not promote Xbox game overseer Matt Booty? And why would Sharma promise a “return of Xbox” and say things like “I want to return to the renegade spirit that built Xbox” if looking only for empty platitudes while Xbox was sunsetted? Those are the kind of claims that will embarrass a person should they be proven insincere. “I get the impression from sources that Microsoft wants a turnaround and is worried about losing Xbox,” The Verge wrote, “as it’s one of its only remaining successful consumer brands.”
Those who know Sharma reportedly say she’s “enthusiastic” and “willing to learn” and “very capable of getting teams to execute on a clear vision”, and that she’s had good success with user acquisition at previous companies – something Xbox could sorely do with. Is this the start of a comeback fight for the Xbox console – a return to the “challenger brand” mindset Peter Moore instilled so aggressively for Xbox 360? And if it is, what happens to that Xbox Anywhere vision?
Questions abound. Phil Spencer has been the vision holder for Xbox for a long time. He became president of Xbox in 2014 and then CEO of Microsoft Gaming in 2022, and helped drastically revitalise Xbox’s image after the disastrous Xbox One reveal and launch. He was the face and figurehead of Xbox, even with Sarah Bond as president, and he instigated things like Xbox Game Pass, which Sharma will have to deal with now.
But there is an opportunity for Sharma to re-establish Xbox when launching new hardware, which Microsoft has said it’s working on, although we have no idea when it intends to release it. There are, however, strong economical challenges faced by hardware manufacturers today, notably those caused by a rush to gen-AI, which is pushing component prices sky high, as well as unpredictable tariffs and a general rise in living costs. As we’ve been told before, the role of the console is changing.