Changing of the Guard at Xbox: Phil Spencer Retires, Sarah Bond Steps Down, Asha Sharma Takes Over as CEO of Microsoft Gaming

AI person stepping up to head Xbox? Some rando passing over Sarah Bond (who decided to quit I guess) for the position?

Oh boy Microsoft's Gaming Division is cooked.

All the same, its not been doing great over the last several years anyhow, so maybe a shake-up is in order. However not sure if it's been struggling because of Phil & Sarah, or in spite of them (gaming not hitting Nadella's margin targets).
 
Yeah, I'm mixed on this as well but all we can do and wait and see what happens next.

Asha say's she's focused on quality use of AI but coming from CoreAI I'm not sure if it had a hand in all the crap Windows updates we've experienced since October. If so, well, worried doesn't quite describe it, if not, then I'll keep a level of optimism for the Xbox's future.
 

Inside Microsoft’s big Xbox leadership shake-up​

268364_Inside_Microsoft’s_big_Xbox_leadership_shakeup_CVirginia


Tom Warren is a senior editor and author of Notepad, who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years.

Spencer’s decision led to months of careful successor planning. It was announced to the world on Friday, but it was supposed to be today. Microsoft was forced to announce early because it started to leak and IGN was planning to run a story, according to sources familiar with the situation.

That kicked off a day of chaos, where teams inside Xbox were hearing the news first through reporters and news outlets, instead of via internal memos. The team running Sarah Bond’s social media accounts was so unprepared that a LinkedIn post inviting people to provide feedback about Xbox accessibility features went live just before her departure was announced. It sat there for hours, until Bond’s team eventually posted her own memo.

Microsoft executives shared four memos with Xbox teams on Friday, but only Phil Spencer mentioned Bond. Satya Nadella, Microsoft Gaming EVP Matt Booty, and new Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma all had kind words for Spencer, but no mention of Bond. Even Bond’s own memo to her teams didn’t arrive until hours after the announcement and wasn’t part of Microsoft’s blog.


Six months after Bond’s promotion, Xbox executive Kareem Choudhry, who reported directly to Bond, departed Microsoft and triggered another shake-up of some teams inside Xbox. Choudhry was key to Xbox’s backward compatibility support and helped bring Xbox Cloud Gaming to life as xCloud in 2019.

Just weeks after Choudhry departed, former Xbox chief marketing officer Jerret West also left Microsoft in June 2024. That meant the Xbox marketing team was now reporting directly to Bond. A month later, Microsoft delivered a marketing campaign that signalled people didn’t need to buy an Xbox console anymore. The message was that “you don’t need an Xbox to play Xbox,” because games were available through Xbox Cloud Gaming on TVs.

This was all part of the “Xbox everywhere” strategy that Bond had been pursuing, a vision to move the Xbox brand beyond its roots in console hardware. Months later the “This is an Xbox” campaign launched, with commercials that positioned a phone or a tablet as an Xbox instead of just a console. It was a confusing campaign, and I’m told it offended many Xbox employees internally.

“This is an Xbox” also debuted months after Bond appeared on stage at the Bloomberg Technology Summit and announced an Xbox mobile gaming store that was supposed to launch in July 2024. It still doesn’t exist almost two years later. Although attempts to redefine Xbox were clearly tied to the mobile store efforts, Microsoft still went ahead with “This is an Xbox” after the store was delayed.


www.theverge.com

Inside Microsoft’s big Xbox leadership shake-up

Microsoft has a new gaming CEO
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com
 

Report: Former Xbox President Sarah Bond's direction "offended" employees — "This is an Xbox" marketing campaign deemed failure​

News
By Michael Hoglund published 38 minutes ago
With Phil Spencer's departure, Xbox employees are supposedly relieved that the President of Xbox has left as well.

I want to add that clearly, Xbox's higher-ups were okay with each and every idea that was pushed forward, as they all had the final say. Both Phil Spencer and Satya Nadella played a part in this and clearly gave the process their stamp of approval.

This report by Warren only highlights that "Xbox Everywhere" was her idea, not the multiplatform push or other aspects. I've seen some speculation that this is a potential "hit piece" by higher-ups at Microsoft in attempts to divert blame away from the brand — could that be true?

One thing's for sure, it's not fair for Sarah Bond to be taking all the blame, even if this was ultimately her marketing decision. Others in the chain of command, at the end of the day, are there to say yes or no to decisions that don't otherwise align with the brand.

https://www.windowscentral.com/gami...is-an-xbox-campaign-deemed-failure-internally
 
Marees said:

Report: Former Xbox President Sarah Bond's direction "offended" employees — "This is an Xbox" marketing campaign deemed failure​

News
By Michael Hoglund published 38 minutes ago
With Phil Spencer's departure, Xbox employees are supposedly relieved that the President of Xbox has left as well.

I want to add that clearly, Xbox's higher-ups were okay with each and every idea that was pushed forward, as they all had the final say. Both Phil Spencer and Satya Nadella played a part in this and clearly gave the process their stamp of approval.

This report by Warren only highlights that "Xbox Everywhere" was her idea, not the multiplatform push or other aspects. I've seen some speculation that this is a potential "hit piece" by higher-ups at Microsoft in attempts to divert blame away from the brand — could that be true?

One thing's for sure, it's not fair for Sarah Bond to be taking all the blame, even if this was ultimately her marketing decision. Others in the chain of command, at the end of the day, are there to say yes or no to decisions that don't otherwise align with the brand.

https://www.windowscentral.com/gami...is-an-xbox-campaign-deemed-failure-internally
Click to expand...
good points below

https://twitter.com/x/status/2025998650783203608
 
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