Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft's gaming division, is retiring from the role.
Additionally, Xbox president Sarah Bond is exiting the company.
These two departures are part of a big shift in leadership at the top of Xbox, announced today via emails from those at the top.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, has announced that Asha Sharma, currently the head of CoreAI, will step into Spencer's role, with her new title being Executive Vice President and CEO, Microsoft Gaming.
Spencer will remain in an advisory role through the summer.
Matt Booty is also being promoted, becoming Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer, reporting to Sharma.
"It’s been an epic ride and truly the privilege of a lifetime," says Spencer in an email to the company.
"Today marks an exciting new chapter for Microsoft Gaming as Asha Sharma steps into the role of CEO, and I want to be the first to welcome her to this incredible team. Working with her over the past several months has given me tremendous confidence. She brings genuine curiosity, clarity and a deep commitment to understanding players, creators, and the decisions that shape our future. We know this is an important moment for our fans, partners, and team, and we’re committed to getting it right. I’ll remain in an advisory role through the summer to support a smooth handoff."
Spencer has been heading up Xbox for many years, becoming the face of the platform as he ascended the ladder, eventually becoming CEO in 2022.
As mentioned, Sharma will fill Spencer's shoes. Her background is at companies like Instacart and Meta, and she's been at Microsoft since 2024, heading up the company's CoreAI division.
"Thank you to Phil for his leadership, and to every studio, platform, and operations team that built this foundation," Sharma says. "We are stewards of some of the most loved stories and characters in entertainment and bring players and creators together around the fun and community of gaming in entirely new ways."
Sharma makes some pledges in her email about what she hopes to achieve as CEO.
"First, great games," she says, elaborating she wants Xbox to "empower our studios, invest in iconic franchises, and back bold new ideas."
Sharma also speaks about the "return of Xbox", adding that it "should feel seamless, instant, and worthy of the communities we serve" across console, PC, cloud, and mobile.
She goes on to discuss the "future of play", saying the company will "invent new business models and new ways to play by leaning into what we already have: iconic teams, characters, and worlds that people love."
Interestingly, Sharma makes some comments about generative AI and its role in making games.
"As monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop. Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us."
It's all change at the top, then, and a pivotal moment for the business.
Comments 102
Thanks Phil for crashing this whole Xbox thing. Sony loves you. Sad if I remember the times of the Xbox 360.
Clearly they are unhappy with how Microsoft is pushing Xbox, with the multiplatform push and future focus on AI and live service. Depending on the mindset of the next CEO this could spell the end of actual Xbox consoles.
I mean head of CoreAI just says it all really, not a future to look forward to that's for sure.
Wow, headlines are competing with eachother, one big news item after the other.
Can’t say this is totally unexpected, as it was eventually going to happen. Was time for a big shake up at MS headquarters. I think we can predict that Xbox will totally be run by AI from now on
You need to put retiring in " " as this to me seems like a push from MS
Edit: You're welcome for the article
And there it is. I always felt Phil was being dragged against his will through all of this because it didn’t make sense otherwise based on his history. Now so much about the last few years makes sense.
It appears the past few years of bad decisions have finally caught up to them. Here’s hoping the new guy can get things back on track for them. Yes, I know they were in charge of the AI department but that just means they were in charge of managing it, not that they were fully involved in it. Xbox needs good management since there was clearly very little of it the past few years.
Christ, it's all kicking off this week ehh
They killed Xbox….i bet they try to spin it off….
Ryan McCaffrey has a good article on it, whilst we let the story develop on site.
I think this shake up has been communicated very elegantly. It comes off as an amicable, co-opted piece and it is an organic line of succession within the company and their pledge is everything a gamer would like to hear. They speak plainly about what they want to avoid and it reflects well on them and are in alignment with the departing execs' pledges.
When PushSquare publish this news ahead of PureXbox
Can Sony please have a shakeup. It seems 90% of the PlayStation fans have lost faith with current leadership
To play devil’s advocate, I do think a lot of Xbox’s recent closures and layoff have been down to Microsoft more than Phil. There’s only so much power you have in that situation, when you have to report to Microsoft.
What I do blame him for is not being able to get key first party software out the door in both a timely and high quality fashion. Redfall should never have seen the light of day, and the fact that it did, I put firmly on him.
@Boxmonkey 90% of Playstation fans don't even know who Bluepoint is, that's because the majority of Playstation fans are casuals. Bring up the name Herman Hulst at work and everyone will look me like who the f**k is that.
@ShadowRJ I mean yeah it's not all Phil's fault, but you know how big corpos operate
Asha Sharma is the WORST person they could have gotten as the next Xbox lead. It's over, Xbox gang. Xbox is truly dead.
Now get rid of Herman Hulst and gaming will be back on track.
Hiring someone that's the head of AI as the CEO of the Xbox division isn't exactly giving me a ton of hope for their future.
@UltimateOtaku91
Damn, that’s actually a possibility. Especially knowing that Satya doesnt seem to be a fan of hardware platforms. And i’m sure he’d make someone CEO who is more aligned with his views. Crazy if true 😳
@RBMango Who is that?
I think that Phil Spencer will be remembered as the person who made Microsoft the biggest games publisher in the world and started the process to make Xbox a PC brand, similar to Steam.
What’s clear to me is that there are 8 billion people on earth, and consoles business isn’t growing, while PC is. We will see what the future brings.
Just when it looked like Sony would win the week for something major happening Microsoft decides to one up them.
@UltimateOtaku91 yeah my bros play on PS and if I asked them to name a big studio other than Guerilla, Naughty Dog and maybe Santa Monica they would struggle. And ask them who Shu, Herman etc are? No chance.
I bet Sony are happy right now.
I would say good riddance but things will only get worse for Xbox because of this. The end is nigh.
Years too late but it had to happen. Incredible that Matt Booty is being promoted but Xbox gotta Xbox I guess.
@UltimateOtaku91 I totally agree. Most people that game on Playstation don't know what or who Bluepoint is and don't know who Herman Hulst is at least.
Bluepoint getting shut down is awful but people are overreacting wayyy too much.
Well damn. 5 years too late
It's kind of funny that pretty much every negative news that Sony had in this generation was quickly forgotten because somehow Microsoft released even worse ones right after.
I honestly think AI would make better decision than Hulst. He has always been cancer to gaming in general.
@Max_the_German
I’m not sure PC will be growing so much either now, RAM prices affecting pc just as hard
An AI bro taking over Xbox really says it all. Sony suck for closing Bluepoint but i will happily choose that over an AI bro taking over PS. Xbox fans should be worrying hard.
So much CNN/Foxnews level sh** happening in gaming in just 2 days. If Aliens finally decided to come down and make contact tomorrow, I don't think anybody into gaming would notice.
@Lavishturtle Didn't he do great work with GG? Yes he sucks in Sony leadership but that doesn't change his work with GG.
Looking forward to the headline of Herman hurst leaving PlayStation. Phil was long over due, but having an AI person take over is not a good sign.
I think both Spencer and Bond didn’t agree with the current strategy and I wouldn’t have blamed them.
PlayStation gets some bad press for Bluepoint and Xbox says “hold my beer”.
@REALAIS my popcorns🍿 ready for the Purexbox comments.
@Lavishturtle And AI isn't a cancer?
@LogicStrikesAgain It's funny they never bring that up when talking about PCs...
Those in the UK
Gaming has turned into EastEnders and Corrie of late.
Well I can’t see the change bringing back Xbox consoles and exclusives.
So I guess it will be full swing as they are now but maybe quicker.
@UltimateOtaku91
It’s all exciting, what a drama 😂
The fact that this is reported on Push Square with nothing on Pure XBox is…interesting. (At least as I type this, anyway)
That said, maybe MS finally realized that they need to have some folks in charge who, you know, are able to run a gaming company.
What a concept! Maybe now MS can actually compete with Sony again.
I've never understood the hate Phil Spencer got and actually thought he did a great job following on from Don Mattrick. Sarah Bond also seemed a good fit for her role.
However, I think it's quite clear to anyone that they haven't had any kind of say in what Xbox does for a very long time.
This news makes me almost certain that Microsoft will cancel the next Xbox, any future hardware plans and turn solely into a 3rd party developer/publisher.
I said last year that I thought Spencer would retire this year. He has had it rough for the past two years because Nadella has undermined him at every opportunity. Spencer says one thing, and then Nadella tells him to do the opposite. It's made Spencer look the bad guy, when in fact the blame lies with Nadella.
I said time and again that I don't think Spencer believes the path that Nadella has put Xbox on is the right one for Xbox, and now look at Xbox. It is suffering mightily, and it is Nadella's doing, but Spencer takes the heat.
I dread to think what Nadella will do now. I am not 100% convinced the PCBox will see the light of day, and I think Game Pass will be gone inside 5 years too, probably much sooner.
As for Bond, I never really liked her. I always thought she was a bit smarmy, and had a superiority complex. I'm not sadden to see her go. I also think she was a Nadella 'Yes woman', but I think the reason she has gone is that Nadella promoted someone else into Spencer's position.
Just have to hope that Asha Sharma has the best interests of Xbox at heart, and is able to stand up for Xbox and against Nadella, though I highly doubt it because likely as not Nadella has promoted Sharma into that role precisely because she will do what he tells her, no questions asked...
@dskatter Push Square has a larger staff so they can get things out quicker than Pure Xbox.
@OldGamer999 "Leave it out Phil! He's not worth it!"
Given this news, maybe I won’t get Fable or Halo now. Tossing an AI exec in that position doesn’t buy me any faith in Xbox. It’s starting to look like I’ll be a Nintendo exclusive soon enough potentially.
@SMJ
“Get out of my company”
They actually only have two permanent staff on Pure Xbox, @dskatter. It just might be neither of them are working at the moment, bearing in mind it is 9 p.m. on a Friday evening in the UK where they both live...
Perfect excuse for Microsoft to now get rid of the box and have it accessible from a data centre for thirty quid a month.
@White_oyster agree 100%. Mattrick destroyed the Xbox brand by stupidly trying to make Xbox an everything machine, and when Spencer came in he had a huge hurdle to overcome which was just impossible. This isn't to say he didn't make some massive mistakes, but it became very obvious when the decisions started coming from the top and he was just the mouthpiece. Him and Bond constantly contradicting things, seeming disconnected from what they were saying, and eventually just staying quiet in general.
@UltimateOtaku91 I was just saying something similar. It feels like it won't be long before X-Box loses it's identity as a platform.
Plus, they're really doubling down on the "MicroSoft Gaming" brand.
@Reeneman hell yeah phil spencer destroyed the xbox brand.
Loved the 360 untill phil cane in and let bungie go.
Remember being a ps3 fanboy and getting my hands on a 360 controller and loving it.
Still use the controller for pc gaming.
@Shepherd_Tallon it is already done they will try one last time with a xbox branded gaming pc.
Matt Booty being promoted is the funniest thing I've heard.
Now it's Sony's turn! Herman Hulst, next please.
Asha Sharma isn't just coming from an AI department. CoreAI is Microsoft's Development Tools section that was renamed, you know...before all the doom and gloom
@Hundred_Hand_Slap This times 1000. The guy should count his blessings. I've never seen someone so incapable stick around that long.
Big chance here that Phil didn’t want to go down the AI route and Nadella overruled him. That’s the direction of Xbox now.
Gaming paradigm shift
@OldGamer999 😂😂😂 They need to change the Xbox start up noise to the EastEnders drum beat.
@SMJ
They best change it quick as we might not have an Xbox to do it on.
Not sure if this will change anything at Microsoft or not
Hm, that is probably not a good sign but I guess not totally unexpected. IDK, I don't follow Xbox news too closely.
But can we get Herman Hulst to retire next??
Bond dumped for not being good enough, Booty widely considered not upto the job he was doing being promoted and somebody with no experience in gaming heads yhe whole thing. If I was deliberately trying to create a recipe for disaster, it wouldn't deviate from this too much.
Genuinely hope they can see a revival of sorts as the sh1tshow Playstation have been serving up in recent times shows that you need competitors pushing to keep the industry leaders on their toes.
@LogicStrikesAgain Yes, all electronic devices are affected by RAM prices. But the African population rises, the wealth there is increasing, and people will buy PCs for their homes.
Maybe you would be surprised to find out on Steam what the typical PC specification of Steam users is. It is not high-end!
Sony must be grateful this has taken some attention away from the bluepoint fiasco!
I think Sony should acquire phil spencer.
What an insane news week. I can’t fathom the Bluepoint closure, but I can see why Phil stepped down. It doesn’t matter how good Game Pass can be, it’s just not viable long term. But with all sincerity, I do hope him the best in retirement and whatever else he decides to do in life. He’s not a bad guy by any means, and I think he did the best that he could given the circumstances.
And the DoNotRedeemfication of the industry continues.
Xbox 365 Copilot is a reality coming soon ladies and the gentlemen.
Holey moley OK fire Phil for crashing xbox, but promoting Matt Booty? coreAI head put in charge? their contempt is breath taking!
@UltimateOtaku91 to put this in perspective the ps5 has over 90 million consoles shipped and sold , but there was only about 2 million copies of demon soul remake sold from bluepoint.
I'd always prefer for Xbox to be more successful, to sell more consoles and have more well-received exclusives. But these past few years haven't gone in the right direction and it seems like it may get worse.
@UltimateOtaku91 most worship uncle Phil, my guess is theyll be thanking him for the music
@awp69 I didn't realise it took more than one person to write an article
Good riddance to both of them. Just gotta get Hulst to join them. Then maybe we can get the industry back on track
So if I mention that both Alphabet and Microsoft are both run by racists that constantly pick race nepotism (Indian/Tamil/Telugu/Chinese/Sikh/Marathi) over skills, will my comment be removed?
People come and go as jobs remain, Nintendo has had several company heads over the past decade, but I really think this is the end of Xbox. Maybe not the brand, Game Pass could be renamed Xbox Game Pass, but I don't see new high end console hardware coming. If they want to sell a $199 Xbox to Go dongle and controller to cloud game on tvs like a Ouya that hardly counts.
I won't miss Phil though, always reminded me of some swarmy lowlife meth addict from Breaking Bad, except w/ teeth.
@lazarus11 Sounds like you have never run a gaming website, then
Shame really how its gone for xbox playstation has always been my main platform with a bit of nintendo on the side but its good when the is strong competition that pushes sony to be better instead of being conplacent and making mistakes.
@Shepherd_Tallon @LogicStrikesAgain @UltimateOtaku91 You should always take everything a CEO says with a huge grain of salt, but it's worth mentioning some of the things that Asha said, which Push Square didn't mention in this article:
"Second, the return of Xbox.
We will recommit to our core Xbox fans and players, those who have invested with us for the past 25 years, and to the developers who build the expansive universes and experiences that are embraced by players across the world.
We will celebrate our roots with a renewed commitment to Xbox starting with console which has shaped who we are. It connects us to the players and fans who invest in Xbox, and to the developers who build ambitious experiences for it."
So, to me, it doesn't sound like they're planning to get rid of Xbox consoles
And so marks the final nail in the XBOX confin. May that brand rest in peace.
In it's place rises the sparkly 3rd party publisher
I wonder where Phil will go next? Maybe he'll join Shawn Layden xD
The head of CoreAI? That doesn't sound good. But we'll see. At least Xbox players has some refresh.
Now i hope Sony do the same to Hermen the clown asap.
Hermen Hulst should join him!
@Boxmonkey yes the shakeup is that Phil’s going to take over from Herman 🤣
It seems Sarah couldn't produce the imposed 30% profits either, eh?
Thank you! Next!
It should have been Herman, not Phil!
@McBurn New Podcast incoming lol
@Questionable_Duck I agree, that does sound good! Almost perfect. Maybe too perfect? Might even be something AI would suggest they should say in this situation 🫣
We will see what happens, i certainly hope they dont leave the console space, but damn anything is possible nowadays
Sony and Microsoft trading blows.oh Sony we will shut down bluepoint game.ok Microsoft phil Spencer and sarah bond we will step down.about that sony.but at the end of the day bluepoint games closing down is still shocking.word up son
Fingers crossed sony sack Herman now
I wonder if we will stop seeing any more xbox games on playstation now moving forward?
@datamonkey I arent fan of phil Spencer at all but get any one off the street even the homeless anf they still would do a better job than Herman or jim ryan they cant do any worse lets put it that way
@Questionable_Duck I've read three articles and didn't see any of that mentioned. Thanks for that info!
@Dan12836666 I don't think that will change considering all the money they've made.
@Dan12836666 hah true, honestly at this rate I reckon me or you could do a better job 😂
I wonder now if this is Microsoft as whole completely taking over Xbox. I'm fairly certain if Phil Spencer had been fully in charge then we wouldn't have seen them go multiplatform.
@datamonkey ye lol we coudnt do anyworse
@rjejr yeah but remember Iwata didn’t leave Nintendo out of choice.
@ButterySmooth30FPS ye
A company so laser focused on throwing as much money into their A.i efforts that is now seeing people skilled in a.i taking over entertainment? That’s not something I would feel comfortable about in regards to the future. They’re certainly not going to start plunging money into the gaming area again having burned so much money buying out Activision? Microsoft’s latest OS seems like such a disaster from reading people’s comments about co-pilot being shoe horned into every nook and cranny.
Sony: Closes studio and goes quiet
Microsoft: Everyone leaves, AI head takes over
Nintendo: You like games? Here's Pokémon and Xenoblade see you next week for more.
What the hell is happening
@Dan12836666 i doubt they'll stop , i mean its like a money glitch since the games sell so well on the ps5.
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