
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 165
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 wish 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.
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.
Edit: I just read her entire quote and i must say, you ended her quote a bit prematurely. The rest goes as follows:
Doesnt seem like they’re going to be very focused on a single piece of hardware at all. Now this doesnt of course mean there wont be a next gen console, but it sure doesnt sound like a priority
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.
@Fiendish-Beaver Explanations, smexplanations, don’t throw facts at my pithy observation!
@AdamNovice I wondered the same. It feels to me Phil put up a lot of resistance to nadella but he had none of it. I reckon Phil may have wanted the acquisitions to drive Xbox exclusivity forwards, not to go multiplat but the investment was so much nadella wanted a quick return.
Of course my thoughts could be complete garbage but either way this new ceo appointment feels like nadella has a “yes man” (woman) to dictate to who will happily oblige and in other words Xbox totally under MS direct control.
Last 2 days have been crazy. It think this is the unoffical death of Xbox.
Nothing says good news like those announced on a Friday afternoon.
Dear god this is bad for them. I truly thought Sarah was the heir apparent. Thing must be really bad internally for her to seek brighter pastures.
Come to Sony Phil. And bring all XBOX games please
@EfYI you get Co-pilot to write that? Sheesh
@datamonkey It's the same with the Bluepoint situation, we ultimately don't know what goes on behind the scenes. We can only go by the optics and as soon as I saw that there replacing Phil Spencer with someone from the AI sector just has me thinking that MS are changing leadership so they can have the division on the same page as the bosses.
Microsoft couldn’t let Sony have more than a full day of bad news before saying “hold my beer”. lol
I’ve got a lot of respect for Phil Spencer, he picked the up Xbox off the floor and tried to make a good fight of it. Odds were always against him, but not through lack of trying. Honestly a bit worried about where Xbox will go under new leadership.
Bye Bye Phil, I'll miss your bull💩.
I hope Sony catches the fever and sacks Hulst.
@arsmolinarc we all do im hoping playstation fans now boycott horizon multiplayer now
Maybe Hulst can take some inspiration from them and follow suit. We can only hope.
On another note, it's going to be interesting seeing Phil Spencer turn up in podcasts at some point in the future and really speak his mind. I don't necessarily expect him to take shots at his former employer, but he must have a lot of stories to tell.
@Boxmonkey 90% ? can you provide me with a link showing the evidence of that.
I suspect it's a miniscule number but I'd be guessing
Goodbye uncle Phil.
Can Sony please "retire" Hermen?
We all knew it was going to happen because it's been a sinking ship since Xbox Ones reveal under Don Mattrick. The Microslop CEO has stripped Xbox of what it can to fund it's position on the AI race and I can't wait till the day it falls and they all lose millions
@Reeneman It wasn't mainly him it was the CEO and Shareholders who saw the AI bubble with Nvidia and OpenAI and wanted in that race. Microsoft made a mistake decades ago with the search engine and let Google take that crown and look how Google turned out the search engine pays for everything
Sony should've held off a few days on the Bluepoint closure and the news would've been buried.
Two white male failing to excel at their jobs.
Perhaps it is time for the gaming industry to have female CEOs? Just saying.
@UltimateOtaku91 no one knows Herman Hulst because y'all keep misspelling his name lmao
I wonder where Sarah is going. She doesn't look old to retire. I liked what Phil has done for the xbox. I just hate Microsoft.
@Cherip-the-Ripper I thought it was Herman faults? 😅
@LogicStrikesAgain Yes, that is true. I don't think they're gonna abandon their multiplatform initiative. But if what she's saying is true, it seems she does want to focus on Xbox consoles. So I don't think the hope for a next gen Xbox is dead
He tried many strategies with reworking the things after Games for Windows Live/Xbox One DRM, reverse Kinect, they dropped TV TV TV (I miss those Windows 8 features but oh well).
They made back compat, they offered and focused on Gamepass, some ideas made sense of Phil/Sarah and the others and the rest was Microsoft.
Having an AI staff member in charge and saying such nonsense cover up just really doesn't sit well.
We see through the nonsense and will continue to have less respect for the brand.
Having a box under TVs or whatever is fine, but I already didn't care about the games, let alone them being multiplat, many others may but I haven't cared.
To me it's the games being uninteresting, I am fine with either platform. I'm still buying buying or playing them.
Only back compat for me or if I feel like using the CD, DVD/Blu-ray app and Soundcloud, that's it. I can do those on any other console. Even then I still use my 360 more then my Xbox One, Series X has been used even less then the Xbox One has when I barely used it.
Will State of Decay 3 work? Will they keep Double Fine/Ninja Theory/Compulsion and more around?
Do they want big projects, fair singleplayer or more multiplayer money. Sony seems to be going for fewer singleplayer with key studios and more multiplayer for the rest of them and cutting them down, and the outsourced smaller ones or the 3rd parties to make deals with for the Japan Studios games by Bandai Namco to see if those work as they don't fit Sony's big scale sales reports?
Pasted from my PureXbox post.
i wish spencer and bond the best in whatever the hell they do next, and i look forward to watching to see the weird ***** the AI lady will or won’t do.
Well both a surprise & yet somehow not that surprising all at the same time! Given how prolific Phil "Gamer" Spencer had been whether on socials, events, to his Infamous buying sprees buying up a huge chunk of the AAA gaming scene with both Zenimax Bethesda & Activision Blizzard,it's been both telling & ironic he'd gone near silent with an impatient Microsoft exec board expecting their billions of funding to be repaid with millions of Gamepass subs & demanding a return to multiplatform releases when it didn't happen!
Given the mess of Windows 11's copilot spyware & trying to strongarm Microsoft accounts just to use it so they can further tie users into "live services" like OneDrive, Office 365 etc.,, says it all they're appointing an AI person to take over the reigns.
Perfect P.R. "we won't be serving up A.I. slop" given the likes of Satya(I think),Infamously said it was hurtful to the A.I. "industry" calling its output slop! 🙄😂🤯
Given the long-standing rumours of the next gen Xbox being less a console & more a hybrid PC with Xbox branding & integrating the PC & console games into one platform possibly within Windows, hardly inspires confidence with the incoming boss!
Not that we haven't already heard similar A.I. murmurs being a big part of PS6...if they can ever get the chips for it given the big tech oligarchy have decided they need everyone else's memory chips!🙄
Is it any wonder older gamers are a tad pessimistic on next gen? Enjoy your golden parachute Phil,could you take Hermen Hulst with you off into the sunset?😅
@UltimateOtaku91 yep! Me and my mate were raging Thursday night on WhatsApp about it. When we went to the pub yesterday afternoon the lads were like who the f is Herman Hulst 🙈. Doesn’t help our cause really but most people don’t care. All they care about in terms of gaming is when the next fifa is out
This Sharma was the COO of instacart. Yeah instacart. So what now, does microsoft want gamers to be able to order groceries off of gamepass?
Feels like next we gonna hear GTA 6 was cancelled.
@Questionable_Duck no but ive ran a few gaming communities, i just expect those that do to at least be competent enough to publish breaking news about xbox on an xbox centric site , you know quicker than a playstation website.
@StitchJones yes they do 😂
@Questionable_Duck she's just been put in charge of the xbox division , what do you think she's going to say 😂😂
Ever since I seen her during the Xbox handheld Rog ally Collab announcement I always think of her as AI made. She just has that vibe of a soulless AI slop herself.
@Questionable_Duck No, not at all. I actually think there will be a next gen xbox
How apt that the new head repudiates AI while spewing a standard glob of corporate word salad that might as well have been generated.
"chatgpt, give me two sentences talking down AI but leaving the door open to its use"
@lazarus11 oh wow, another grocery or food delivery app!!!! I can't wait!!!
@ItsAlwaysSunnyyy yeah it seemed obvious to me too. It surprised me so many have been blaming Phil for some of this stuff, but it never made sense because of how sudden there was a shift. It clearly was being forced on him from above, and there was also a sudden change in his appearance too. He started to look and talk like he was just a shell, absent from his own mind.
Everyone makes mistakes sure, but he also brought back a lot of positive sentiments to Xbox that Mattrick destroyed. The last few years has never felt like he was in control, but that higher ups decided to take over.
I met Mattrick once and it was so surreal. He was in front of me in a pharmacy line and started talking to me, and I live in a small town in BC, so it was so unexpected. It took me a minute to recognize him, and then I was like oh my god this is the guy that destroyed Xbox.
I looked him up later and he did indeed have a mansion here.
I think Playstation should take inspiration from this and do their own shake up, when someone on top makes crappy mistakes he should be held accountable.
@lazarus11 I understand, but when you only have two full-time staffers who are probably busy with other things and don't have the time to write an article due to time zones and whatnot, it makes sense why Pure Xbox is sometimes late to the party compared to Push Square. Maybe they should hire more people from other timezones, and not just the UK.
Oh great, they’re putting the AI people in charge lol
So HALO MIGHT NOT BE XBOX BIGGEST RELEASE COMING TO PLAYSTATION SARAH MIGHT BE COMING TO...😁
@Psnfanboy79
Sarah Bond replacing Hermen Hulst doesn't sound bad.
Way too late, should have happened years ago.
@datamonkey No he didn't leave by choice, but things were starting go bad under his watch near the end, and the 2 new guys are both finance, probably don't even game. It's just all about the money now.🤑
My opinion to this day is that Xbox was doomed before Phil took over. And even through all his not always good decisions he was playing what little hand he had.
The generation he turned up in it was already too late. They missed the dawn of online social and digital gaming. Once people had a library and their friends were on an online ecosystem it becomes much harder to drag them away.
And Sony had momentum. No matter how Phil tried to roll back the kinect, TV centric stuff they would bleed numbers the whole way. Numbers that got firmer and firmer as digital libraries and communities grew. Those left playing on Xbox are largely there because they themselves have this community and library. Nintendo meanwhile have some of this but more importantly stay adjacent to it. Always the 'secondary console'
Phil has done what he could to save a dying brand. Even if now it is in publisher form for someone else to destroy.
Somehow, Matt Booty is still there AND promoted? Nobody hates Xbox more than Microsoft. Jeez.
@SMJ I disliked the man because he always was full of it. He flipped his opinion on a dime not trustworthy.
@Messiahbolical if they were white, would that not be a problem?
I feel that if Xbox somehow kept Don Mattrick, the brand would've died before Xbox One S or X saw the light of day.
@Reeneman I remember 360 fondly as well, especially swaddling it neatly in a blanket trying to get rid of RROD
@Flaming_Kaiser Fair enough mate. 👍 I personally think he did a lot of good for Xbox and deserves to be credited for it. He always struck me as an actual gamer too. The last CEO that actually played games after Satoru Iwata.
The writing is and has been on the wall…the downfall of Xbox unfortunately is this long, slow, excruciating process thats painful to watch as a fan…Microsoft should be merciful and just put it out of its misery
Herman Hults should do the same
If the Xbox era hadn't already died years ago then this is how it truly would have ended; not with a bang but with a whimper.
Hopefully Xbox can start healing after those two single handledly destroyed it. Starting from the destruction of Xbox 360 momentum with the "entertainment platform" strategy for xbone (phil was a senior director and would have had outsized influence - taking the top job when they became the fall guy for that), the end of numerous Xbox exclusives, support of 343 to drop split screen for Halo, through to
the commoditocation and devaluation of software via gamepass, and endless faux apologies and then the same stupid patterns.
I fear it won't get better with their new AI head. But one can hope
The Fetterman of console CEOs.
@Chidoro
It is I, Gemini!
I just thought they made an elegant announcement, but at the end of the day I don't trust them further than I can throw them. Their track record speaks for itself.
Hermen Hulst was also promoted (and demoted) organically, but that bumbling fool has been a catastrophe.
@lazarus11 Man have a bit of compassion for the PX staff. They aren’t life saving paramedics on call, they are two dudes doing the best they can with the resources they have. I don’t know about you but the moment it hits 5pm on Friday my laptop is shut and I have a beer in my hand within 10 minutes. They could have rushed home from the pub to get the story out for all we know. Running a gaming website should not mean you need to be monitoring news 24/7 and have no life outside of gaming. This ain’t the BBC reporting on world changing geopolitical headlines….it’s a hobby that people tend to take way too seriously.
@GeeEssEff so what your saying is they dont take their job seriously , nice.
You can guarantee if I was to make a comment they didn't like , like say this new head of xbox is a potato at 11pm, id be banned by 11.10pm
@Questionable_Duck yeah youre probably right
@lazarus11 We both know I’m not saying they don’t take their job seriously but that was a top effort strawman nonetheless. You can take your job seriously without being glued to your desk 24 hours a day waiting for a headline to break so you can put out an article 15 minutes before other websites. It’s called work life balance and it’s all the rage these days.
As for your potato comment I say give it a go, sounds like a fun experiment. I’m going to bet the other way and guess that not only will you not get banned within ten minutes but literally no one will care you called Asha Sharma a potato.
Phil has been a legend and xbox chef but xbox is falling thanks for bill going to be connected to epstein i think becosue of bill xbox will end sadly.
And steam will take over and win.
Sarah bond is fine she literally a board member for two other companies
The Activision fallout continues…
@SMJ I believe he was a gamer i just didnt like him as a person he word meant nothing.
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