Microsoft has announced significant changes in the leadership of its gaming division. Phil Spencer, who has been with the company for nearly 40 years and has long headed Xbox, is retiring. He will be replaced by Asha Sharma, formerly President of CoreAI Products at Microsoft. At the same time, Sarah Bond has left her position as President of Xbox, and Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty has been promoted to Content Director and will work closely with the new head.
In her first official statement, Asha Sharma outlined three key priorities for the coming years.
- Great Games
We must create great games that players love. Unforgettable characters, stories that touch the soul, innovative gameplay, and creative excellence. We will support our studios, invest in iconic franchises, and take risks for bold new ideas. We will enter new categories and markets where we can bring real value, building on what matters most to players.
- Xbox Comeback
We will celebrate our roots, starting with the console that shaped us. Games now live on all devices, not limited to one piece of hardware. Expanding to PC, mobile platforms, and the cloud, Xbox should feel seamless, instant, and worthy of our communities. We will break down barriers so developers can create a game once and present it everywhere without compromise.
- No AI Slop
We are seeing a rethinking of the very concept of the game. We will invent new business models and ways to play, building on our teams, characters, and worlds. But we will not turn these worlds into static intellectual property for squeezing profits. We will create a common platform and tools that allow developers and players to create and share their own stories.
Sharma specifically noted that in the evolution of monetization and AI, the company will not chase short-term efficiency and fill the ecosystem with "soulless AI slop".
Games were and will remain an art created by people using the most innovative technology that we will provide.
Asha Sharma joined Microsoft around 2024 and until recently served as President of CoreAI — she led the development of Microsoft's artificial intelligence platform products. Her responsibilities included AI infrastructure, basic models, tools for creating applications and agents (including Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI Service, Azure Machine Learning, Responsible AI, and other services). She worked with various companies, helping them implement AI strategies. Sharma has no experience working with games.