Some big changes were announced at Microsoft on Friday with the passing of the torch for multiple key leadership positions at Xbox. It’s been nearly 4 many years since Phil Spencer joined Microsoft as an intern and rose through the ranks to go the Xbox gaming division as its CEO. Rumors of Spencer’s exit began circulating towards the tip of last summer, and now they’ve grow to be fact. The official announcement was revealed on Microsoft’s blog, where CEO Satya Nadella and Phil Spencer shared the news of the large changes happening.
“Last fall, I shared with Satya that I used to be serious about stepping back and starting the following chapter of my life. From that moment, we aligned on approaching this transition with intention, ensuring stability, and strengthening the inspiration we’ve built.”
– Phil Spencer
“After I walked through Microsoft’s doors as an intern in June of 1988, I could never have imagined the products I’d help construct, the players and customers we’d serve, or the extraordinary teams I’d be lucky enough to hitch,” added Spencer, who also let on that one other change was going down. Xbox President and COO Sarah Bond was also leaving Microsoft. She joined Microsoft in 2017 and have become a part of Xbox’s leadership team in 2023. Most recently, she’d been in Asia promoting Xbox’s partnerships with gaming studios overseas. Bond has shared on her LinkedIn page that she is going to remain as a special adviser to the incoming CEO and Executive Vice President of Microsoft Gaming, Asha Sharma, to “ensure a smooth transition and set the organization up for continued success.“
“I’ve had the privilege of spending time with Asha over the previous few weeks as we’ve planned for this transition, and I’ve seen firsthand her deep commitment to our players, developers, and brand. She brings deep technology and commerce experience, together with a powerful track record of constructing and scaling platforms that the world uses.”
– Sarah Bond
Sharma, who previously headed Microsoft’s CoreAI platform, has said to Variety that she desires to “earn the best to be trusted by players and developers,” and “AI has long been a part of gaming and can proceed to be,” but that “great stories are created by humans.“
The brand new Xbox CEO also sent out an internal memo to the gaming division stating that her goals are to make great games, see a return of Xbox, and the longer term of play. Matt Booty moves up the ladder to grow to be Chief Content Officer and in addition an Executive Vice President. MS CEO Satya Nadella didn’t hold back praise for the brand new leadership, nor Phil’s contribution to the transition process.
“Together, Asha and Matt have the best combination of consumer product leadership and gaming depth to push our platform innovation and content pipeline forward. Last yr, Phil Spencer made the choice to retire from the corporate, and since then we’ve been talking about succession planning. I need to thank Phil for his extraordinary leadership and partnership.”
– Satya Nadella, Microsoft Chariman and CEO
All of those changes are happening as Xbox is celebrating its twenty fifth anniversary. From a brand new console being in development to imminent game releases and expanding its Xbox OS/UI amongst mobile and desktop hardware, and changes to Xbox Game Pass, loads is occurring at Microsoft’s gaming division. It’s going to be interesting to see what changes this latest leadership brings in the following era.