This past Friday, the video games industry, and more specifically, Xbox and Microsoft, entered a new era. A post-Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond era, with the announcement of Spencer’s retirement and Bond’s resignation. Former Microsoft CoreAI chief executive officer, Asha Sharma, took Spencer’s place, while Matt Booty stepped into a new role as Xbox’s chief content officer.
As the industry and consumers wrap their heads around the sudden shake-up, a new report from The Verge looks to provide some insight into why it happened the way it did. Why is Sarah Bond leaving Microsoft instead of being the one to replace Phil Spencer? What does this new leadership mean for Xbox’s future and its whole ‘everything is an Xbox’ initiative? Well, according to The Verge, the answer to those questions begins and ends with Sarah Bond and her departure.
Bond is pinpointed as the one who was pushing Xbox’s ‘Play Everywhere’ campaign more than anyone else, and that its ‘This is an Xbox’ marketing strategy was the result of a few key people leaving Microsoft, leaving Bond directly in charge of the platform’s marketing team. When the new campaign started to air, and those loyal to the platform on the consumer side were taken aback and even offended by it, they weren’t the only ones.
The report claims that the campaign
New Report Claims No One, Not Even Those Internally at Xbox, Liked the
