Xbox has a new CEO as of this week, with its former CEO, Phil Spencer, having confirmed that he is leaving the company. Sarah Bond, the company’s former president, has also left, confirming over the weekend that she has resigned from her position and is moving on.
In Spencer’s place is now Asha Sharma, who is President of CoreAI Product at Microsoft. Phil Spencer’s exit from the company, whether you agreed with his decisions for the brand and the platform, signifies a major shift for the Xbox platform at a time when it may need it. Spencer’s exit also has some concerned about Xbox’s future, given who Spencer was replaced by.
Sharma is one of Microsoft’s AI executives. And unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, you know how much pushback AI gets from the gaming community at large. This has some fans worried about how AI will be used for Xbox going forward. Though Sharma seems to have tried to calm these worries following her announcement about taking over the new Xbox CEO role.
A new Xbox CEO means a new era for the platform
Xbox has had quite the ride over the past decade. Going from the dominant Xbox 360 era to what some would consider a very confused vision for the platform’s future, Xbox is now likely headed in another new direction. For the past several years, Xbox has been about one thing at its core. Bringing more games to more people, anywhere. This manifested in the Xbox Anywhere marketing campaign that tried to tell consumers and Xbox fans that it wasn’t just your Xbox console that was an Xbox.
Your TV was also an Xbox. Your PC was an Xbox. Even your mobile phone was an Xbox. All of this was brought forth with the help of the Xbox Cloud Gaming feature that was initially only available to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. This one part of the platform has been the singular driving factor for Xbox for a while. In some part, perhaps mostly, that appears to be staying the same. But Sharma will no doubt have plans to shake things up somehow.
In one part of her statement, Sharma says, “Gaming now lives across devices, not within the limits of any single piece of hardware. As we expand across PC, mobile, and cloud, Xbox should feel seamless, instant, and worthy of the communities we serve. We will break down barriers so developers can build once and reach players everywhere without compromise.”
Xbox says goodbye to Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond
