My Thoughts on the Current Xbox Situation and Microsoft Gaming's Change of Leadership


I am more of a PlayStation guy than an Xbox fan. However, recent changes have occurred within Microsoft Gaming and Xbox leadership, which my best friend Mink asked me to write my thoughts about.

Xbox is a gaming brand owned by Microsoft's video gaming division, Microsoft Gaming. It mainly consists of a series of home consoles, as well as video games and online services, including the esteemed Xbox Game Pass, which is a subscription service that allows one to access more games on Xbox devices. With Xbox being introduced, I can cut to the chase.

What Happened?

As mentioned earlier, Microsoft Gaming's leadership has recently gone under major changes. The chief executive officer, Phil Spencer, has retired, and his deputy, Xbox President Sarah Bond, resigned, with not much explanation for why. Spencer was crucial for the company, having introduced the Xbox Game Pass, bought various video game developers and publishers for Microsoft, further developed Minecraft, launching the Xbox Adaptive Controller (a gaming controller meant to make gaming more accessible for disabled people), gave the go-ahead for launching Xbox Cloud Gaming, helped import certain Microsoft-published games onto different gaming consoles, and more.

The new Microsoft Gaming CEO is a 36-year-old woman named Asha Sharma. Sharma has only been with the company since 2024, and was previously President of Microsoft's CoreAI, which is a specialised, consolidated engineering division established in January 2025 to unify the company's artificial intelligence (AI) strategy, infrastructure, and tools. Sharma has also been a vice president at Meta, a chief operating officer for Instacart, and is currently a member of Home Depot's board of executives.

This raised concerns among Xbox fans. Why give the prestigious position of Microsoft Gaming CEO to a woman who is relatively new to the company, has no experience managing in the gaming industry, and came directly from an AI position, particularly at a time when Xbox has lost many people's trust? Additionally, concerns arise over what Microsoft Gaming titles will remain Xbox-exclusives.

My Thoughts

The first issue I will cover is my thoughts on the role artificial intelligence may play in Xbox (and video games in general) after she was hired. Asha Sharma has said she has "no tolerance for bad AI" and "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." I am curious as to what someone whose previous position in Microsoft was all about artificial intelligence defines as "slop."

AI, particularly the generative kind, is a very controversial matter affecting practically all facets of modern life. I am somewhat in the middle, as I do think it can be used as a tool to cut down on tedious work that not only humans should be able to do, such as removing watermarks, summarising bodies of text, fixing grammatical errors in writing, and even detecting generative AI in things such as schoolwork. AI, however, should not replace things unique to humans, such as art, which is an expression of the human soul, and it should remain strictly a tool, not a crutch. The part of Sharma's statement calling video games "art, crafted by humans" is promising, although it is not guaranteed to be honest, considering business executives are not always honest.

Another concern is over how despite her claiming to want to focus on Xbox gamers, plenty of Xbox games now are not exclusive to the Xbox, being available through the cloud and rival Sony's PlayStation. As stated earlier, I am more of a PlayStation enjoyer, so this does not concern me too much. However, healthy competition must be maintained rather than having one console trying to be too similar to the other. Additionally, Xbox hardware prices are absolutely ridiculous, with some consoles now costing almost a thousand American dollars.

In notes between Asha Sharma and other executives, the Xbox Game Pass (Xbox's core product) is only mentioned once, which is strange if they company truly wants to connect to consumers. My thoughts on this and the claim of wanting to focus on Xbox players are that a company must serve those acquiring its products and services rather than trying to take too much or add too much in decisions not positively impacting said products and services.

Additionally, I have seen accusations of "Indian nepotism." I do think some (but not necessarily a large amount of) gamers' criticisms of Sharma will be rooted in racism and sexism. However, Xbox President Sarah Bond was also a woman of colour, which people now are not bringing up. There are also many legitimate concerns regarding the choice of new leadership. So, it is dishonest to claim a substantial amount of criticism of Microsoft Gaming's recent decision is due to bigotry and discrimination.

Overall Conclusion

I do hope that the gaming scene can be improved by Microsoft Gaming's new leadership rather than overpriced and of lesser quality. I also wish Xbox will listen to the fans rather than being totally corporate. Additionally, usage of artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI, must be monitored and potentially even restricted.

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