Xbox chief Phil Spencer is leaving Microsoft after practically 40 years on the software program big. Xbox president Sarah Bond can be leaving Microsoft, in what’s a significant shake-up to the administration of Xbox and Microsoft’s gaming efforts. Asha Sharma, at the moment president of CoreAI product, is taking on as CEO of Microsoft Gaming.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella introduced Phil Spencer’s retirement in a memo to all Microsoft staff at the moment. “Final yr, Phil Spencer made the choice to retire from the corporate, and since then we’ve been speaking about succession planning,” says Nadella. “I wish to thank Phil for his extraordinary management and partnership. Over 38 years at Microsoft, together with 12 years main Gaming, Phil helped rework what we do and the way we do it.”
Asha Sharma is taking on from Phil Spencer as the brand new Microsoft Gaming CEO. Sharma is at the moment the president of CoreAI product at Microsoft, and has been working carefully on Microsoft’s AI platform efforts since she rejoined Microsoft in 2024. Spencer will stay in an advisory position by the summer time to assist the transition.
Whereas Sharma isn’t a gamer like Spencer, she does have some shopper expertise that would actually assist with main a division as massive as Microsoft Gaming. Sharma left a advertising position at Microsoft in 2013 and has labored at Meta as VP of product and engineering and Instacart as chief working officer earlier than heading again to Microsoft in 2024.
Nadella says he’s “lengthy on gaming and its position on the middle of our shopper ambition,” and believes Sharma has “deep expertise constructing and rising platforms, aligning enterprise fashions to long-term worth, and working at world scale, which will probably be vital in main our gaming enterprise into its subsequent period of development.”
Sharma now has three commitments for the way forward for gaming at Microsoft: nice video games, the return of Xbox, and the way forward for play. “We’ll recommit to our core Xbox followers and gamers, those that have invested with us for the previous 25 years, and to the builders who construct the expansive universes and experiences which might be embraced by gamers the world over,” says Sharma in an inner memo. “We’ll have fun our roots with a renewed dedication to Xbox beginning with console which has formed who we’re. It connects us to the gamers and followers who put money into Xbox, and to the builders who construct bold experiences for it.”
In a memo to Xbox staff, Spencer reveals that he made the choice to retire from Microsoft within the fall of 2025, simply months after rumors circulated on-line about Spencer’s potential retirement. Microsoft stated in July that Spencer was “not retiring anytime quickly.”
”Final fall, I shared with Satya that I used to be occupied with stepping again and beginning the following chapter of my life,” says Spencer. “From that second, we aligned on approaching this transition with intention, guaranteeing stability, and strengthening the inspiration we’ve constructed. Xbox has all the time been greater than a enterprise. It’s a vibrant neighborhood of gamers, creators, and groups who care deeply about what we construct and the way we construct it. And it deserves a considerate, deliberate plan for the highway forward.”
As a part of the highway forward for Xbox, president Sarah Bond can be leaving Microsoft to “start a brand new chapter,” in line with Spencer. “Sarah has been instrumental throughout a defining interval for Xbox, shaping our platform technique, increasing Recreation Go and cloud gaming, supporting new {hardware} launches, and guiding a number of the most important moments in our historical past,” says Spencer.
Microsoft can be selling Matt Booty to EVP and chief content material officer, after beforehand selling him to an expanded president of recreation content material and studios place in 2023. “I learn Phil’s word with a lot gratitude,” says Booty in an inner memo to Microsoft’s gaming staff. “He has been a gentle champion for recreation creators and our studio groups, and I’ve discovered a lot from his management through the years. All our video games have benefited from his foundational assist.”
You may learn Phil Spencer’s full retirement memo right here.
Spencer has been at Microsoft since he first joined as an intern in 1988. In his early profession at Microsoft he labored on Encarta, Microsoft Cash, and Microsoft Works. Spencer joined the Xbox division in 2001, and have become the overall supervisor of Microsoft Studios in 2008. He then turned the chief of the Xbox division in 2014, overseeing the launch of the Xbox Collection X / S and Microsoft’s Xbox Recreation Go push.
Spencer has additionally been on the middle of Microsoft’s main gaming acquisitions, together with Minecraft maker Mojang, Activision Blizzard, and ZeniMax Media.
“After I walked by Microsoft’s doorways as an intern in June of 1988, I might by no means have imagined the merchandise I’d assist construct, the gamers and clients we’d serve, or the extraordinary groups I’d be fortunate sufficient to hitch,” says Spencer. “It’s been an epic journey and really the privilege of a lifetime.”
