The change, which officially takes effect on Monday, February 23, ends an era that began in March 2014, when Phil Spencer was appointed by Satya Nadella as head of Xbox. The moment when he took full control over a brand identified primarily with consoles was quite difficult. Xbox One devices released a while ago did not perform as well as they should have, their reception left a lot to be desired, and the direction set by its predecessor did not herald a drastic improvement in the situation. Over the next dozen or so years, Spencer tried hard to transform what Xbox was all about, and while change undoubtedly took place – it was the current effects turned out to be far from satisfactory.
Investments made in the purchase of new teams (including Activision-Blizzard for USD 68 billion and Zenimax Media for USD 7.5 billion) and the introduction of the Game Pass service undoubtedly shocked the market, but from a financial perspective they did not turn out to be lucrative enough. Price increases for consoles, subscriptions and making games available on other platforms have not helped at this point either… and the market has been expecting a change at the very top for some time now. This finally happened, and the new head of Microsoft Gaming and Xboxgiven by Nadella, was… not Sarah Bond, who was supposedly prepared for this position earlier, but Asha Sharma.
Microsoft is focusing even more on AI
This is a very big change for Sharma, as until now it had nothing to do with gaming itself. From 2024, she worked at Microsoft, managing the CoreAI platform and the development and implementation of artificial intelligence in various company products. Training new models, creating agents and tools for developers working with AI is one of the most important development areas for the Redmond giant, and although the common perception is that Microsoft “does it by force”, consumers themselves resist far-reaching integration, financial results tell a different story. The last quarter saw a spectacular increase in revenues from cloud services supporting the development of AI (as much as 39%), and Copilot and other AI functions created by them are already used by over 900 million people, including 90%. Fortune 500 companies.
Satya Nadella, like most people at the helm of the largest big tech companies, is pushing hard for the development of this area and his latest appointment seems to fit perfectly into the current pattern. Microsoft, regardless of user reactions and potential problems, is trying to implement artificial intelligence absolutely everywhere, because it is simply profitable. Although it is speculated that the AI bubble may burst soon, the giant's massive investments in this sector will certainly not stop anytime soon.
An open letter from the new head of Xbox
In search of Xbox profitability, which has recently recorded drastic declines in the area of hardware (32% down), games (9% down) and services (5% down), the new head of the brand will undoubtedly use her existing experience related to AI. In the open letter she published shortly after announcing the changes, we can read a key fragment of her vision: – We are witnessing a redefinition of the concept of entertainment. To meet the upcoming changes, we will create new business models and innovative forms of gameplay, building on our strongest foundations: iconic teams, characters and worlds that are appreciated by players.
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However, Asha Sharma assures that she does not intend to approach the topic purely “technically”: – We will not perceive these brands only as static intellectual property for financial exploitation and monetization. Instead we will build a common platform and tools that will strengthen the potential of creators and players, enabling them to create and share their own stories.
He also adds something to the letter that aroused the greatest emotion among Xbox fans. Namely, it is about the official confirmation of the involvement of artificial intelligence in the creative and organizational processes related to the functioning of the brand and teams creating games: – With the development of monetization and artificial intelligence, which influence this future, we do not intend to sacrifice quality for short-term profits or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slopes.
AI slop is a recently coined industry term referring to creations of generative artificial intelligence, which are characterized by low quality, de facto resulting from mass production. This term refers to films, images, models, animations, code and, in fact, everything else that can be produced by AI and which, due to the lack or insufficient participation of a human factor, does not meet the quality of users' expectations. In the video game industry, this has become one of the hottest topics, strongly protested for at least several months.
Players do not believe in the new CEO
Combined with Microsoft's recent problems, the deteriorating health of Windows resulting from the increasing use of AI-generated code, and Copilot's numerous security vulnerabilities, many people are concerned clearly skeptical about the vision of extended implementation of this technology also in the area of gaming. In their opinion, promises to avoid “AI slop” are of little value when they come from a person who has so far dealt with the poorly received integration of artificial intelligence in other products.
Public perception of Sharma's words and what awaits Xbox Additionally, the CEO's activity on the X platform has deteriorated in recent days. A moment after announcing her new position, she resumed her activity on the profile, but her posts raised some doubts as to… their authenticity. Some people say that they sound like typical sentences generated by AI, based on a prompt like “prepare the answer that a person who plays games would give.” Of course, such statements are pure speculation and may result from reluctance to accept the announced changes, but this narrative is also supported by the public profile of the new CEO on the Xbox platform. It shows that he has been playing games for a very short time and these are titles not necessarily identified with people who are heavily involved in this medium.
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The lack of any experience in the gaming field does not, of course, eliminate Sharma's chances of achieving success in this field. Although it is rare – history knows such cases, and one of the most spectacular is, of course, the figure of Hiroshi Yamauchi, who served as the head of Nintendo for over 50 years. It was during his term of office that, although he was never a gamer himself, the company changed its business profile to gaming and became the absolute hegemon of this industry, dominating the historical lists of best-selling consoles and video games.
Who is Asha Sharma and what has her career been like so far?
The path leading Asha Sharma to the Xbox position is also very interesting. Although she actually spent the last two years implementing AI at Microsoft, her portfolio includes work for several really large entities. She started her career at the age of 17and her first “serious” job after completing her first-cycle studies in management and economic sciences at the University of Minnesota was… in the Microsoft marketing department. A moment later she decided to leave and with a significant change in responsibilities – she took up the role of COO in the then-new startup Porchevolving over time into Porch Group. This is a company that today boasts revenues of over $400 million. annually, since 2020 it has been listed on Nasdaq. He specializes in connecting apartment/house owners with specialists in renovations, removals and other “home” work. Over time, Porch also began offering insurance. It was while working for this company that Asha Sharma was included in the list in 2015 Forbes 30 Under 30.
After her success at Porch, she made another impressive leap – she stayed hired as VP of Product and Engineering at Meta. For four years, she managed the development of, among others, Messenger and Instagram Direct. In 2021, she returned to the position of Chief Operating Officer, but this time in a different company – InstaCart, a grocery delivery company. There, she played a key role in the successful stock exchange debut and led the company to achieve full profitability. She managed a budget of over USD 30 billion. turnover. There, she also exercised very broad supervision over almost every area of Instacart's operations – from technology and product development to global logistics and marketing.
In 2024, she returned to Microsoft and held a position there directors in the team responsible for the previously mentioned CoreAImeanwhile also sitting on several supervisory boards – including in Coupang (a Korean e-commerce company) and The Home Depot (an American hypermarket chain).
The career path so far, although short, is full of very dynamic changes and a string of financial successes. Therefore, Nadella's decision seems to be very well justified based on Sharma's experience so far. Most observers expect similar increases also in Xbox under its tutelage. However, the players themselves fear that this will be achieved by means that will “kill” the soul of the brand and what it has characterized over the years. And it has been built since 2001 identity, based on passion, will be replaced by cold, corporate calculation. In other words, Microsoft will start making more money on games, but this will result from cost reduction and the implementation of the AI they hate, rather than from an increase in the quality of the productions themselves.
