Last night, we received some of the most important news in Xbox history — Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer is leaving the company after 38 years, Xbox president Sarah Bond is leaving too, and the new boss is Asha Sharma (the former President of Microsoft CoreAI), to be assisted by the new EVP and Chief Content Officer, Matt Booty.
In response to all of that, we got a bunch of statements from the higher-ups at Microsoft and Xbox over on the Microsoft website, including from the boss of Microsoft himself, Satya Nadella. In his statement, Nadella praised Phil Spencer's impact on Xbox, congratulated Asha and Matt on their new roles, and talked about how important gaming remains to Microsoft as a whole.
Interestingly, he also confirmed that Phil Spencer announced his intent to retire in 2025 rather than 2026, with Phil sharing in a separate note that the transition began "last fall" when he decided to "[start] the next chapter of my life."
Here's Satya's full message:
"Gaming has been part of Microsoft from the start. Flight Simulator shipped before Windows, and you can practically ray‑trace a line from DirectX in the ’90s to the accelerated‑compute era we’re in today.
As we celebrate Xbox’s 25th year, the opportunity and innovation agenda in front of us is expansive. Today we reach over 500 million monthly active users, are a top publisher across all platforms, and continue to innovate across gaming hardware, content, and community, in service of creators and players everywhere.
I am long on gaming and its role at the center of our consumer ambition, and as we look ahead, I’m excited to share that Asha Sharma will become Executive Vice President and CEO, Microsoft Gaming, reporting to me. Over the last two years at Microsoft, and previously as Chief Operating Officer at Instacart and a Vice President at Meta, Asha has helped build and scale services that reach billions of people and support thriving consumer and developer ecosystems. She brings deep experience building and growing platforms, aligning business models to long-term value, and operating at global scale, which will be critical in leading our gaming business into its next era of growth.
Matt Booty will become Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer, reporting to Asha. Matt’s career reflects a lifelong commitment to games and to the people who make them. Under his leadership, Microsoft Gaming has grown to span nearly 40 studios across Xbox, Bethesda, Activision Blizzard, and King, which are home to beloved franchises including Halo, The Elder Scrolls, Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Candy Crush, and Fallout.
Together, Asha and Matt have the right combination of consumer product leadership and gaming depth to push our platform innovation and content pipeline forward. Last year, Phil Spencer made the decision to retire from the company, and since then we’ve been talking about succession planning. I want to thank Phil for his extraordinary leadership and partnership. Over 38 years at Microsoft, including 12 years leading Gaming, Phil helped transform what we do and how we do it. He expanded our reach across PC, mobile, and cloud; nearly tripled the size of the business; helped shape our strategy through the acquisitions of Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax, and Minecraft; and strengthened our culture across our studios and platforms. I’ve long admired Phil’s unwavering commitment to players, creators, and his team, and I am personally grateful for his leadership and counsel. He will continue working closely with Asha to ensure a smooth transition.
We have extraordinary creative talent across our studios and a global platform that is second to none. I’m excited for how we will capture the opportunity ahead and define what comes next, while staying grounded in what players and creators value.
Please join me in congratulating Asha and Matt on their new roles, and in thanking Phil for everything he has done for Microsoft and for our industry."
As you can see, Nadella mentions here that Phil Spencer "will continue working closely with Asha to ensure a smooth transition", and this means Phil will remain in an advisory role until the summer of 2026.
To be honest, the most interesting statement of the lot here belongs to Asha Sharma herself — we've covered that in full elsewhere on Pure Xbox, where the new Xbox boss explains three areas she's aiming to focus on in her new role.