Tag: Asha Sharma
News Three Aims Detailed By Asha Sharma For The 'Most Significant Restructure In Xbox History'
Following a massive wave of layoffs
You've probably seen the news already today - Xbox is laying off 3,200 employees over the next 12 months (with half of them leaving immediately), and at least four studios will be departing the brand as part of it. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has issued an extremely long statement over on Xbox Wire to explain the...
News Xbox Leaders Outline Five 'Realities' That Will Be Addressed Over The Next 100 Days
A period that's said to be about resetting the business
Last night, around the same time that reports were suggesting Xbox was in line for major job cuts, Asha Sharma and Matt Booty unveiled a message on the Xbox Wire website that they'd shared with Xbox employees earlier in the day. The memo talks about how the first 100 days of Xbox involved...
News "It's Hard To Say" - Xbox Boss Isn't Sure The Activision Blizzard Deal Has Paid Off
"It was bought at a time when our strategy was predominantly on the core consoles"
Remember when Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, and everyone assumed that Xbox would become the dominant force on the back of franchises like Call of Duty? It hasn't quite played out like that; since the merger was done, Xbox hardware sales have...
News Xbox CEO Asha Sharma "Doesn't Believe" GenAI World Models Will Replace AAA Games
"I've really come to appreciate the depth and the complexity of art"
Xbox boss Asha Sharma has been speaking to Fortune about the wider industry and the future of gaming hardware, and it should come as no great shock to learn that AI came up as a topic at one point. Sharma's previous role was President of Microsoft's CoreAI product, so you'd...
News Asha Sharma Discusses Why Xbox Decided To Bring Back Exclusives
And hints at more when "the business is healthy"
Yes, sorry... we're talking exclusives again. Everyone at Team Xbox keeps getting asked about them! The latest word is from Xbox boss Asha Sharma, who was questioned on the topic in last night's Fortune interview. She didn't really have much to add compared to what we've heard already, but we thought...
News 'We'll Start To See Radically Different Business Models' - Xbox Boss Talks Future Of Consoles
She says mass audiences can't afford thousands on a console generation
Xbox boss Asha Sharma has been appearing as part of a new interview with Fortune, and one of the topics she addressed was that of consoles and where they might be going in the future. Sharma spent some time talking about how component prices and shortages are causing a "crisis"...
News Xbox Fans Go Wild As Asha Sharma Gives Free Consoles To Everyone At FanFest LA
Watch the reaction here
Today, following the conclusion of the Xbox Games Showcase 2026, Xbox bosses Asha Sharma and Matt Booty addressed everyone in attendance at Xbox FanFest LA, and they treated them to an incredibly exciting surprise. While celebrating the event and discussing how it's her first Xbox Games Showcase ever, Sharma threw in a...
News Asha Sharma On Removing CoPilot For Xbox: 'Our Console Players Aren't Excited About It'
Microsoft's CEO gave her the freedom to ditch it
Back at the start of May, we were treated to the surprising news that Xbox was removing Microsoft CoPilot integration across the entire division, taking it away entirely from mobile and cancelling plans to integrate it into consoles. Xbox had been showing off how CoPilot would work on Xbox Series X...
News Xbox Boss Wants To Create The 'Number One' Gaming Company By 'Resetting The Business'
She says they've done so much in the first 100 days already
To conclude last night's big interview as part of Bloomberg Live, Xbox boss Asha Sharma was asked about her first 100 days in the job and what the next 100 days look like, which drew some interesting comments from the new CEO. Initially, Sharma used the opportunity to highlight how Xbox's...
News 'It's A Tough Topic' - Xbox CEO Shares Her Latest Thoughts On Exclusives
She says platforms must have exclusive content and services
Last night, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma appeared in a 15-minute interview as part of Bloomberg Tech, and she was asked for her thoughts about exclusives during the chat - something that's been a big talking point for Xbox in recent months. Back in April, Sharma and her team officially confirmed...
News 'It Was A Miss, And I Own It' - Xbox CEO Hints At Removing PS5 & Switch Logos From Showcases
She says they're going to adjust for the future
Yesterday, following the announcement that Fable was being delayed to February 2027, Xbox's Matt Booty appeared on the official Xbox podcast and revealed some details about the upcoming Xbox Games Showcase 2026, including that it won't feature any Project Helix news, and that multiplatform logos wil
News Xbox Is Gaining Momentum With US Gamers, As Highlighted In New YouGov Report
"For XBOX, the early signs are encouraging."
With Asha Sharma making a bunch of well-received moves ever since her appointment as Xbox CEO, there's definitely been a feeling that the perception around the brand is becoming more positive, and a new report is backing that up. The folks over at YouGov are saying that Xbox is "gaining momentum" in...
News 'We Are Building A Stronger Xbox' - Asha Sharma Updates Employees On Progress In 2026
The Xbox CEO says hard choices are still ahead
New Xbox boss Asha Sharma has been extremely active in putting her stamp on the brand over the past few months since she took over from Phil Spencer, and based on first impressions, it seems like things are going pretty well. She apparently addressed Xbox's progress in 2026 so far in an internal memo...
News Epic Games Boss Calls New Xbox Leadership Team 'World Class', Asha Sharma Responds
"Foreshadows serious dedication to the future of gaming"
Yesterday, we brought you the news that Xbox had made even more leadership hires to take the team into a new era - and now Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has heaped praise on what Asha Sharma is building within Microsoft's gaming division. Taking to social media shortly after yesterday's news,...
News Microsoft Announces Fan Feedback Program 'XBOX Player Voice', And It's Now Live
"A simpler way to share feedback"
Since stepping into the role, Xbox boss Asha Sharma has been keen to gather more fan feedback as she begins to shape the future of the brand, and that's now resulted in a new 'XBOX Player Voice' program being announced by Microsoft. Unveiled today via Xbox Wire, XBOX Player Voice is "a new place to collect your...
News Xbox Execs Congratulate Forza Horizon 6 Dev On 'Exceptionally Rare' Success
"Very proud of the teams..."
Believe it or not, Forza Horizon 6 isn't even out in its Standard Edition guise yet - despite some amazing reviews being put out there and hundreds of thousands of early access players jumping in already. And now, even some of the Xbox bosses are congratulating the development team before the game's
News 'Xbox Or XBOX?' - Asha Sharma Hints At Rebrand Based On Poll Results
THE ALL CAPS ERA
Earlier this week, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma took to social media to poll fans on the branding of the word "Xbox" — she wanted to know whether people preferred the current version, or whether they wanted to see it in all capitals. Her tweet racked up 2.1 million views, although only 19,000+ people actually ended up voting. The final...
News 'Dear Asha...' - Xbox Fan Desperately Wants New CEO To Remove Irrelevant Ads From Dashboard
"Please remove these types of ads off my screen."
Xbox's dashboard ads have long been a bit of a sore point amongst the fanbase. We see complaints about them crop up in waves — especially if a particularly annoying advert keeps appearing for various folks — and today, one particular fan has begun pleading to new boss Asha Sharma to be rid of...
News Xbox Needs To 'Sweat Every Detail' In Winning Over 'Frustrated' Players, Says Asha Sharma
She's certainly committed to the cause
We've heard a lot from Xbox boss Asha Sharma recently about her plans to evolve the brand and address areas that she believes needs fixing, and The Verge has shared new quotes that she apparently told employees at a recent meeting. This is from around the same time that Sharma and Matt Booty issued a massive...
News Xbox To Retire Features That Don't Align With Future Plans, Starting With Copilot AI
"We will stop development of Copilot on console"
Following reports earlier today that Asha Sharma had hired new leaders for Team Xbox, the boss has shared a short statement on social media confirming the news, while also revealing that some features are going to be retired. "Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and...
News 'We Need To Evolve How We Work' - Xbox CEO Announces She's Bringing In New Leaders
To address consumer and technical expertise
Xbox boss Asha Sharma is making another major move today, as she's reportedly told employees in a company memo that the division needs to "evolve how we work", and therefore she's bringing in new leaders. This was first reported by CNBC, which mentioned that Sharma had the following to say in her memo:...
News Xbox Founder Invited To Microsoft HQ By Asha Sharma, Says It Was 'Amazing' And 'Bizarre'
25 years since he shipped the original Xbox
Ever since Asha Sharma took the role of Xbox boss in February, she's appeared to be taking advice from a wide range of people throughout the industry, and the latest example arrives in the form of Xbox co-founder, Seamus Blackley. Blackley played a key role in shipping the original Xbox 25 years ago (to...
News Asha Sharma Comments On AI Use As Upscaling Tech Rolls Out To ROG Xbox Ally
"We are refocusing our AI efforts..."
Earlier this week, Microsoft announced some new ROG Xbox Ally features including the introduction of 'Auto Super Resolution'; an AI upscaler in a similar vein to Nvidia's DLSS. This is the sort of AI tech players seem on board with, but that isn't the case for all uses of AI - something that Xbox boss Asha...
News Asha Sharma Comments On Xbox Revenue Loss For Q3 2026
"We know we have work to do..."
In the wee hours of this morning, we covered Xbox's latest financial report, which showed losses across multiple areas within the Xbox business. Hardware and content & services are both down in the last fiscal quarter, and whilst this is no doubt disappointing, the new Xbox boss has followed this up with some fighting...
News 'Working On It' - Asha Sharma Confirms Dynamic Background For New Xbox Logo Is In The Works
Heading to Series X|S soon!
New Xbox boss Asha Sharma has been very active on social media since taking on her new role, and now, on the back of the team's brand-new logo reveal, Sharma has confirmed online that it's being turned into an Xbox Series X|S dynamic background as we speak. Heading over to Twitter, fan account Xbox Studio asked if the...
News Asha Sharma Explains Why Xbox Isn't 'Ready' To Share A Release Timeline For Project Helix
But dev kits are definitely going out in 2027
We've been hearing a lot about Xbox's next-gen console this year which is codenamed "Project Helix", and we even know that developers will be getting it in 2027 — but what about a release timeline for the public? Xbox boss Asha Sharma knows we want one, but is rightfully being cautious about it for...
News 'I've Ordered A Series X, I'm Back In' - Lapsed Xbox Fan Attracts The Attention Of Asha Sharma
"Hell yes"
Since Asha Sharma has taken up her new role as Xbox boss, she's been quite open with fans online. Indeed, we've seen Sharma chat very publicly with Xbox followers since taking over a few months ago - and this past week, one of her to-the-point responses to a lapsed fan went viral on Twitter. In short, an Xbox fan known as '
News Asha Sharma Says Xbox Is Investing To Make Series X|S Consoles A 'First-Class Experience Again'
That's how important they are to the new leadership
In yesterday's big Xbox statement from Asha Sharma and Matt Booty, there was a mention in one of the priority sections about how they wanted to "stabilize Gen9 as a healthy and high-quality base", with Gen9 referring to the ninth generation of Xbox consoles in the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S...
News Four Key Priorities For Xbox's Future Outlined By CEO Asha Sharma & EVP Matt Booty
"We will execute this through four priorities"
We mentioned today as part of our coverage of the massive statement from Xbox leadership on the brand's future that Asha Sharma and Matt Booty had outlined four main priorities for the future, so let's dive deeper into each of those! The first of these priorities is hardware, which encompasses a few...
News Xbox Is Officially 'Reevaluating' What To Do About Exclusivity
Update: Asha Sharma shares more details
There have been rumbles for a while that Xbox might be considering a change to its plans around exclusivity following the arrival of new boss Asha Sharma, and now it's been officially confirmed that this will be "reevaluated". In the massi
News Xbox Leadership Issues Massive Statement On The Future Of The Brand
"We have work to do"
This might be one of the most important messages we've ever seen in the 25 years of Xbox! New boss Asha Sharma and EVP Matt Booty have issued a massive statement to employees (and subsequently the public) today about the future of the brand, outlining how Xbox needs to evolve in the years ahead. It starts off by mentioning that...
News Microsoft Gaming Scrapped As Asha Sharma Promotes 'Return Of Xbox' At MS HQ
Update: Now official!
It's been a busy few months for Asha Sharma as she settles into her new role at Xbox, and it sounds as though she's rounding out that initial period by promoting a complete "return of Xbox" over at Microsoft HQ. According to Tom Warren of
News 'The Idea Is Not Dead' - Xbox Boss Explains Why She's Still Keen On A Mobile Store
It seemed to have been killed off, but apparently not!
For years now, we've been hearing about potential plans for Xbox to build a mobile store that could compete with the likes of the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, but nothing has ever come of it (there's a storefront on the actual Xbox app itself, but it's only for buying console and PC...
News Asha Sharma Teases New Xbox Game Pass & Discord Partnership
"We're teaming up again as we continue to make Game Pass more flexible"
We've got even more Xbox Game Pass news to bring your way today! Following yesterday's price reduction for Game Pass Ultimate, Xbox boss Asha Sharma has teased a new partnership with Game Pass and Discord. Sharma says they're "teaming up again" in order to help make Game Pass...
News What's In The Box? Kojima Meets Asha Sharma And Receives Mysterious Xbox Gift
It says "Xbox for Kojima" on it
We're all well aware that Hideo Kojima is working on a project for Xbox right now in the form of "OD", and so it's probably no surprise that he's paid a visit to Xbox HQ to visit new boss Asha Sharma and EVP Matt Booty. There's nevertheless been a lot of interest in the photo he's shared though, in which he's...
News Xbox Boss Wants A 'Chat' With Ex-PlayStation Exec Over Criticisms Of Game Pass
Asha Sharma is willing to listen
Recently, we've heard how Asha Sharma is interested in finding ways to make Xbox Game Pass less expensive and more "flexible" in the future, which various rumours swirling about how that might be achieved. When Sharma's leaked memo about reducing the price of Game Pass was revealed, former PlayStation boss Shawn...
News Xbox's Recent Battery Issue Was A Reminder To 'Earn Every Hour' With Players, Says Boss
Asha Sharma is pleased with how the team handled it
Last week, we published a story about how Xbox had been offering free rechargeable batteries to fans who had been affected by an issue where no AA batteries were included with their new controller, and Xbox boss Asha Sharma was apparently very pleased with how her team dealt with the situation...
News Asha Sharma Lays Out Plans For 'Deeper Investment' In Xbox's Platform Foundations
She's identified multiple areas of improvement
We've already heard a lot about how new Xbox boss Asha Sharma seemingly wants to make a bunch of changes at Xbox, including ditching the "This is an Xbox" marketing campaign and reducing prices for Xbox Game Pass, but behind the scenes, it sounds like she's very keen to improve Xbox's "platform...
News Xbox Boss Declares Game Pass Is 'Too Expensive' And Needs A 'Better Value Equation'
Asha Sharma says XGP will evolve in the long term
It's official! New Xbox boss Asha Sharma wants to make Xbox and PC Game Pass more affordable in the future. This is courtesy of a leaked memo that's been shared by The Verge today, in which the Xbox head and Microsoft Gaming CEO told employees that the current model of Game Pass "isn't the final...
News Xbox's Asha Sharma Speaks On Camera For First Time As Microsoft Gaming CEO
As part of a fan vlog with Phil Spencer
Even though Asha Sharma has been very active in making improvements for Xbox fans over the past few weeks, we still haven't seen her speak publicly on camera as Xbox boss — or at least, not until a GDC vlog went live over the weekend. A YouTuber known as Mr. Wright Way was in attendance at GDC 2026 back in...
Talking Point Are You Happy With The New Updates Coming To Xbox Consoles So Far?
We're getting new features on Series X|S!
We've not had enough time to properly judge how boss Asha Sharma is going to get on in her new role as Head of Xbox, but one thing we're loving so far is the team's renewed focus on console, and that's starting to manifest itself with new updates arriving for Series X|S users. Indeed, for the first time in...
News Xbox Is Sending Out Project Helix Gift Packages Signed By New Boss Asha Sharma
No console yet, just a bunch of free merch
We're sure you've already heard about the codename for Xbox's next console by now — "Project Helix" — and although the console itself won't be in developers' hands until next year, Xbox is clearly trying to build hype for it this year. The latest example of this is a bunch of free "Project Helix"...
News Xbox Boss Reveals New 'Dedicated Team' Focusing On Fan Feedback
Following the rollout of new achievement features
Yesterday, we were treated to yet another surprise from Team Xbox when it was revealed that Xbox achievements were getting multiple new improvements, and this is seemingly the result of a new "dedicated team" that's been set up. Shortly after the achievement features were unveiled, Sharma took to...
News Here's What Asha Sharma Has Been Playing On Her Xbox Gamertag Over The Past Month
A peek at the new Xbox boss's account activity
It feels like a lifetime ago now, but all the way back in late February, new Xbox boss Asha Sharma shared her Xbox gamertag with the community before being criticised for "faking" it with an artificially inflated gamerscore, to which she clarified that her whole family was sharing the account and that...
News 'Part Of The Return Of Xbox' - Asha Sharma Explains Why FanFest Is Returning To LA This Summer
There wasn't an official one for XGS 2025
You've heard of Xbox FanFest, right? This is the name for an official Xbox community program that aims to bring Xbox fans together in various ways, and it's usually highlighted by a special in-person celebration in Los Angeles for the annual Xbox Games Showcase that takes place each June. Last year though,...
Feature Five Things We Want To See From Xbox's New Leadership Team In 2026
In the midst of a massive year for the brand
What a year this is turning out to be already for Team Xbox! We thought it was going to busy with the 25th anniversary celebrations and the releases of Fable, Forza Horizon 6, Gears of War: E-Day and Halo: Campaign Evolved, but we never considered that Phil Spencer would retire and Asha Sharma
News It Was Asha Sharma's 'Direction' To Scrub 'This Is An Xbox' Marketing, Suggests Report
Update: Microsoft confirms it's been retired
A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned how Microsoft's "This is an Xbox" advertisement on the official Xbox Wire website had been mysteriously removed, and that ad is still giving off a "404 Not Found" message at the time of writing. This naturally led many people to conclude that the "This is an Xbox"...
News New Xbox Boss Has Considered 'Pricing Revamp' For Game Pass, Claims Report
Involving lower-priced tiers and maybe even a partnership with Netflix
It's been a busy old month since Asha Sharma took the reigns as Xbox boss over at Microsoft HQ, and according to a new report from The Information, she's already considering how she can lower costs for Xbox Game Pass. The repo
News 'Keep The Feedback Coming' - Xbox Boss Says New Console Features Were Built Two Weeks Ago
An impressive start to Asha Sharma's reign
Yesterday, we were treated to the surprising news that the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles were getting a major dashboard update for the first time in what feels like forever, with multiple features being implemented including custom colour settings, the ability to disable Quick Resume for certain...
News 'I'm Of Two Minds' - Todd Howard Gives His Thoughts On Xbox's Leadership Changes
Excited for the future, but sad to see Phil Spencer go
With the announcement of a major Starfield update earlier today, Bethesda's Todd Howard has been sitting down with IGN for a wide-ranging interview, and he's been asked about how he f
