The amount of responsibility given to Sarah is crazy, Lol. Like Matt is basically just, same role but expanded to Zenimax. Sarah's had a bunch of extra shit slapped on her plate

• Hardware
• Player & Creator Experiences (I think this covers stuff like Game Pass, xCloud, along with working with 3rd parties, and things like Havok, Azure, Xbox Live, Gamestack, etc).
• Platform Engineering (I guess OS?).
• Strategy/Business Planning, Data, Business Development (Obvious).

That is quite short honestly, a whole 11 hours shorter than the average 100% completion time for Spider-Man (2018) and only 6 hours longer than the average completion time for Spider-Man Miles Morales (the standalone expansion for the original game that was $50 on launch). Seems like it needed another year in development in order to reach an appropriate length for a $70 open world game.

Feels like Sony is overworking Insomniac, their workhorse studio, honestly. Since acquiring them in 2019 they have had Insomniac release 3 games in 4 years, and they very likely already have them working on the next Ratchet and Clank and we know they have them working on Wolverine too. They are only 500 devs, even with assistance from Sony's support studios, Insomniac is going to burnout hard at this rate.

Update, Lol.

She needed the test honestly, Phil already said that she would be his successor when he retires, a few years ago. If she can't handle running just the Xbox console division on her own, she'll never be able to secede Phil as CEO of Microsoft Gaming in a few years when Phil retires.

Yeah I was honestly surprised at how short Spider-Man 2 is overall. I was figuring it would take the same length as the first game, not closer to Miles Morales. By the end of last weekend, I was seeing Platinum posts all over the place after just 2 days. Still looks like a fun time at least that I look forward to playing when it comes to PC.  

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was a very short game too. I 100% the game in 15 hours. That one was more understandable though as the R&C games were never that long. 

Agreed but slight correction, it isn't just the "Console" division, it's the entire Xbox platform, she's basically in Phil's role before he became CEO of Microsoft Gaming.

Yeah.. lol. I also kept the game on for at least an hour or two just running. There's also a lot of cutscenes and classic cinematic gameplay that PS is known for. Not like I rushed anything either, 100% all districts and did everything possible. Glad I didn't spend 70 on it Thanks @ice

So basically, none of them have left Xbox, they simply largely report to Sarah now, Ashley McKissick reports to Sarah in the same role she had in Leadership Team. Lori Wright reports to Sarah in the same role too. Kareem Choudry reports to Sarah but not as Gaming Cloud but as Xbox Emerging Technologies. Then a few other people reporting to Sarah who were never on the Leadership Team to begin with.

I'm not sure who Haiyan Zhang is reporting to but she's still at Gaming.

They basically just streamlined a bunch of roles under Sarah.

It’s been a whirlwind two weeks since we closed our deal with ABK, an acquisition that will materially impact our current and future success. Since then, I’ve been on tour, visiting the teams. It’s been awesome to see the ambition of the games they’re making, the depth of the talent among the teams, and their excitement to be a part of Microsoft with a creative culture that aligns with their own.

Microsoft Gaming is on a multi-year journey to reach players where they are, on the devices they choose to play, and our strategy is working. We have thirteen $1B+ franchises in our portfolio and we just set new records for engagement in Game Pass. As our business continues to grow, it’s important that we structure ourselves to sustain that momentum with effective clarity and accountability across Gaming. In that spirit, we are making the following organizational changes effective today:

Great games are fundamental to everything we do. We believe that an expanded gaming content organization—one that enables Xbox Game Studios and ZeniMax’s development studios to collaborate effectively together—will empower those world-class studios to do their best work in growing our portfolio of games players love. Matt Booty will lead this expanded organization as President, Game Content and Studios.

ZeniMax will continue to operate as a limited integration entity led by Jamie Leder, President and CEO, reporting to Matt. All ZeniMax development studios and ZeniMax Central Services teams will continue reporting to Jamie to maintain and optimize current content development and production cycles. Also, to deepen our partnership and accelerate mutual learning, a number of ZeniMax leaders will now report to those Microsoft leaders with whom their work most closely aligns.

With our innovative devices, products, services, and our global community, Xbox is the primary way we connect games and their creators with players around the world. These experiences are as foundational as the games themselves, whether they are our first-party games or third-party games. To manage the platform of today, and build the platform of tomorrow, we are bringing together the teams that will make this possible. Sarah Bond will lead this team as President of Xbox — bringing together Devices, Player & Creator Experiences, Platform Engineering, Strategy, Business Planning, Data & Analytics and Business Development.

Reporting to Sarah and leading their respective teams will be Ashley McKissick (Corporate Vice President, Player Experiences & Platforms), Kareem Choudhry (Corporate Vice President, Xbox Emerging Technologies), Roanne Sones (Corporate Vice President, Gaming Devices Ecosystem), Lori Wright (Corporate Vice President, Partnerships & Business Development) and Kevin Gammill (Corporate Vice President, Ecosystem Product Management).

We’ve derived success from scaling our shared operations capabilities, so we will expand on that strategy by aligning ZeniMax’s IT and Facilities groups with our portfolio of operations and shared services. At the same time, continued leadership and focus on the effective integration of Activision Blizzard is vital. Dave McCarthy will lead all of these efforts for our business as Chief Operations Officer, Microsoft Gaming.

We have ambitious growth targets for games, players, endpoints and brand love. Our Gaming Marketing organization, which now includes Bethesda’s Publishing team, plays a crucial role by generating demand, driving engagement and inspiring advocacy among players, creators and partners. Jerret West will continue to lead this team as Chief Marketing Officer, Microsoft Gaming.

As some of you may have seen, our Consumer Sales Organization (CSO) will be joining the Microsoft Gaming team, led by Ami Silverman as Chief Consumer Sales Officer, Microsoft. CSO is the dedicated Microsoft consumer retail vertical, which reaches customers through direct and partner channels in critical markets. Ami’s charter crosses all consumer products, including Devices & Creativity (Windows, Surface, M365) and all things Gaming. This team’s focus will be to transform the gaming sales motions and attract new audiences across geographic markets. Dametra Johnson-Marletti (Corporate Vice President, Consumer Sales Organization) will continue to report into Ami and focus exclusively on Gaming, leveraging the common services and infrastructure of the CSO team.

Continuing in their current roles on my team are Bobby Kotick (Chief Executive Officer, Activision Blizzard, through the end of 2023), Joslyn Main (General Manager, Chief of Staff), Cynthia Per-Lee (Corporate Vice President, Human Resources), Kari Perez (General Manager, Communications), Linda Norman (Corporate Vice President, CELA) and Tim Stuart (Corporate Vice President, Finance).

I’m excited to partner with this team of leaders to advance our mission for the next era of Xbox in service of players and creators. I am confident that they will steer our organization to success in the months and years to come. Please join me in welcoming Ami and her team, and congratulating Matt, Sarah and Dave on their new roles.

Emails are just one vehicle to communicate change. You will hear more from your manager and your leader in the coming days about how these changes may or may not impact your work. We’ll also discuss this evolution of our organization during our next town hall on Monday October 30th at 1:00PM PT. Thank you for your contributions and dedication to everything we do to bring the joy of gaming to everyone on the planet.

Phil

Read Phil Spencer’s full Microsoft memo on the new Xbox leadership changes - The Verge

We have ambitious growth targets for games, players, endpoints and brand love. Our Gaming Marketing organization, which now includes Bethesda’s Publishing team, plays a crucial role by generating demand, driving engagement and inspiring advocacy among players, creators and partners. Jerret West will continue to lead this team as Chief Marketing Officer, Microsoft Gaming. ZeniMax development studios and ZeniMax Central Services teams will continue reporting to Jamie to maintain and optimize current content development and production cycles.