Aaron Greenberg:

"I'm excited by what's ahead. I will share that after spending dedicated time this week with our new Gaming CEO, @asha_shar I’m incredibly optimistic about the opportunity ahead under her leadership. Asha is exceptionally bright, eager to listen and learn from others, no ego, but wants to get Xbox and gaming in a direction I’m personally incredibly inspired by.

"A brave bias for action that starts first with great games, the return to Xbox starting with the console and a vision for the future. Paired with Matt Booty in his expanded role leading all of our creative games and entertainment teams we are well positioned to do the work we need to do. As a long time team member and as someone who cares deeply about Xbox, our games, players and the future I’m encouraged and eager to help us on the path ahead."

Greenberg's quote makes me think Xbox leadership has known about this for at least a little while. Phil retiring isn't a surprise given how long he has been at Microsoft. Still strange we've heard nothing from Sarah Bond. 

Phil Spencer and Matt Booty have updated their LinkedIn profiles, but as of right now Sarah Bond's hasn't.

I think MS as been to much hands on wheels over the Xbox division ever since the ABK deal closed. This is understandable as the context in which the deal finaly came through was nothing like the context that made them do the deal in the first place (during peak covid effect vs after).

Spencer probably felt he could no longer run Xbox as he wanted and was just tasked with implementing MS pricing strategy. Sarah bond probably saw the same thing and it's just not what she wanted.

Anyway, I'm thankfull to both of them. They gave Xbox the best last shot they could in the context they inherited.

Ah good ol saying buzzwords like “no AI slop” … if she’s serious about that then how about removing the thousand upon thousand of simulation “AI slop” from the Xbox store, then maybe I’ll believe her. But Nudella clearly put her in charge to further push AI into gaming so I won’t hold my breath.

Good to see some positive vibes on this thread instead of the usual xbox is deader then dead on all other forums, websites etc. Lets give the new CEO a chance to see what changes they can implement to improve the perception of Xbox as a gaming brand

That's how I feel. At this point Xbox hardware can't perform worse. Sales are practically dead outside the US. 

Well so far the vibe with her is fine based on her tweets, I like how she tweets to some members from the team and mention things as 'Hey should we bring blades back?'  it is something small but it gives me impressions she atleast knows something from xbox and its history.

+  I don't like to judge people based on their work history and she deserves a chance to dissapointment instead of assuming she will dissapoint me from the start.

As long as I can access my Xbox library in one form or another, I'm okay with whatever direction they go with.

Well, my scepticism is not even so much about A. Sharma (who I know nothing about) but about what Microsoft/Xbox as an organization have shown during the last years. The overall story after the studio closures and multiplat approach started was “that is Big Microsoft stepping in, demanding return on investment; it is no longer Xbox, it is Microsoft Gaming now”. So if we assume that previous Xbox leadership was forced to go that route, why would the company mechanisms at play suddenly allow her to do differently? And even if she wanted to and would, next results check-in, Satya can say “not enough, Cut-Cut-Cut”.