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Forums - Microsoft - Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond Retiring. AI Leadership Replacing Him.

Cerebralbore101 on 21 February 2026
curl-6 said:
Cerebralbore101 said:

curl-6 said:

Bungie was a big multiplatform dev worth billions. Not as big as Activision, but to categorise Sony's purchases as small time or harmless is inaccurate.

@curl-6 @BraLoD Destiny and Marathon weren't made into console exclusives like Starfield and others in the MS stable. @curl-6 What was so harmful about Sony purchasing Bungie other than the waste of money it turned out to be? How did it actually harm gamers? 

Starfield and the rest aren't going to stay exclusive, and they may have been timed exclusives anyway without the acquisition.

In the case of both Sony and MS's consolidation, the main harm is that both have shuttered multiple studios and laid off a lot of devs post-acquisition.

Ok that's true. Both basically overspent and then layed people off to make profits look better. 



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Norion on 22 February 2026

I wonder how much difference this will even make in the coming years cause for the past couple years Xbox has been a lot more directly managed. If Phil was against moves Xbox fans disliked such as abandoning exclusivity it's not like he could tell Nadella no and not do it. Sarah Bond not taking Phil's spot is a surprise though.



BraLoD on 22 February 2026
Norion said:

I wonder how much difference this will even make in the coming years cause for the past couple years Xbox has been a lot more directly managed. If Phil was against moves Xbox fans disliked such as abandoning exclusivity it's not like he could tell Nadella no and not do it. Sarah Bond not taking Phil's spot is a surprise though.

I think this is the very reason she asked to get out, she was 100% expecting to be the next boss.



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Norion on 22 February 2026
BraLoD said:
Norion said:

I wonder how much difference this will even make in the coming years cause for the past couple years Xbox has been a lot more directly managed. If Phil was against moves Xbox fans disliked such as abandoning exclusivity it's not like he could tell Nadella no and not do it. Sarah Bond not taking Phil's spot is a surprise though.

I think this is the very reason she asked to get out, she was 100% expecting to be the next boss.

That makes sense. Phil's position and hers has probably been a pretty frustrating one to have the past couple years. With her resume she'll get a position she likes more elsewhere easily.



dharh on 22 February 2026
JRPGfan said:

Sarah Bond sounds like she was "fired"..... Phil Spencer took a early retirement.

Why would the replacement be someone from Meta, that has a focus on A.I ? To lead Xbox?

The whole company is focusing on AI. Both replacements, I think, come from the Core AI team. Other divisions are having their leadership be replaced by people from the Core AI team. More will happen. 

Here is part of Asha Sharma's message on starting this role:

To meet the moment, we will invent new business models and new ways to play by leaning into what we already have: iconic teams, characters, and worlds that people love. But we will not treat those worlds as static IP to milk and monetize. We will build a shared platform and tools that empower developers and players to create and share their own stories.

As monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop. Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us.

She is there with a focus on AI. Not soulless AI slop, 'soulful' AI slop.

XBOX lost this gen by a large margin. Again. SONY is through the roof. Again.

This is a panic play.

Last edited by dharh - on 22 February 2026

A warrior keeps death on the mind from the moment of their first breath to the moment of their last.
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dharh on 22 February 2026
trunkswd said:

Not all Microsoft acquisitions have been a disaster. They were down to like 5 studios at one point - 343 (Halo), Coalition (Gears of War), Turn 10 (Forza Motorsport), World's Edge (Age of Empires), and Rare (Mainly Sea of Thieves now). Xbox then acquired Mojang in 2014, which has been their biggest success with Minecraft still being one of the most played games and bringing in tons of money with its marketplace.

Xbox then acquired a bunch of smaller to medium studios in 2018 and 2019 - Playground Games, Obsidian, Compulsion, inXile, Ninja Theory, Undead Labs and Double Fine. Playground Games has been their second biggest success after Mojang with Forza Horizon and now the Fable reboot. Also most of these studios have been mainly untouched from these recent layoffs.

Things changed in 2020 when they acquired ZeniMax/Bethesda. Tango, Alpha Dog Studios, Arkane Austin, and Roundhouse Studios would eventually shut down from that acquisition. Though, Tango would be later saved and sold off. 

Once the Activision Blizzard deal closed Xbox laid off 1,900 employees in 2024 (mainly at ABK) then several hundred more in 2025.

Xbox was likely betting on the Xbox Series X|S having sold far better (think Xbox 360 numbers or better), Xbox Game Pass would grow to 100M+ subscribers, and the growth during COVID would continue. With the Xbox Series X|S falling off they were pretty much forced to release as much as possible on PlayStation and Nintendo to improve revenue.

The absolute banger was the acquisition of Mojang, $2.5B, killer deal more than worth. The rest since go from good but mostly ok to holy crap bad. Activision Blizzard comes to mind as the worst deal made, $69B, followed by the Black Ops 7 flop.



A warrior keeps death on the mind from the moment of their first breath to the moment of their last.
dharh on 22 February 2026
LudicrousSpeed said:

End of an era. GamePass is the only thing that has kept me from going PC only as my Switch 2 and PS5 Pro collect dust.

Will never forget decapitating Papa Phil in Chivalry a few times when it hit GamePass.

Did the 50% increase in Game Pass price give you any pause for thought? Even though I don't own XBOXSeries (I have a now unplugged XBONE), I still kept my Game Pass until then.



A warrior keeps death on the mind from the moment of their first breath to the moment of their last.
trunkswd on 22 February 2026
dharh said:
trunkswd said:

Not all Microsoft acquisitions have been a disaster. They were down to like 5 studios at one point - 343 (Halo), Coalition (Gears of War), Turn 10 (Forza Motorsport), World's Edge (Age of Empires), and Rare (Mainly Sea of Thieves now). Xbox then acquired Mojang in 2014, which has been their biggest success with Minecraft still being one of the most played games and bringing in tons of money with its marketplace.

Xbox then acquired a bunch of smaller to medium studios in 2018 and 2019 - Playground Games, Obsidian, Compulsion, inXile, Ninja Theory, Undead Labs and Double Fine. Playground Games has been their second biggest success after Mojang with Forza Horizon and now the Fable reboot. Also most of these studios have been mainly untouched from these recent layoffs.

Things changed in 2020 when they acquired ZeniMax/Bethesda. Tango, Alpha Dog Studios, Arkane Austin, and Roundhouse Studios would eventually shut down from that acquisition. Though, Tango would be later saved and sold off. 

Once the Activision Blizzard deal closed Xbox laid off 1,900 employees in 2024 (mainly at ABK) then several hundred more in 2025.

Xbox was likely betting on the Xbox Series X|S having sold far better (think Xbox 360 numbers or better), Xbox Game Pass would grow to 100M+ subscribers, and the growth during COVID would continue. With the Xbox Series X|S falling off they were pretty much forced to release as much as possible on PlayStation and Nintendo to improve revenue.

The absolute banger was the acquisition of Mojang, $2.5B, killer deal more than worth. The rest since go from good but mostly ok to holy crap bad. Activision Blizzard comes to mind as the worst deal made, $69B, followed by the Black Ops 7 flop.

Mojang was a steal at that price. Though I remember at the time many people saying Minecraft was not worth that much. Which if the game died off would have been true, but it keeps on trucking along

Last edited by trunkswd - on 22 February 2026

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LudicrousSpeed on 24 February 2026
dharh said:
LudicrousSpeed said:

End of an era. GamePass is the only thing that has kept me from going PC only as my Switch 2 and PS5 Pro collect dust.

Will never forget decapitating Papa Phil in Chivalry a few times when it hit GamePass.

Did the 50% increase in Game Pass price give you any pause for thought? Even though I don't own XBOXSeries (I have a now unplugged XBONE), I still kept my Game Pass until then.

Nah. I’ve always used key sites for my GamePass sub, and even with the price increase it’s easy to find keys to pay $8-10 a month. Even if I wanted just the bare minimum GamePass Essential or whatever just for online play, that’s $10 a month.