On Friday, Phil Spencer announced his retirement after 38 years with Microsoft. The most obvious replacement, Sarah Bond, is also stepping down.
Instead, Asha Sharma, the leader of Microsoft’s Core AI team, will be stepping in to fill the void left by the legendary P3.
While many have questioned the move at Microsoft, there’s one thing Asha’s been doing her best at already: Her social media game.
Being playful, but playing defense
Today I begin my role as CEO of @Xbox. Here are my three commitments:1/ GREAT games2/ Return of @Xbox 3/ Future of playhttps://t.co/6UNrpFm1KiFebruary 20, 2026
Her social media account has been lighting up with responses a lot more than I think some people imagined. Some posts have been a little more playful, like the reveal of her three favorite games and her gamertag.
While some others have raised an eyebrow or two over Xbox exclusivity.
First, her announcement on X about becoming the CEO of Xbox. Here, she promised three things:
- Great games
- Return of Xbox
- Future of Play
Neither you nor I can fault her for committing to great games and the return of Xbox. There’s nothing better about gaming than playing terrific games. Even more when it’s on your favorite platform.
What the return of Xbox will look like, as well as the other two points, is clarified more in the blog post she linked.
“We are witnessing the reinvention of play.
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.”
I’ve covered her comments and the overall look of AI at Xbox with a recent opinion post. Giving more power to developers has always and will always be a good thing.
I only question that empowerment if AI is involved, but the commitment to not delivering AI slop warms my heart just enough that I remain cautiously happy about it.
Then, there was a slew of fun responses she gave that I have to mention if only because it got a chuckle or two out of me.
For starters, she went to the Xbox account, Gears of War, and of course, Phil Spencer with a Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 GIF.
She followed those up with Microsoft Flight Sim and my personal favorite, Age of Empires, where she diligently promised to start gathering wood.
Everyone has their say
After everyone had their two cents, she responded in kind. This little gesture resonated with a lot of people. Especially the OG Major Nelson. There, he advised a fourth commitment: Partnering with the community.
Of course, Asha followed up with, “You got it. Thanks, Major.” You always respond to Mr. Larry Hryb!
In some others, she was a little less direct. Where the X user known as Synth Potato called for putting the players first.
“Put the players first, build a strong Xbox brand and console. Nobody has any clue what Xbox is in 2026. If you can define what an Xbox is, then you will bring it back much stronger than ever before.”
The new CEO of Xbox followed up with, “Heard.” Let’s hope she does, as the rumors and speculation over everything and what this all means continue to swirl; focusing on the players will pay off the fastest in the eyes of Xbox fans.
How do you do, fellow gamers?
Now look, this one is for fun! She gave us a very general and open-ended question to see what people in the comments were passionate about.
Without going into great detail over whether this whole Xbox account of hers truly represents her, it’s clear she’s attempting to bridge a gap with a very tenuous community. So, credit there.
She came out and asked what the top 3 greatest games ever were, and quite a few people jumped on it. One person even suggested Borderlands 2, which players later saw her play that very same day. Although she only played for an hour, she at least tried it, right?
The one I had a decent laugh over involved another user who said one of their favorite games was Chrono Trigger. In response, she mentioned it’s been a long time since she played it, which seemed to cheese off even more people.
You see, Asha is 36, and Chrono Trigger came out in 1995. So the brilliant people of X decided that means she played it when she was 6. We can debate if she actually played it, and this is all PR, but that reason alone is so dumb.
I’m also 36, born just a few months before her. There are plenty of games I didn’t play until a lot later. I didn’t play the first Fable until years after the second one came out. I didn’t play Final Fantasy 7 until sometime in the mid 2000s, almost a decade later.
What you could take a gander at is a little science project I ran for giggles. Above, I asked Copilot what it thought a good response would be, and well, maybe there is something to her being a secret AI.
No matter where you look, you’ll find someone with a different opinion from someone else. Some people are calling her a continuation of the Xbox parasocial scam; others believe she’s entirely run by AI, while more normal folks have some other, more serious concerns
I, for one, am still worried about her work in AI and the direction Microsoft is taking as a whole. Like I said this weekend, I simply want some ethical standards applied to gaming.
Other critics are calling her lack of gaming an issue, which, for me, isn’t the issue at all. It’s actually the lack of gaming business experience that concerns me more.
Generally, people who take over as CEO of Xbox, Nintendo, or PlayStation have some form of gaming business acumen to back up their position. From what we’ve seen, Asha just moved over from Core AI, not anything gaming-related.
Maybe I’m just annoyingly critical, too; who knows?
What do you think of the new Xbox CEO’s day on social media? Did these interactions improve or worsen your image of her? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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