Xbox has undergone a major shakeup as CEO Phil Spencer, who ran Xbox for more than a decade, announced his retirement on February 20. His replacement? Nope, not Sarah Bond, the Xbox President who worked alongside Spencer for nearly 10 years. Her leave from the company was also announced at the same time as Spencer’s.
Instead, it’s Asha Sharma who’s filling Spencer’s Xbox CEO role. Sharma, who’s been with Microsoft for a couple of years after successful runs at Meta and Instacart, has a monumental task ahead, and I can only wish the best personally and professionally.
It turns out that Bond’s Xbox direction wasn’t liked by a lot of Microsoft employees. I’m talking about the “Xbox Everywhere” campaign, which was created a month after Bond took over the Xbox marketing team. According to Tom Warren writing for The Verge, “it was a confusing campaign, and I’m told it offended many Xbox employees internally.”
Warren adds that “most of the current and former Xbox employees I’ve spoken to in recent days are relieved that Bond is leaving Microsoft. I’ve heard from multiple sources that Bond has been tough to work with and built a team structure that meant if you didn’t follow the vision or questioned it, you were out.”
Bond was instrumental in the growth of Game Pass, Play Anywhere, and cloud gaming. I don’t think she should be taking all of the blame for the “This is an Xbox” campaign that even our resident Xbox aficionado, Jez Corden, said “doesn’t make sense.”
It’s interesting to see what our readers think about this story.
Windows Central readers react to Sarah Bond’s Xbox departure
Reactions to Sarah Bond’s departure and the ensuing reports about employee dissatisfaction are all over the place.
On our Windows Central subreddit, the top comment demonstrates concern over whether or not Play Anywhere will stick around now that Bond is gone.
One reply to this comment points out that Bond’s job was to broaden the Xbox ecosystem, whether employees liked it or not, and that Asha Sharma will likely be tasked with the same objective.
The topic of Sharma’s AI background is also mentioned. There are concerns that Sharma was given the lead Xbox role in order to better implement AI in gaming, which doesn’t sit well with a lot of people.
Plenty of comments make a positive case for Bond’s time at Xbox, pointing out that “she didn’t work in a silo” and that “there is no way she was able to unilaterally decide on the everything is an Xbox strategy.”
Another commenter suggests that Bond is being scapegoated, as there’s no way that there weren’t higher-ups who needed to sign off on these types of “unusual and risky” strategies.
Over in the article’s comments section here on Windows Central, the discourse is largely divided down the same line, with some understanding the logic behind canning Bond and others worrying that the new execs won’t do a better job.
One reader states that “Xbox moving toward multiplatform is actually what saved the brand,” while another says that they “really like the product” that Bond and Phil crafted. On the flip side, some say they won’t miss Bond while also believing that an AI executive isn’t the right answer.
Our poll attached to the Sarah Bond report asks readers’ reactions to Microsoft’s major Xbox shake-up, and the current front-runner with 37% of the votes is “Concerned — losing Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond is a lot at once. In second place, with 28% of votes, is “Neutral — too early to tell what this means for Xbox.”
We probably won’t ever know exactly what happened behind the scenes at Xbox, but one thing is clear. There’s a lot of concern over the past and future of the platform, and it will be very interesting to see the path that Xbox takes under the guidance of the new CEO.
🗨️ Let me know what you think!
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