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Well this is the new Xbox boss, Aska Sharma trying to course correct her own actions after pushing out Phil Spencer (and team). Phil had a deep understanding of
by righthand 4mo ago
Well this is the new Xbox boss, Aska Sharma trying to course correct her own actions after pushing out Phil Spencer (and team). Phil had a deep understanding of the game world about profit margins and how the Xbox is essentially a stake in keeping Microsoft in the minds of consumers, a place in the home. Aska has a shallow understanding and sees only the financials and wanted to increase profits. Now she is burning it all down to try and “reset” and replace people with LLMs to increase profit margins. I imagine she will be pushed out herself end of year or next Spring (2027) once her naïve plan back fires.
- tapoxi 4mo agoAre you conflating Asha Sharma with Satya Nadella? Asha just joined Xbox, she had no role in any prior decision making.
- righthand 4mo agoAsha came from the AI division of Microsoft, she didn’t pop out of nowhere. She is strongly tied to the Microsoft LLM plays. IMO Phil was very clearly pushed out by “AI will cut costs talk”. No one makes huge investments into acquiring companies and then suddenly retires (after running the division successfully for decades) and none of his underlings were promoted into the role, they all left when he did.
- Jare 4mo agoI think Phil was pushed out by the complete failure of his strategic vision when confronted with reality. He had a vision of growth and prestige, and money would follow. I loved his vision in its grandiose and lofty goals, but he completely failed to capture any of the "how to make it happen". It stays a fantasy.
- dwroberts 4mo agoDon’t know why this is being downvoted because it’s absolutely on the money. She’s a very green exec that is doing the classic “change everything to make it look like I’m doing something” while also not really achieving anything. The rebrand to ‘XBOX’ is a good example of how they’re already out of ideas
- sethops1 4mo agoMaybe they should try pivoting the Xbox into being a TV platform /s
- tcmart14 4mo agoAnd they should make an accessory that is an always on camera! Wait a second.... I think I've seen this one before.....
- rustystump 4mo agoWe’re going in circles
- draculero 4mo agoJust out of curiosity, I checked her Wikipedia page and this caught my eye: > Sharma posted in 2026 that she had recently begun playing video games under the gamertag AMRAHSAHSA to "learn and understand" the games industry Imagine running the Xbox division and only just now picking up a controller.
- PaulHoule 4mo agoThere's this little concept of "cultural sensitivity". Given the size of the King thing it would even be fair to have somebody who had a serious Candy Crush habit. At least they didn't create a fake profile for her the way Elon Musk made one. I think the "glass cliff" is going to claim another victim.
- Telaneo 4mo agoA part of me wants to be generous in interpreting that and say, OK, maybe it's the first time she's playing games semi-seriously in order to understand the capital G Gamer. Surely she's played games before, like say, the Sims, Bejeweled, Mario Kart, or picked up a Nintendo DS or Switch in her lifetime. Heck, even Wii Sports should count here in some capacity. Most people have played games casually in their lifetime by this point. The other part of me though says that, no, it is in fact pretty possible that she hasn't played any video games of note, other than Wii Sports that one time. And even if she has played games casually, is it really too much to ask to have the person leading the Xbox brand be someone who can press the X button on their controller and not be confused by that?
- ebbi 4mo agoIt's a publicly listed company. They needed someone without the emotional attachment to 'Gaming', but with business nous, to make the decisions needed to meet her mandate, which is to ultimately increase shareholder value. A 'Gamer' would have found that more difficult to do.
- rustystump 4mo agoPress Q to doubt. There are plenty of biz savvy folks out there who at least gamed in high school or college.
- adamwk 4mo agoShe’s been in her position for less than 6 months. All of the problems were under Phil, so I don’t understand what you mean by course correcting her own actions
- tomtheelder 4mo agoI don't really have an opinion on Sharma since she's very green, but Phil Spencer's tenure was an unmitigated disaster. The strategy of rolling up studios and trying to grow through GamePass both completely backfired, with the studios producing few and generally unsuccessful games, and GamePass failing to convert casual players while demolishing your take from your hardcore players. Was definitely time for major change at XBOX. Is this the right direction? I have no idea.