Microsoft gaming chief Phil Spencer steps down after 38 years with firm

Microsoft Executive Vice President for Gaming Phil Spencer introduced he’ll retire after 38 years at Microsoft and 12 years main the corporate’s online game efforts. Asha Sharma, an government presently accountable for Microsoft’s CoreAI division, will take his place.

Xbox President Sarah Bond, who many assumed was being groomed as Spencer’s eventual substitute, can also be resigning from the corporate. Current Xbox Studios Head Matt Booty, in the meantime, is being promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer and can work carefully with Sharma.

In his departure note, Spencer mentioned he advised Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella final fall that he was “thinking about stepping back and starting the next chapter of my life.” Spencer will stay at Microsoft “in an advisory role” by way of the summer season to assist Sharma in the course of the transition, he wrote.

Spencer, who received his begin at Microsoft as an intern in 1988, served as a supervisor and government at Microsoft Game Studios in 2003. In 2014, he took over as Head of Xbox, guiding the corporate by way of the aftermath of the troubled, Kinect-bundled launch of the Xbox One. More just lately, he helped shepherd the corporate’s 2020 buy of Bethesda Softworks and its $68.7 billion merger with Activision Blizzard, together with the various regulatory battles that adopted that latter announcement.

Meet the brand new boss

Sharma, who joined Microsoft simply two years in the past after stints at Meta and Instacart, promised in an introductory message to preside over “the return of Xbox,” and a “recommit[ment] to our core fans and players.” That dedication would “start with console which has shaped who we are,” however broaden “across PC, mobile, and cloud,” Sharma wrote.