Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma promised “a renewed commitment to Xbox” when she took over from Phil Spencer in February, and within the months since we have seen some motion on that entrance: A promise to keep away from “soulless AI slop,” the tip of the “this is an Xbox” technique, and most not too long ago, a discount of Game Pass pricing—and the elimination of Call of Duty video games on day one.
Now, due to a joint message from Sharma and newly-installed chief content material officer Matt Booty that was despatched to Xbox staff and subsequently shared publicly, we’ve maybe a tiny little little bit of a greater thought about the place it is all going. Beginning with a reputation change: Microsoft Gaming, which was adopted in 2022 as an overarching title for Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda, Activision. Blizzard, and King, is out, and to interchange it, the previous Xbox title has been introduced again.
That change is definitely famous close to the tip of the put up, following a number of phrases that do not really say rather a lot about Microsoft’s plan for its future in gaming: “Games should bring people together through shared experiences,” and “Xbox will be where the world plays and creates”—the type of empty, rally-the-troops mush that may concurrently make your eyes gloss over and your soul rage. Or possibly that is simply me.
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That part of the memo brings to mind comments made by Google Cloud global director for games Jack Buser, who said in a recent interview that “the only real growth [in games] is coming from Roblox and China.” His proposed solution is to go all-in on AI-powered game dev, which—allowing for conversations about how exactly we define “AI”—I think is a terrible idea. But while Sharma promised to steer clear of “AI slop,” AI in some sense will, inevitably, play a role in the future of Xbox: The memo says Xbox leadership “will reevaluate our approach to exclusivity, windowing, and AI, and share more as we learn and decide.”
And yes, it sounds like games-as-platforms are going to take a more prominent role in Microsoft’s plans as well: An oddly isolated line in the memo states that “our new north star will be daily active players.”
I can’t say the memo gives me any more, or less, hope for a successful future for Xbox than I had yesterday. Microsoft remains the underdog on the console front, and it’s never been able to convert its operating system dominance into success in the world of PC gaming. All that can be turned around, sure, but it will take serious time and effort, at a juncture where Microsoft seems to have its mind on other things: The company also launched an early-retirement buyout program for workers in the present day, the primary within the firm’s historical past, because it continues to concentrate on AI.
Others are extra upbeat about it, although: Industry analyst Mat Piscatella, for one, referred to as the memo “excellent” and stated it units “a strong foundation and a vision for the future.”
This is superb.
The learn on the present market is spot on. The targets are made clear, and the ways laid out.
It’s no assure for achievement, however it does set a powerful basis and a imaginative and prescient for the long run.
information.xbox.com/en-us/2026/0…— @matpiscatella.bsky.social (@matpiscatella.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-04-23T23:56:41.747Z
Whatever your tackle it, at this level it would not appear that Sharma—herself a former AI govt at Microsoft—is kind of the “palliative care doctor who slides Xbox gently into the night,” as unique Xbox co-creator Seamus Blackley predicted when she took over from Spencer. At the very least, Microsoft is making much more noise than you’d fairly anticipate if it was really seeking to pull the plug on Xbox.
The difficulty for now’s that whereas this memo admits that rather a lot’s gone mistaken, it would not have a lot of substance to say about how it will likely be mounted. And with out that, it actually would not say something in any respect.