Microsoft is ‘hitting the reset button’ on its controversial ‘This is an Xbox’ strategy, according to a report by The Verge. The device-agnostic vision led by former Xbox president Sarah Bond now appears to be on its way out. With the 4-year Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer also departing, Microsoft seems to be signaling a return to its gaming roots.
“I want to return to the renegade spirit that built Xbox in the first place,” wrote the newly appointed Microsoft Gaming CEO, Asha Sharma, in an internal memo. An admission that the past few years of spending and layoffs haven’t gone according to plan.
According to The Verge’s sources, Bond was the one pushing for the ‘This is an Xbox’ campaign. Launched in late 2024, the move tried to extend the Xbox brand beyond consoles into cloud, mobile, and, essentially, any device with Wi-Fi. Making everything an Xbox, or able to play Xbox games, in theory.
In practice, hardware revenue has kept declining for three straight years. Meanwhile, internally, the pivot away from console reportedly ‘offended’ many Xbox employees.
The report added that the staff is relieved to see Bond leaving. She is described as ‘tough to work with’ and kicks people out when questioned. Still, most praise her ability to strike partnerships with developers, being a key component during the company’s $68.7 billion Activision-Blizzard acquisition.
Now with both Bond and Phil Spencer out of the picture, it seems Microsoft has zero plan to push toward making everything an Xbox. And neither does Asha Sharma.
Previously the Microsoft’s CoreAI president with experience at Meta and Instacart, Sharma doesn’t come from a traditional gaming background. That alone has reportedly sparked concern among employees that Xbox could lean even harder into generative AI. However, she addressed that directly in her memo:
“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.”
She closed her memo with a rallying cry for the next era of Xbox. “The next 25 years belong to the teams who dare to build something surprising […] We have done this before, and I am here to help us do it again.”
Whether Sharma can successfully steer Xbox back to growth remains to be seen. If she delivers on that promise, perhaps, the Steve Jobs comparisons won’t sound so far-fetched.
