Microsoft Gaming is shaking up its leadership as a major announcement reveals that Phil Spencer is retiring and Sarah Bond is resigning, with Asha Sharma taking over CEO duties.

After decades under the Microsoft and Xbox banner, Phil Spencer has announced his retirement, and Xbox President Sarah Bond has also resigned from the company. This big executive shakeup sees Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announce today that former CoreAI President Asha Sharma is the new CEO of Microsoft Gaming.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced Phil Spencer’s retirement, saying, “Last year, Phil Spencer made the decision to retire from the company, and since then we’ve been talking about succession planning,” adding, “I want to thank Phil for his extraordinary leadership and partnership.” Phil Spencer started at Microsoft as an intern over 38 years ago and moved into the Head of Xbox role in 2014. One of his biggest contributions to the brand was the Activision Blizzard acquisition in 2022, which saw Microsoft purchase the gaming giant for nearly $69 billion.

It’s rare in life to know when a chapter is closing, but after 38 years at Microsoft, that moment has arrived for me. I’ve made the decision to retire and begin the next chapter of my life. It’s a milestone that’s given me a chance to reflect on the incredible journey I’ve been…

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) February 20, 2026

In the official announcement, Spencer wrote, “Today marks an exciting new chapter for Microsoft Gaming as Asha Sharma steps into the role of CEO, and I want to be the first to welcome her to this incredible team. Working with her over the past several months has given me tremendous confidence. She brings genuine curiosity, clarity and a deep commitment to understanding players, creators, and the decisions that shape our future.”

Sharma isn’t a stranger to working with tech companies, as she has served as the VP of Product and Engineering at Meta before re-joining Microsoft in 2024. In the official announcement, Sharma wrote, “My first job is simple: understand what makes this work and protect it. That starts with three commitments,” declaring great games, the return of Xbox, and the future of play as her main focuses stepping into the role. Sharma added, “As monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop,” promising Microsoft games will “always be art, crafted by humans.”

Welcome to Team Xbox, we're excited about what we'll build together! https://t.co/6jQ4tD5lrr

— Xbox (@Xbox) February 20, 2026

It’s worth mentioning right before being confirmed as Microsoft Gaming CEO, Sharma served as President of CoreAI, a company that uses Microsoft Azure AI Foundry to help develop applications through generative AI implementation. Microsoft Foundry is designed to “Build generative AI applications and AI agents on an enterprise-grade platform,” which deploys generative AI in system development processes.

Xbox has given Spencer his flowers, writing, “Once Team Xbox, always Team Xbox. Thank you for everything Phil,” in a post, commemorating his time at the brand. Spencer is set to remain in an advisory role through the Summer to oversee the smooth handoff of duties to the incoming Microsoft Gaming CEO.

A major shakeup is taking place at the top of Microsoft’s gaming business, as long-time Xbox and Microsoft Gaming boss Phil Spencer is retiring, effective from Monday 23rd February, with current President of Microsoft’s CoreAI, Asha Sharma is set to take over as the new CEO of Microsoft Gaming.

Xbox President Sarah Bond, who was easy to view as Spencer’s eventual successor, has resigned, while Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty is being promoted to Chief Content Officer.

Messages from all (except Bond) have been published by Microsoft. Spencer said that he had been thinking about retiring for a little while, and that this handover has seen him work with his successor for several months now.

“Last fall, I shared with Satya that I was thinking about stepping back and starting the next chapter of my life. From that moment, we aligned on approaching this transition with intention, ensuring stability, and strengthening the foundation we’ve built. Xbox has always been more than a business. It’s a vibrant community of players, creators, and teams who care deeply about what we build and how we build it. And it deserves a thoughtful, deliberate plan for the road ahead.

“Today marks an exciting new chapter for Microsoft Gaming as Asha Sharma steps into the role of CEO, and I want to be the first to welcome her to this incredible team. Working with her over the past several months has given me tremendous confidence. She brings genuine curiosity, clarity and a deep commitment to understanding players, creators, and the decisions that shape our future. We know this is an important moment for our fans, partners, and team, and we’re committed to getting it right. I’ll remain in an advisory role through the summer to support a smooth handoff.”

Sharma might not have been the most obvious choice from the outside, and coming from an AI background will certainly be a cause for concern to many gamers, where generative AI is viewed very negatively.

“My first job is simple: understand what makes this work and protect it. That starts with three commitments. First, great games. Everything begins here. We must have great games beloved by players before we do anything. Unforgettable characters, stories that make us feel, innovative game play, and creative excellence. We will empower our studios, invest in iconic franchises, and back bold new ideas. We will take risks. We will enter new categories and markets where we can add real value, grounded in what players care about most. I promoted Matt Booty in honor of this commitment. He understands the craft and the challenges of building great games, has led teams that deliver award-winning work, and has earned the trust of game developers across the industry.

“Second, the return of Xbox. We will recommit to our core Xbox fans and players, those who have invested with us for the past 25 years, and to the developers who build the expansive universes and experiences that are embraced by players across the world. We will celebrate our roots with a renewed commitment to Xbox starting with console which has shaped who we are. It connects us to the players and fans who invest in Xbox, and to the developers who build ambitious experiences for it.

“Gaming now lives across devices, not within the limits of any single piece of hardware. As we expand across PC, mobile, and cloud, Xbox should feel seamless, instant, and worthy of the communities we serve. We will break down barriers so developers can build once and reach players everywhere without compromise.

“Third, future of play. We are witnessing the reinvention of play. To meet the moment, we will invent new business models and new ways to play by leaning into what we already have: iconic teams, characters, and worlds that people love. But we will not treat those worlds as static IP to milk and monetize. We will build a shared platform and tools that empower developers and players to create and share their own stories.

“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.”

There’s definitely some reassuring sentiments within that, though I would argue that saying your first job is to understand what’s going on makes this sound more of a hurried appointment. We will have to see how much institutional change follows.

Phil Spencer had been at the helm of Microsoft’s gaming efforts for over a decade, taking over in 2014 and setting about steading the suddenly floundering console gaming business. He moved quickly to cut the price of the Xbox One by removing the Kinect from the bundle, made gamer-positive moves like championing backwards compatibility, and enacted major changes to the Xbox business model by promising day-and-date PC releases for Xbox games (and releasing them on Steam), as well as introducing Xbox Game Pass. He also saw Xbox exclusives start to come to PlayStation, breaking down traditional barriers.

However, he’s also been at the helm more recent difficult times for the brand. The Xbox Series X|S launch did not go as successfully as planned, not least with significant game delays for the likes of Halo Infinite, studio acquisitions took a long time to bear fruit, Xbox Game Pass started to see market saturation, and then successive price increases to both consoles and services.

With an eye to the future, now might be the best time for him to step aside, but Xbox as a brand feels somewhat nebulous right now. There’s a lot of rumours about what their next console might be like, whether it’s more PC-like than console and with rival storefronts, or traditional. Microsoft will inevitably be very keen to see AI used in some fashion, having demoed AI helpers with Minecraft in recent years (and that was before the current madness). But with a new CEO all of that could change. We’ll have to wait and see.

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer will retire effective February 23, and Xbox president and chief …

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A major shake-up is happening at Xbox with core leadership – longtime Xbox boss Phil Spencer is retiring amidst news that president Sarah Bond has resigned. Spencer, who started at Microsoft as an intern back in 1988 and has been with Xbox since its launch in 2001, is retiring effective February 23rd. Sarah Bond has […]

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It’s the dawn of a new era for Xbox. On Friday, Microsoft Gaming announced longtime leader Phil Spencer would be retiring as CEO and that Asha Sharma, Microsoft CoreAI’s head of product development, had been named his successor. With Spencer having been a staple in the gaming community for decades, Sharma knows she has some […]

Phil Spencer is retiring as Microsoft Gaming CEO after nearly 40 years with the Xbox owner and 12 years in his current role. He will stay on in an adviser capacity until later in the year. Asha Sharma, most recently president of product development for Microsoft’s CoreAI division, will be replacing Spencer as the new […]

Matt Booty is also getting promoted as Chief Content Officer.

The turbulence at Microsoft's Xbox division continued on Friday, when the company suddenly announced that long-time CEO Phil Spencer and current president Sarah Bond were both leaving (the former is retiring, while the latter is pursuing other career opportunities outside Microsoft). The new CEO of Microsoft Gaming is Asha Sharma, whose appointment is, however, already being questioned by gamers. The 36-year-old executive has no prior experience in the gaming industry; browsing her career, this is actually the second time she's been at Microsoft. She first joined Microsoft in 2011 and worked in the Marketing department for two years, then left […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/new-xbox-ceo-targeted-supposedly-using-ai-bot-x/

[UPDATE #2 - February 23, 2026] Asha Sharma's journey as the new Xbox CEO didn't quite start smoothly: gamers are already accusing her of using an AI bot to respond on X, and they're also skeptical of her gaming chops after noticing she just created her Xbox Gamertag last month. [UPDATE - February 21, 2026]: Following the publication of this article, former Xbox president Sarah Bond has shared her statement she sent internally within Xbox and Microsoft on her personal LinkedIn account. Notably, she mentions that her decision to step away comes at a time when she feels she has […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/microsoft-phil-spencer-retires-sarah-bond-resigns-asha-sharma-takes-over-xbox/

A major shakeup is taking place at the top of Microsoft’s gaming business, as long-time Xbox and Microsoft Gaming boss Phil Spencer is retiring, effective from Monday 23rd February, with current President of Microsoft’s CoreAI, Asha Sharma is set to take over as the new CEO of Microsoft Gaming.

Xbox President Sarah Bond, who was easy to view as Spencer’s eventual successor, has resigned, while Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty is being promoted to Chief Content Officer.

Messages from all (except Bond) have been published by Microsoft. Spencer said that he had been thinking about retiring for a little while, and that this handover has seen him work with his successor for several months now.

“Last fall, I shared with Satya that I was thinking about stepping back and starting the next chapter of my life. From that moment, we aligned on approaching this transition with intention, ensuring stability, and strengthening the foundation we’ve built. Xbox has always been more than a business. It’s a vibrant community of players, creators, and teams who care deeply about what we build and how we build it. And it deserves a thoughtful, deliberate plan for the road ahead.

“Today marks an exciting new chapter for Microsoft Gaming as Asha Sharma steps into the role of CEO, and I want to be the first to welcome her to this incredible team. Working with her over the past several months has given me tremendous confidence. She brings genuine curiosity, clarity and a deep commitment to understanding players, creators, and the decisions that shape our future. We know this is an important moment for our fans, partners, and team, and we’re committed to getting it right. I’ll remain in an advisory role through the summer to support a smooth handoff.”

Sharma might not have been the most obvious choice from the outside, and coming from an AI background will certainly be a cause for concern to many gamers, where generative AI is viewed very negatively.

“My first job is simple: understand what makes this work and protect it. That starts with three commitments. First, great games. Everything begins here. We must have great games beloved by players before we do anything. Unforgettable characters, stories that make us feel, innovative game play, and creative excellence. We will empower our studios, invest in iconic franchises, and back bold new ideas. We will take risks. We will enter new categories and markets where we can add real value, grounded in what players care about most. I promoted Matt Booty in honor of this commitment. He understands the craft and the challenges of building great games, has led teams that deliver award-winning work, and has earned the trust of game developers across the industry.

“Second, the return of Xbox. We will recommit to our core Xbox fans and players, those who have invested with us for the past 25 years, and to the developers who build the expansive universes and experiences that are embraced by players across the world. We will celebrate our roots with a renewed commitment to Xbox starting with console which has shaped who we are. It connects us to the players and fans who invest in Xbox, and to the developers who build ambitious experiences for it.

“Gaming now lives across devices, not within the limits of any single piece of hardware. As we expand across PC, mobile, and cloud, Xbox should feel seamless, instant, and worthy of the communities we serve. We will break down barriers so developers can build once and reach players everywhere without compromise.

“Third, future of play. We are witnessing the reinvention of play. To meet the moment, we will invent new business models and new ways to play by leaning into what we already have: iconic teams, characters, and worlds that people love. But we will not treat those worlds as static IP to milk and monetize. We will build a shared platform and tools that empower developers and players to create and share their own stories.

“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.”

There’s definitely some reassuring sentiments within that, though I would argue that saying your first job is to understand what’s going on makes this sound more of a hurried appointment. We will have to see how much institutional change follows.

Phil Spencer had been at the helm of Microsoft’s gaming efforts for over a decade, taking over in 2014 and setting about steading the suddenly floundering console gaming business. He moved quickly to cut the price of the Xbox One by removing the Kinect from the bundle, made gamer-positive moves like championing backwards compatibility, and enacted major changes to the Xbox business model by promising day-and-date PC releases for Xbox games (and releasing them on Steam), as well as introducing Xbox Game Pass. He also saw Xbox exclusives start to come to PlayStation, breaking down traditional barriers.

However, he’s also been at the helm more recent difficult times for the brand. The Xbox Series X|S launch did not go as successfully as planned, not least with significant game delays for the likes of Halo Infinite, studio acquisitions took a long time to bear fruit, Xbox Game Pass started to see market saturation, and then successive price increases to both consoles and services.

With an eye to the future, now might be the best time for him to step aside, but Xbox as a brand feels somewhat nebulous right now. There’s a lot of rumours about what their next console might be like, whether it’s more PC-like than console and with rival storefronts, or traditional. Microsoft will inevitably be very keen to see AI used in some fashion, having demoed AI helpers with Minecraft in recent years (and that was before the current madness). But with a new CEO all of that could change. We’ll have to wait and see.

Source: Microsoft

After a disastrous series of events dating back to the launch of the Xbox One and repeated entreaties from us to lay off a few high-paid executives instead of thousands of workers, somebody has finally taken the hint: Phil Spencer. The Xbox boss is retiring from his job at Microsoft, a wannabe AI company whose various chunks are precariously held together by increasingly enshittified vestigial tentacles, and being replaced by… the current president of Microsoft’s CoreAI product. It’s unlikely that things will get better from here on out, but it’s not like we’re sad to see Spencer go. 

“Last fall, I shared with Satya [Nadella] that I was thinking about stepping back and starting the next chapter of my life,” Spencer wrote in a memo to staff published today by IGN. “From that moment, we aligned on approaching this transition with intention, ensuring stability, and strengthening the foundation we’ve built. Xbox has always been more than a business. It’s a vibrant community of players, creators, and teams who care deeply about what we build and how we build it. And it deserves a thoughtful, deliberate plan for the road ahead. … I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve built together over the last 25 years, and I have complete confidence in all of you and in the opportunities ahead. I’ll be cheering you on in this next chapter as Xbox’s proudest fan and player.” 

Instead of staying on and assuming Spencer’s role, as many assumed she eventually would, Xbox president Sarah Bond is resigning, which sure is conspicuous! Asha Sharma, who spent years at Instacart and Meta before taking up the aforementioned AI job at Microsoft, promises her appointment somehow won’t lead to more AI slop from a company that seems determined to foist AI on every sector imaginable. 

“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,” Sharma wrote in her own memo to staff, adding that Microsoft plans to “recommit” to Xbox fans and players, but also that Xbox, conceptually, is still kinda, you know, whatever. “Gaming now lives across devices, not within the limits of any single piece of hardware. As we expand across PC, mobile, and cloud, Xbox should feel seamless, instant, and worthy of the communities we serve. We will break down barriers so developers can build once and reach players everywhere without compromise.” 

In his wake Spencer leaves a smouldering swathe of games industry destruction which is not solely his burden to bear – Microsoft employs other execs as well, after all, and also has a board and bloodsucking shareholders to satisfy – but for which he should have suffered significantly more consequences than he did. During Spencer’s tenure, Xbox made a series of ruinously bad bets on everything from console naming schemes to Game Pass uprooting the traditional model of how games are purchased and becoming a bonafide Netflix competitor.

In service of this, the tech behemoth unhinged its rotten maw and swallowed up dozens of video game studios, including all of Activision Blizzard, which cost Microsoft an eye-wateringly gargantuan $68.7 billion. Many studios have since been closed or fallen victim to one of multiple rounds of mass layoffs that ultimately impacted thousands of workers. Resulting brain drain has been immense, and thanks to the actions of Spencer and others at the highest echelons of power at Microsoft and other major companies, the video game industry may never fully recover. Unions, a silver lining of the current Xbox regime, are doing their best, but have frequently found themselves in damage control mode so far.

It might be hard to remember now, but once upon a time, not all that long ago, press and fans ate up Spencer’s smirking “just another average gamer” act, lauding him for putting hundreds of hours into Xbox releases large and small. If nothing else, he was determined to portray himself as a man of the people, proudly announcing that he’d spent the equivalent of 23 work weeks playing games in 2023 alone before dropping to a paltry 17 in 2024. At least now he’ll have more time for his true passion, which is obviously not keeping people gainfully employed.

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Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has announced that he is retiring from the format holder after 38 years as part of a major shakeup at the company that has also seen the departure of Xbox President, Sarah Bond.

Speaking in a post on X, Spencer said that he’s now ready to begin the next chapter of his life, and revealed that former President of CoreAI at Microsoft, Asha Sharma, is going to be taking over his role.

It’s rare in life to know when a chapter is closing, but after 38 years at Microsoft, that moment has arrived for me. I’ve made the decision to retire and begin the next chapter of my life. It’s a milestone that’s given me a chance to reflect on the incredible journey I’ve been fortunate enough to share with so many of you.

I’m excited for@asha_shar as she steps into the CEO role. She’s joining an incredible group of people; teams full of talent, heart, and a deep commitment to the players they serve. Watching her lean in with curiosity and a real desire to strengthen the foundation we’ve built gives me confidence that our Xbox communities will be well supported in the years ahead.

Thinking back to my start as an intern in 1988, I never could have imagined the path ahead. I’ve been lucky to work with so many passionate creators, partners, colleagues, and players across the industry; people who challenged me, taught me, and made this work full of joy and wonder.

Spencer was promoted to CEO of Microsoft Gaming in January 2022, and during the last few years oversaw a number of major developments at the Xbox manufacturer, including the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, as well as Microsoft’s pivot to publishing first-party games in PlayStation and Nintendo hardware.

[Source – Phil Spencer on X]

The post Phil Spencer Announces Retirement From Microsoft After 38 Years: ‘I’ve Made The Decision To Retire And Begin The Next Chapter Of My Life’ appeared first on PlayStation Universe.

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Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond's unexpected departure from Xbox has sparked speculation of a forced exit rather than voluntary retirement, complicating the company's 25th anniversary plans and raising concerns about its future vision.

Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond are leaving Xbox, with Spencer retiring on February 23. Asha Sharma becomes CEO, focusing on great games and innovating play. Concerns linger about their departures.