In an interview, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and CCO Matt Booty clarify previous statements made by the CEO, saying the company wants to bring back its spirit, and it starts with the console.

In case you haven’t heard, Xbox has a new CEO, and fans haven’t exactly been all too pleased about it. With the surprise retirement of Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond out at Xbox, former CoreAI CEO Asha Sharma has taken over the reins at Microsoft Gaming, with Matt Booty serving as CCO. Today, the new heads of Microsoft Gaming sat down with Windows Central for an interview to shed light on their future plans for Xbox and discuss their efforts to return the gaming juggernaut to form.

In her opening letter, signing on as CEO, Asha Sharma explained she wanted to bring about a “return” to Xbox. She clarifies what she meant by that statement, saying it’s “about returning to the spirit that the team was founded on,” adding, “It’s that spirit of surprise, it’s the spirit of building something nobody else was willing to try — I’ve heard ‘renegade,’ ‘rebellion,’ and ‘fun’ used. That’s what I was thinking about when I wrote that.”

She explained that she knows how long the dedicated fans have been on their platform, and she’s committed to meeting them where they are, starting with the console. This is far different from the previous “Every screen is an Xbox” strategy touted in February 2024. Sharma explains the company wants to reduce this friction (and the “artificial divide” fans have had between devices touted as the console) since then. They’re committed to breaking this divide and starting with the fans; the company plans to go from there. With regards to 25 years of gaming history, Sharma is looking towards “lifetime value, not just what happened in a previous moment.”

She continues, “players have thousands of dollars invested, in money and time too — it’s incredibly important for me to understand that and protect that,” adding, “I am committed to ‘returning to Xbox,’ and that starts with console, that starts with hardware. You will hear more about that soon,” confirming the company’s commitment to the home platform it started as. New hardware is still in the works.

On the topic of AI, CCO Matt Booty confirmed, “We’ve got no pressure from Microsoft; there are no directives on AI coming down. Our teams are free to use any technologies that might be beneficial, whether it’s helping write code, checking for bugs, or working on more production pipeline tasks. At the end of the day, as Asha said, we’re committed to art made by people,” saying the usage of AI in Microsoft’s ecosystem is for AI to be additive and supportive and not replace people. Sharma also said in the interview, “I will not flood our ecosystem with slop,” in regard to her previous role as a CoreAI executive.

Ultimately, the Xbox executives say they mainly want what the fans want: the next 25 years at Xbox to be incredible. With a sign off, Sharma says, “This team has brought it back before, and I’m here to help us do it again.”

Xbox fans will have to wait and see if the team behind the console will meet them “where they are.”

Fans have already stormed social media to complain about the new Microsoft Gaming (Xbox also) CEO, Asha Sharma, and she has been replying without using AI.

It has been only four days since the executive shake-up at Microsoft, and fans have really let their feelings be known online. Asha Sharma revealed herself on X (formerly Twitter), announced her official Gamer Tag on the platform, wrote a few posts to start a conversation about “Top 3 greatest games ever? Why? GO,” and then went silent after those conversations (not before agreeing to play Borderlands 2).

Xbox fans took this opportunity to pile on the Microsoft hire, citing her prior status as a CoreAI CEO and her lack of experience with the platform as reasons she isn’t fit for the role. Today, the CEO returned to the platform to respond to IGN‘s Ryan McCaffrey.

On the notion of ‘faking it’ as a gamer, Sharma wrote, “I created it recently to learn and understand this world. I’ve played with my family, and it’s a shared home account across devices (which you can see in the range of games /achievements). Fixed that this weekend, and everyone is only playing on their own GTs. But I get where this is coming from. I don’t pretend to be the best gamer, and even though I’m playing, that’s still not my goal. My focus is to make Xbox the best place to play, return to our roots, ship great things, and become stronger for the future,” signing off with “yes, I’m writing my own posts :)”.

Previously, Sharma’s conversational replies were meant to test the waters and try to find common ground with Xbox gamers, even including her own Gamer Tag in one of them. Her original post asked what everyone’s favourite games were, and when someone replied that Crackdown 3 was a favourite, Sharma blasted the whole community with, “I’m listening!” Sharma also shared her own favourite titles, saying, “For me it’s Halo, Valheim, Goldeneye,” which fans responded to in kind. Fans in the replies are still very cautious due to Sharma’s previous work as CEO of CoreAI, a generative AI company focused on developing applications through generative AI.

While it appears the new Xbox CEO (or Microsoft Gaming CEO) has her work already cut out for her, she is trying to embrace the community fostered at Microsoft, for better or worse. Oh, and she’s also letting everyone know she’s writing her own replies, even if they read like “Beep Boop Beep Boop.”

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.

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.”

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.

Ubisoft are laying off around 40 people at Ubisoft Toronto, the studio behind the forthcoming remake of the original Splinter Cell. That’s approximately eight percent of the studio headcount. It’s all in the service of Ubisoft’s drive to cut costs after restructuring their operations around a big dollop of Tencent funding, which has elsewhere seen Ubisoft propose to lay off up to 200 people in Paris, and chop fixed costs by €200 million over the next two years.

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His many personal faults notwithstanding, H.P. Lovecraft’s writings continue to cast a profound shadow over the horror genre. While his own views were reprehensible (even by the standard of his time) the continuing fascination with cosmic horror can be seen across many media. Big Bad Wolf are the latest developers to take influence from this mythos in their upcoming horror adventure game Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss, but have moved away from the beaches of Innsmouth and out to sea to take advantage of the thalassophobia (fear of deep water) that underlines much of Lovecraft’s work.

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss begins in 2053 with you playing as Noah, an investigator charged with following the trail of a missing colleague who finds that an occult cosmic threat is spreading across the world. His investigations lead him to a mining facility located deep within the Pacific Ocean wherein he discovers that the missing miners have stumbled upon a passage to R’lyeh. So far, so Lovecraftian, and I was impressed by how well the content I played in the preview build slotted into the wider Mythos whilst also maintaining an identity of its own.

The Cosmic Abyss is played out through a first-person perspective, but this is no action shooter and combat plays no real role in this game. There were no direct engagements with enemies during the section I got to play, though there was still plenty of threat and dread. The full version promises some confrontations with unknown horrors that will require quickness of thought rather than trigger finger to survive. This fits perfectly with cosmic horror as no small part of the terror comes from your insignificance in the face of the unknowable.

With no combat to speak of, the gameplay mechanics instead revolve around investigation and puzzle solving, with a focus on a mind palace method of connecting clues that is reminiscent of Frogwares’ Sherlock Holmes games. In order to interact with the environment you can call on your AI companion, Key, who can scan, assess, and record the information that you acquire. This digital compendium can be called up in order to make connections between clues and objects that you scan, reveal deeper insights and even give you the direct solution to riddles.

The Unreal Engine 5 powered graphics are breathtaking at times, with the scale of the underwater environment being overwhelming. Relatively early on you have to venture outside of the submersed facility to explore a mysterious labyrinth and even though there was no pressure of oxygen limits in place I found the whole section almost unbearably tense. This wasn’t helped by my stubbornness in trying to brute force my way through when a more direct route via further investigations was the more efficient solution.

Major puzzles and obstacles in the world of The Cosmic Abyss will often have more than one solution with the main division between each being the effect they have on your sanity. Leaning into the world of R’lyeh for answers will drive you further into madness whereas presumably more rational and scientific solutions will help keep you sane. This mechanic was hinted at in the preview but I look forward to seeing its full effects in the full game.

As is often the case with early preview builds, there were a few small bugs and glitches, but these were refreshingly infrequent with the game just a couple months from release in April. One that took me a while to work out was that the controls would occasionally revert to AZERTY (to match the Big Bad Wolf’s keyboards as a French studio) so I couldn’t move forward. For a while I thought this was a deliberate effect in keeping with the classic Eternal Darkness’ manipulation of your controls, but checking with the team, it became clear that this was just a bug. Rebranding it as a feature wouldn’t be the worst idea, though!

The world of Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss has certainly got its claws into me and I’m eagerly awaiting getting stuck into the full version when it launches in April. What I’ve seen so far promises a twisting and tense narrative that will challenge the grey cells rather than the trigger fingers and, as such, should be a truly cosmic horror experience.

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

Coming up on a decade since the debut of Transport Fever, Urban Games have figured a few things out about their transport simulation series. Years of post-launch support, added features and working with their community is leading to their most ambitious game yet, when Transport Fever 3 launches this year.

Sticking with their in-house game engine, they’re able to roll a bunch of features and ideals from where Transport Fever 2 has ended up into Transport Fever 3 on day one. That means that this will be a fully synchronous release across PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, when TF2 rolled into the console station a few years after PC, and it also means that cross-platform modding, which was only added to TF2 in 2024, will also be there on day one.

If you’re in it for the economic simulation, then Transport Fever 3 promises even greater depths than before. There’s over a century of transportation history here, starting in 1900 with the city, buildings and cars you see all changing and evolving as you carry on through to 2030. That means there’s over 290 vehicles, ranging from buses and trucks, through ships, planes, trains and even new cargo trams and helicopters. Cargo trams are a particularly interesting one, having been used in Eastern Europe to bring cargo into city centres instead of noisy, smelly trucks – something you’ll need to keep tabs on now, as every citizen in the map is fully simulated with places to work, shop and live, and their happiness will depend on pollution, noise levels and traffic jams.

And you’ll have a fresh appreciation for cargo in this game, as there are now 35 cargo types and it is now no longer handled automatically. If TF2 was all about money, then in TF3 it’s just one of many things to manage.

All of this will add new depths to the transport simulation sandbox, but TF3 will lean further into the tycoon gameplay and story objectives to overcome through a campaign of eight maps. Each one picks a particular period in history and takes inspiration from real events, using these missions as a way to introduce new concepts and keep things varied – there could be competition against an AI, a countdown mission with a timer, and more.

We sampled two of the levels, first heading to Mardi Gras in 1906, but finding that the city has been partially flooded and ruined by a storm. This is purely a narrative conceit here – while this game now has a day/night cycle and weather effects, they are purely cosmetic so as not to add crazy variables to the simulation – but it means that Mayor LaFontaine, the helpful Andrew and Miss Baker are banding together to rescue this year’s festival. LaFontaine wants a new hotel, while Miss Baker pushes him and you to help represent the black community and less wealthy, and Andrew’s just happy to be helpful.

Setting up transport routes, repairing roads and bridges and shuffling the good around that each objective needs gradually gets you used to the user interface, though it’s initially a little unclear how to go about certain tasks. I accidentally clicked through and sold off a couple horse and carts when cancelling an unneeded line, instead of having them sent back to the depot, and when I wanted a ship to go between collecting fish and shrimp, returning to dock between each, it took me a moment to realise I couldn’t drag the stops into a different order and had to set things up a different way.

But with Mardi Gras rescued, I could turn my attention to another festival in need, some sixty years later, with a somewhat legally distinct rendition of Woodstock. Now it’s a local sheriff and an enthusiastic rock organiser who will have to put aside any of the very surface level differences to make this a success, oh and Andrew’s still there to help out, though he’s now a bit of an old-timer.

The objectives have grown in scale by this point, so you need a bunch more wood to construct the stage, and the growing encampment needs plenty of food (and veggie food too, please) which is over on the other end of the map. Do you just get a truck to drive it across, or use the port nearby to ship it to the nearest town for trucks to pick up? It all builds up to a festival that’s as successful as you can make it accommodate people.

I feel that these narrative missions and tycoon gameplay will really help make Transport Fever 3 more accessible. I often find myself at a bit of a loose end when simply presented with a sandbox, so while that absolutely remains, having both a way to ease players into the simulation, and to give objectives in an intelligent way that keeps you more engaged will be great.

You probably know Milestone best for their long lineup of motorcycle racing games, from MotoGP through Ride and on to Motocross, but that’s not where the studio started. No, the studio’s big break came in 1995 with the arcade-style racing game Screamer, which went toe-to-toe with Ridge Racer as a PC alternative. Over a trio of games in the 90s, the series drifted towards more rally racing, before petering out at another studio, but now in 2026? Screamer’s back, and it’s a refreshing new take on the arcade street racer.

The immediate and most obvious shift from the 90s is that the graphics are so very different. Obviously, they are massively higher fidelity, there’s none of the early 3D polygon wibble, and the gameplay is built around more nuanced physics and handling models… but the art direction has shifted towards anime cutscenes, and there’s a drama-filled story to sink into alongside.

Michele Caletti Creative and Development Director discussed the game’s blend of visual styles: “We took inspiration from things like Akira, from Ghost in the Shell, from Bubblegum Crisis, from Cyber City Oedo, from Cowboy Bebop, and many more, but one of the things that we had to take a very strong decision was not to make the game cel shaded.

It would have been the easy choice – 
It’s an anime, so you make the game cel shaded – but if you do so, you have to oversimplify some details, you cannot go into fine details with cel shading. So the art direction was bold enough to try to blend the anime and the realistic or quite realistic rendition of the world. And then take some other moves like that there’s not onlythe city setting, there are many other settings that try to portray a different but familiar world.”

You know it’s anime sci-fi when you have a dog that can drive a car.

The Tournament is a long-running illegal street racing competition, but this latest edition is for a huge $1 billion prize, drawing in teams from all kinds of backgrounds. For the Banshee PMC, Hiroshi, Roisin and Frederick are looking for revenge on Anaconda Corp and their distinctly fascist-coded leader, Gabriel. The best way to get close is to enter the same tournament, with the possibility that Gabriel’s demise could be made to look like an accident… But it’s also a story that won’t take itself too seriously. I mean, there’s a dog that can drive a car, and whose owner has fitted it with the same universal translator that everyone else uses to communicate using their native tongues – “This is another choice that we made early,” Michele said, “because we wanted to have cultural melting pot of different characters, of different ethnicities and this was important to convey the fact that in this near future the culture is something like what we have today, but even more diverse, even more varied.”

They won’t be the only team that you race as, though, with five teams competing and the story hopping back and forth, putting you in control of various racers, cars and their specific abilities. Even in the opening few story chapters, there’s races where you just need to finish, where you’re driving as a team, where you’re regularly jumping via cutscenes between different cars.

“We wanted to go away from the pure racing focus and jargon and dialogue and always thinking, always about [winning].” Michele explained. “So you see the characters are not even dressed like drivers, because they are something else, then they are drivers. So their goal is to win, yes, but everyone has also another goal. So you will see that during the story, they’re focus shifts towards their inner goal. Then you’ll be playing in the role of all the characters of the game. So everyone has the goal to be first, yes, but from different perspectives.”

What’s particularly striking about the racing is how it reimagines the controls. The right and left trigger make you go and stop, of course, and the left stick is for turning, but drifting is on the right stick, you have a timing minigame for upshifts to give you boost charges, and those feed into a bull-rushing attack to destroy other competitor cars.

It’s quite a lot to get a handle on, and the way you can counter-steer while drifting felt a bit like rubbing my head and patting my tummy at the same time, so it makes sense that the story mode adds these concepts one at a time. When you wrap that around the mix of lavishly produced anime cutscenes and the character portrait dialogue scenes, though, that does lead to a pretty slow feeling rollout over the course of the opening hour or two. I was really waiting for it to give me all of the gadgets and toys to play with.

Michele admitted “The story takes you that slowly, yeah. It takes hours to get to all the mechanics in place, and the point is, you’re never thrown multiple things together to you.”

He continued, “We thought and we discussed a lot about how to lay out the default controls, how to favour the most intricate actions, because you might want to do strange stuff and we want to allow you to do so. I think we’ve reached the balance where it’s not overwhelming. Give yourself some time to get into the mechanics and it’s not about much about the fingers, but the strategy in order to understand and being in control of when to do things, not to overuse the systems.”

The macguffin that makes all of this possible is the ECHO, a device fitted to each and every car like a super sci-fi MGU-K from Formula 1. Fitted by Gage on behalf of the tournament’s enigmatic host Mr. A, it gradually accumulates Sync, both passively over time and when tapping the Active Shift to shift up a gear in time with the rev limiter – don’t worry, it’s still an arcade game and you won’t be asked to downshift at all. This builds up to grant you boost charges, which you can then deploy, and even strengthen by holding and releasing with another mini timing challenge.

As you Boost, this takes that energy and transfers it over to the second meter of the ECHO device, building up Entropy. This gives you charges to use defensively, to create a temporary shield for a few moments, or to unleash as a Strike, boosting forward again and destroying any car that you hit from behind. Save up the Entropy to fill out the meter, and you can enter into Overdrive, putting you in a much longer-lasting Strike boost that can blast multiple rivals into smithereens, and eventually leaves you vulnerable to destruction just from hitting a wall. You can technically outlast the Overdrive, but I would explode my car every time…

That’s where the ECHO’s final trick comes in, as destruction just respawns your car and body, and gets you racing again. There’s no moral quandary over whether or not this new car and person is the same as the one that died – Milestone seem to be leaving that philosophical debate to the Ship of Theseus and the Star Trek teleporter – and instead it’s just a canny way of keeping the action rampaging along.

“We didn’t want to have this pattern of side-striking the cars,” Michele said. “We tried different things like because the hot part is that it’s easy to strike on a straight, it’s harder to strike into a corner, so the more the intricate the trucks, the more it’s complicated to strike. But we experimented with many things like a semi-automatic strike that drives you toward your opponent, but it didn’t work. We tried something like a seeking missile, but it didn’t work. So we ended up with this where you’re still in control, so you if you hit, you feel like you’ve done it. If you miss, you understand what you have done wrong.”

It all blends into a rather unique take on the arcade racer. Combat is direct and to the point, with just the Strike as your only option for attack – no side-swiping and no missiles or energy abilities like in Wipeout or Blur – and there’s a technical depth to master with the drifting and boost timing, not to mention juggling energy.

In one race, I was able to break away in the lead, conserving my boosts in a way that meant I couldn’t be caught, but it felt much more likely to be caught in the middle of the pack and really have to scrap and fight. That ties in very well with the team race mode, with duos or trios battling for victory. This isn’t about the first across the line, and it’s not even just the combined finishing positions that determine the winning team, as every KO also awards points, so that the highest-placed racer might have finished eighth and outscore the winner that didn’t have a single KO to their name.

After adapting to its style of racing, Screamer really started to speak to me. I’m definitely curious to see how the game will blend together its anime narrative and single-player racing scenarios, but that combination of racing and combat? Well, it makes perfect sense for anyone who watched the F1 movie.

Microsoft has announced that Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer will retire on February 23. Additionally, Xbox President and Chief Operating Officer Sarah Bond has resigned. Spencer will be replaced by the current president of Microsoft’s CoreAI product as Microsoft Gaming CEO. Current Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty will be promoted to executive vice president and chief content officer. “Last fall, I shared with Satya that I was thinking about stepping back and starting the next chapter of my life,” Spencer said in his official departure memo. “From that moment, we aligned on approaching this transition with intention, ensuring stability, and strengthening the foundation we’ve built.”

The full memo from each member follows from Microsoft:

SATYA NADELLA MESSAGE
Gaming has been part of Microsoft from the start. Flight Simulator shipped before Windows, and you can practically ray‑trace a line from DirectX in the ’90s to the accelerated‑compute era we’re in today.

As we celebrate Xbox’s 25th year, the opportunity and innovation agenda in front of us is expansive. Today we reach over 500 million monthly active users, are a top publisher across all platforms, and continue to innovate across gaming hardware, content, and community, in service of creators and players everywhere.

I am long on gaming and its role at the center of our consumer ambition, and as we look ahead, I’m excited to share that Asha Sharma will become Executive Vice President and CEO, Microsoft Gaming, reporting to me. Over the last two years at Microsoft, and previously as Chief Operating Officer at Instacart and a Vice President at Meta, Asha has helped build and scale services that reach billions of people and support thriving consumer and developer ecosystems. She brings deep experience building and growing platforms, aligning business models to long-term value, and operating at global scale, which will be critical in leading our gaming business into its next era of growth.

Matt Booty will become Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer, reporting to Asha. Matt’s career reflects a lifelong commitment to games and to the people who make them. Under his leadership, Microsoft Gaming has grown to span nearly 40 studios across Xbox, Bethesda, Activision Blizzard, and King, which are home to beloved franchises including Halo, The Elder Scrolls, Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Candy Crush, and Fallout.

Together, Asha and Matt have the right combination of consumer product leadership and gaming depth to push our platform innovation and content pipeline forward. Last year, Phil Spencer made the decision to retire from the company, and since then we’ve been talking about succession planning. I want to thank Phil for his extraordinary leadership and partnership. Over 38 years at Microsoft, including 12 years leading Gaming, Phil helped transform what we do and how we do it. He expanded our reach across PC, mobile, and cloud; nearly tripled the size of the business; helped shape our strategy through the acquisitions of Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax, and Minecraft; and strengthened our culture across our studios and platforms. I’ve long admired Phil’s unwavering commitment to players, creators, and his team, and I am personally grateful for his leadership and counsel. He will continue working closely with Asha to ensure a smooth transition.

We have extraordinary creative talent across our studios and a global platform that is second to none. I’m excited for how we will capture the opportunity ahead and define what comes next, while staying grounded in what players and creators value.

Please join me in congratulating Asha and Matt on their new roles, and in thanking Phil for everything he has done for Microsoft and for our industry.

PHIL SPENCER MESSAGE
When I walked through Microsoft’s doors as an intern in June of 1988, I could never have imagined the products I’d help build, the players and customers we’d serve, or the extraordinary teams I’d be lucky enough to join. It’s been an epic ride and truly the privilege of a lifetime.

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.

I’m also grateful for the strength of our studios organization. Matt Booty and our studios teams continue to build an incredible portfolio, and I have full confidence in the leadership and creative momentum across our global studios. I want to congratulate Matt on his promotion to EVP and Chief Content Officer.

As part of this transition, Sarah Bond has decided to leave Microsoft to begin a new chapter. Sarah has been instrumental during a defining period for Xbox, shaping our platform strategy, expanding Game Pass and cloud gaming, supporting new hardware launches, and guiding some of the most significant moments in our history. I’m grateful for her partnership and the impact she’s had, and I wish her the very best in what comes next.

Most of all, to everyone in Microsoft Gaming, I want to say “thank you.” I’ve learned so much from this team and community, grown alongside you, and been continually inspired by the creativity, courage, and care you bring to players, creators, and to one another every day.

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.

Phil

XBL: P3

ASHA SHARMA MESSAGE
Dear team,

Today I begin my role as CEO of Microsoft Gaming.

I feel two things at once: humility and urgency.

Humility because this team has built something extraordinary over decades. Urgency because gaming is in a period of rapid change, and we need to move with clarity and conviction.

I am stepping into work shaped by generations of artists, engineers, designers, writers, musicians, operators and more who create worlds that have brought joy and deep personal meaning to hundreds of millions of players. The level of craft here is exceptional, and it is amplified by Xbox, which was founded in the belief that the power of games connects people and pushes the industry forward.

Thank you to Phil for his leadership, and to every studio, platform, and operations team that built this foundation. We are stewards of some of the most loved stories and characters in entertainment and bring players and creators together around the fun and community of gaming in entirely new ways.

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.

The next 25 years belong to the teams who dare to build something surprising, something no one else is willing to try, and have the patience to see it through. We have done this before, and I am here to help us do it again. I want to return to the renegade spirit that built Xbox in the first place. It will require us to relentlessly question everything, revisit processes, protect what works, and be brave enough to change what does not.

Thank you for welcoming me into this journey.

Asha

MATT BOOTY MESSAGE
I read Phil’s note with much gratitude. He has been a steady champion for game creators and our studio teams, and I’ve learned so much from his leadership over the years. All our games have benefited from his foundational support. I’m also grateful to Satya for his ongoing commitment to gaming and holding a vision of how it can connect back to the larger company.

Looking forward, I’m excited to partner with Asha as our next CEO. Our first conversations centered on her commitment to making great games and the role that plays in our overall success. She asks questions, pushes for clarity, and wants our choices grounded in player and developer needs. That mindset matters as the industry around us is changing quickly: how players engage, how games are made, and how business models and platforms evolve.

We have good reasons to believe in what’s ahead. This organization and its franchises have navigated change for decades, and our strength comes from teams who know how to adapt and keep delivering. That confidence is grounded in a strong pipeline of established franchises, new bets we believe in, and clear player demand for what we are building.

My focus is on supporting the teams and leaders we have in place and creating the conditions for them to do their best work. To be clear, there are no organizational changes underway for our studios.

Thanks for everything you do for players and for each other.

Matt

Bond shared her full memo to her Xbox team on LinkedIn.

“Hi team,

I know there’s a lot of news to take in today.

I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve built together over the past eight-plus years. PC and cloud gaming are growing faster than ever, our next console is well underway, and together we’ve helped lay the foundation for a more open gaming platform that spans devices and reaches players around the world.

When we announced our intention to acquire Activision Blizzard in 2022, I committed to helping lead Xbox through what would be a critical period of change. Over the past four years, we’ve navigated that moment together and positioned the business for what comes next. We took on some of the biggest challenges this organization has ever faced and did it as one team.

With that, I’ve decided this is the right time for me to take my next step, both personally and professionally. We’re living through a transformative technological era that will shape the next generation of our industry, and I’m energized by what’s ahead. This moment also presents a unique opportunity for fresh eyes and new leadership to guide the team into its next chapter. I’ve had the privilege of spending time with Asha over the last few weeks as we’ve planned for this transition, and I’ve seen firsthand her deep commitment to our players, developers, and brand. She brings deep technology and commerce experience, along with a strong track record of building and scaling platforms that the world uses. Xbox deserves this. I’m excited to see her lead this next chapter for our team. I’ll remain on as a Special Advisor to Asha to help ensure a smooth transition and set the organization up for continued success.

I want to thank Phil for his mentorship and friendship over the years. He’s been a consistent champion of this business and the people who make it what it is, and I’ve learned a great deal from the way he leads through both opportunity and challenge. I’m grateful for his trust and support throughout my time on the team. I also want to thank Satya for his sponsorship and support throughout my time at Microsoft.

As I prepare to sign off, I’ve been reflecting on three simple questions I’ve tried to use to guide my days:

Did I bring my best?
Did I help someone else succeed?
Did I do my best work?

I hope the answer has been yes for many of you. It’s been a privilege to work alongside this team.

Always,
Sarah”

The post Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer Has Retired, Xbox President Sarah Bond Resigns appeared first on Gaming Instincts - Next-Generation of Video Game Journalism.

There are moments in the games industry that feel seismic, and today is quite possibly one of them.

The post Microsoft Gaming and Xbox Enters A New Era As Phil Spencer Announces Retirement appeared first on TheXboxHub.

The future has come early for Microsoft with some major changes to Xbox leadership. Phil Spencer is retiring, to be replaced by Asha Sharma as Microsoft Gaming CEO. Meanwhile, Matt Booty is now Chief Content Officer. However, the most surprising development is that Sarah Bond resigned from the company.

Given her role as Xbox President, she was earmarked to succeed Spencer when the time was right. So what made her suddenly leave? In a new post on LinkedIn, Bond said she believed it was “the right time for me to take my next step, both personally and professionally.”

“I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve built together over the past eight-plus years. PC and cloud gaming are growing faster than ever, our next console is well underway, and together we’ve helped lay the foundation for a more open gaming platform that spans devices and reaches players around the world.

“When we announced our intention to acquire Activision Blizzard in 2022, I committed to helping lead Xbox through what would be a critical period of change. Over the past four years, we’ve navigated that moment together and positioned the business for what comes next. We took on some of the biggest challenges this organization has ever faced and did it as one team.

“With that, I’ve decided this is the right time for me to take my next step, both personally and professionally. We’re living through a transformative technological era that will shape the next generation of our industry, and I’m energized by what’s ahead.”

Aside from talking about “fresh eyes and new leadership” for the company’s “next chapter,” Bond also regarded Sharma highly. “I’ve had the privilege of spending time with Asha over the last few weeks as we’ve planned for this transition, and I’ve seen firsthand her deep commitment to our players, developers, and brand. She brings deep technology and commerce experience, along with a strong track record of building and scaling platforms that the world uses. Xbox deserves this. I’m excited to see her lead this next chapter for our team.” It’s worth noting that she presently remains as a Special Advisor to ensure a “smooth transition and set the organization up for continued success.”

Bond went on to thank Spencer “for his mentorship and friendship over the years. He’s been a consistent champion of this business and the people who make it what it is, and I’ve learned a great deal from the way he leads through both opportunity and challenge. I’m grateful for his trust and support throughout my time on the team.” Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, also received a nod for “his sponsorship and support throughout my time.”

She reflected on her legacy, boiling it down to “three simple questions I’ve tried to use to guide my days: Did I bring my best? Did I help someone else succeed? Did I do my best work? I hope the answer has been yes for many of you. It’s been a privilege to work alongside this team.”

Joining Microsoft in 2017, Bond began as a corporate VP at Xbox, in charge of gaming business development and partnerships. She would then work on the game creator experience and ecosystem before being promoted in 2023 to president of Xbox. Previous experience includes McKinsey and Company and T-Mobile, and she’s also currently part of the Entertainment Software Association’s board.

Despite the massive shift in leadership, Booty assured that there wouldn’t be changes to the organizational structure of Xbox’s studios. As for what’s next for Bond, time will tell, so stay tuned.

Source

To the surprise of absolutely nobody at all, the gaming community reacted with hostility when Phil Spencer retired from Microsoft Gaming and previous CoreAI president Asha Sharma took his place as CEO.

There were a ton of mentions of her race and gender on X (formerly Twitter), which I feel is pretty irrelevant to what’s happening. Others, however, felt angrier about Sharma’s background (probably subconsciously fueled by the first two things, but I digress). Not only was she leading Microsoft’s CoreAI department but hasn’t really had a lot of experience in the gaming side of things.

A lot of people frustrated with the news pointed out how the CEO of Microsoft Gaming should have more experience with, well, gaming.

Did Sharma ever play any video games?

Before working at Microsoft, Sharma was the Chief Operating Officer at Instacart and Vice President of Meta. During her two years at Microsoft, she was president of CoreAI.

Microsoft described this role as:

She oversees the teams and technologies that power AI across Microsoft and its enterprise comapnies, spanning critical infrastructure, foundation models, and end-to-end toolchains for building, managing, and deploying AI.

As if the fear of Microsoft’s consoles and games implementing more AI wasn’t enough, there is no gaming in this portfolio. Sharma’s lack of gaming industry experience has made her new role as CEO of Microsoft Gaming a bit puzzling for some gamers.

Some even started digging into her background with gaming a bit more — or should we say her lack of gaming background. According to one X account, Sharma seemingly started playing on Xbox one month ago. In that month, Sharma — or whoever is using the account — played 29 games. The lack of achievements left some players feeling like she may not be into gaming as much as she previously said she was when she announced her new position.

Some also noticed that those 29 games only included one title from her allegedly three favorite games: Halo, Valheim, and Goldeneye.

One gamer tweeted: “All of this is just so fake. It’s a PR campaign to make her look like a young female version of Phil Spencer.” Another simply said she was trying too hard to “pander to gamers” on social media and with this new, questionable account.

Some people did point out, however, that her gamerscore doesn’t really matter, especially as the CEO of a company. Others added that she still has somehow played more games than other leaders and CEOs in the gaming industry, even with this small amount of performative gaming on this public account.

Do I think that gamers are digging deeper into her “fake gamer” status due to her gender and race? Partially. Do I think that it actually matters that she doesn’t have any background in gaming? Yeah, but only time will tell if she truly is the rigiht fit for the role.

It’s not like Spencer was doing anything that great, unless you like seeing Xbox prices increase.

The post Xbox players are accusing Microsoft CEO Asha Sharma of being a fake gamer appeared first on The Escapist.

It’s safe to say Xbox isn’t doing well right now. With dwindling sales and desperate price hikes, the console wars could be coming to an end soon. Amid the decline of Xbox, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has announced his retirement.

“It’s rare in life to know when a chapter is closing, but after 38 years at Microsoft, that moment has arrived for me,” Spencer tweeted on February 20th. “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.”

Spencer started working as an intern at Microsoft back in 1988, initially developing early CD-ROM games. In 1994, he moved to the Desktop Finance Division as a manager for Microsoft Money. He pivoted to a product unit manager role in Consumer Productivity in 1999. He worked as General Manager of Microsoft Game Studios EMEA for a while before he became the general manager of Microsoft Studios worldwide in 2008. A year later, he was Corporate Vice President.

In recent years, he led Xbox through multiple console launches, acquired a bunch of game studios, created the business model behind the Xbox Game Pass, and then Xbox Cloud Gaming,

He tweeted of his journey: “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.”

This is gaming we’re talking about, however, so you can definitely expect to see very mixed reactions on social media. While gamers acknowledged all of the work he’s done, many felt his console launches were failures and blamed him for studio closures and increased prices. One angry gamer even said: “I wish you left sooner.”

While Spencer is not winning any medals in my book, I think it’s about to get even worse.

New Microsoft CEO wants to keep up with “rapid change” but not use “AI slop”

Spencer’s position as Microsoft Gaming CEO is being filled by Asha Sharma. She joined Microsoft in 2024 and was the President of CoreAI before taking the CEO position. Before that, she was Chief Operating Officer at Instacart and Vice President of Product and Engineering at Meta.

Said Spencer: “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.”

In a letter, strangely shared by Geoff Keighley (is he being paid by Microsoft now, too?), Sharma said she felt “humility and urgency” after taking her new role as CEO: “Humility because this team has built something extraordinary over decades. Urgency because gaming is in a period of rapid change, and we need to move with clarity and conviction.”

Of course, gaming skeptics took this to mean she was implementing much more AI as the technology becomes more prominent in the industry. It’s not a far-fetched accusation after learning of Sharma’s history with AI. It’s not like Xbox has never used AI before.

She did, however, say she was focused on making great games and bringing Xbox back to its core. She said she wants to take risks and encourage “bold ideas” from studios, all with the intention of giving players “what they care about.”

This was followed by saying she wants to “reinvent” play, another statement that had gamers suspicious. She wrote: “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.”

It’s strange that someone who works in AI would call it “slop,” but I take this to mean that they will use AI, just not in a lazy, unappealing way. I think some gamers would be even more critical than that.

It’s much too early to truly know how Sharma plans to lead Microsoft going forward. It’s going to be tough for her to turn around what Spencer has already done for the past few decades, and he may have left her with some pretty tough challenges. Can AI solve some of these issues? Will she truly avoid “AI slop?” Only time will tell.

But I think Xbox would be screwed either way.

The post Players concerned that Xbox may pivot to more AI as Phil Spencer retires appeared first on The Escapist.

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• Category: ID@Xbox

February 20, 2026

Backrooms Level X – A Liminal Horror Descent into the Infinite Void

• johns

Summary

• Out now for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One.
• Inside the creative process behind Firenut’s handcrafted liminal horrors.
• Expanded dual levels boost replayability through art and code mastery.

No-clip into the abyss. Backrooms Level X, Firenut Games’ chilling take on liminal horror, arrives on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One on February 19, 2026. At the heart of this infinite nightmare is lead developer Jose Manuel Conesa Hernandez, whose creative vision transformed a viral creepypasta into a deeply immersive survival experience. Jose Manuel guided the artistic process from initial mood boards to final polish, drawing inspiration from real abandoned spaces to craft decaying yellow mazes that evoke uncanny dread. “The creative spark came from late-night sketches of warped rooms under flickering fluorescents,” says Jose Manuel. “We iterated through hundreds of concept art rounds, blending analog horror vibes with intricate entity behaviors that feel alive and unpredictable.” His hands-on approach shaped Level X‘s core loop: evade sound-hunting monsters, decode environmental puzzles from faded lore scraps, and question if escape is real or another illusion.

The creative journey was a tapestry of collaboration and iteration. The standout evolution came from programmer Fernando Fernandez and artist Jaime Jimenez, who expanded the game with two massive dual-level designs. Fernando shares: “Levels 12 & 13 form interconnected twins, dark flooded basements mirror glitchy offices. We hand-coded stealth paths and puzzle chains, layering variety through environmental interactions that reward exploration.” Jaime adds: “Artistically, Level 12 and 13 drips with darkness and environmental puzzles. Custom textures and lighting passes create moody contrasts, ensuring every room tells a fresh horror story.” Their work extended playtime by 40%, turning runs into epic voyages of discovery.

No release skips rigorous testing, and Backrooms Level X gleams thanks to QA tester David Cabrera. “We ran exhaustive playtests on every maze segment, entity patrol, and puzzle flow, dozens of full runs until I knew every shadow and safe spot by heart,” says David. “A tricky entity pathing glitch took 150-plus sessions to perfect; now it’s flawless.”

Backrooms Level X is a labor of creative obsession, a void that stares back, born from sketches and sweat. Get it now on Xbox Store for and join our Discord for art breakdowns. Ready to wander?

Follow @FirenutGames for more.

Backrooms Level X

Firenut Games

☆☆☆☆☆ 7

★★★★★

$9.99 $7.99

Get it now

In a place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, a strange accident occurred on October 27, 1986. Everything was recorded on a VHS tape. Enter the eerie world of Backrooms Level X, a first-person horror game that immerses you in an endless labyrinth of desolate and surreal spaces. After a freak accident, you find yourself trapped in the Backrooms, a place where logic and reality vanish. Explore endless corridors of yellow carpet, empty rooms and areas of flickering light as you try to find a way out. But beware: you are not alone. Mysterious entities lurk in the shadows, and every sound may be the last you hear. Immersive Exploration: Navigate an immersive environment made with unique level design. Discover hidden secrets and an immersive narrative that will draw you into the story. Atmospheric Horror: Immerse yourself in an oppressive atmosphere with immersive sound effects and haunting graphics that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Challenges and Puzzles: Solve riddles and face challenges that will test your wits as you try to escape from the Backrooms. Varied Environments: Backrooms Level X consists of more than 13 levels to explore. Discover the intricacies of the story and enemies, keeping each game a fresh and exciting experience. Defiant Bosses: Get out unscathed from huge final enemies. Throughout the exploration, we will encounter gigantic bosses that we will have to defeat with our wits. Do you have what it takes to survive in the Backrooms? The only way out is to face your fears and discover the truth behind this terrifying place. Download Backrooms Level X and begin your journey into the unknown!

The post Backrooms Level X – A Liminal Horror Descent into the Infinite Void appeared first on Xbox Wire.