Tom Warren, reporting for The Verge (gift link):
With Spencer’s retirement official, Microsoft is hitting the reset
button on Bond’s Xbox strategy instead of embracing it further.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma is now promising “the return of
Xbox,” in a clear message to employees that the strategy over the
past few years has not been working. “I want to return to the
renegade spirit that built Xbox in the first place,” says Sharma.Xbox employees I’ve been speaking to have been concerned about the
Sharma appointment, particularly because of her previous role as
an AI executive at Microsoft. There is also concern about her lack
of industry experience in entertainment and gaming. Sharma has
been clear she’s not a gamer and has spent the weekend responding
to people on X and even taking game recommendations.Some Xbox employees worry she’ll force AI into everything Xbox
does, but Sharma was clearly ready for that reaction. “As
monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not
chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless
AI slop,” said Sharma in her memo. “Games are and always will be
art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative
technology provided by us.”
Spending two years on a marketing strategy that tried to turn “Xbox” into a vaporous brand applied to any sort of gaming — mobile, handheld, PC, and, you know, Xbox consoles — on “every screen” is going to be a hard hole to climb out of. Xbox was behind PlayStation, their archrival, when they started this asinine campaign. Now they’re further behind. Sony’s message for PlayStation is clear and true: you buy a PlayStation to play PlayStation games.
The other concern is that she’s been appointed by Nadella as some
kind of executioner of the Xbox console. Her memo doesn’t suggest
that, and Microsoft could have easily appointed Matt Booty into
that kind of role to push game publishing instead of the Xbox
console. I get the impression from sources that Microsoft wants a
turnaround and is worried about losing Xbox, as it’s one of its
only remaining successful consumer brands.
I hope that’s true. But if Sharma was appointed by Nadella to wind Xbox down and get out of the business (after they package up and sell their $69 billion Activation acquisition to recoup), well, of course her introductory memo didn’t suggest that. Whether her actual mission is to rejuvenate the Xbox platform or to kill it, this week’s memo would read the same way. (Good discussion between me and Ben Thompson on today’s Dithering about this.)
