{"id":496883,"date":"2026-02-22T14:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T14:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/496883\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T14:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T14:07:11","slug":"xboxs-phil-spencer-retires-gamers-vow-to-switch-platforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/496883\/","title":{"rendered":"Xbox’s Phil Spencer Retires, Gamers Vow To Switch Platforms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Xbox has experienced a bit of an internal shake-up, with Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer set to retire on Monday.<\/p>\n

As IGN<\/a> has reported, Spencer\u2019s retirement from Microsoft<\/a> ends his 38-year career at the company since he joined as an intern in 1988. His final day at Microsoft comes just months before Xbox<\/a>\u2019s 25th anniversary.<\/p>\n

Along with the news of Spencer\u2019s retirement, Xbox President Sarah Bond has also announced her resignation from Microsoft despite previous speculation that she was set to be Spencer\u2019s replacement following his retirement.<\/p>\n

Spencer will be replaced by Asha Sharma as the new CEO of Microsoft Gaming. She is currently the President of Microsoft\u2019s CoreAI product. Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty has also been promoted to Chief Content Officer.<\/p>\n

Sharma\u2019s career at Microsoft began in 2024, joining as President of CoreAI Product, where her role was to \u201coversee the teams and technologies that power AI across Microsoft and its enterprise customers\u201d.<\/p>\n

Prior to this, she was attached to companies like Meta, Instacart, and Porch Group.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto by Jakub Porzycki\/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesXbox Players Are Unhappy With The Shake-Up<\/p>\n

Xbox fans have been rather unhappy with the announcement since it was revealed on Friday evening, particularly with Sharma\u2019s association with AI. Many also claim that this might be the move that gets them to switch to a different platform.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis doesn’t give anybody any confidence in the future of Xbox,\u201d writes<\/a> one gamer on the Xbox Reddit page.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a sad scene,\u201d writes another. \u201cDefinitely going the PC route after this, even though the price of gpu’s are outrageous already thanks to AI. Might even have to find another hobby.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHer entire portfolio is AI. So Microsoft, who already is getting s*** on for forcing Copilot into everything, is putting an AI centric person as head of Xbox,\u201d reads another reply. \u201cGreat. As if I wasn’t already inching towards Steam as is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s been a terrible run, boys. Xbox 360 was our golden age and will never return again,\u201d another reads.<\/p>\n

Xbox has seen a lot of criticism in the past few years for various controversies. <\/p>\n

It came under fire for its acquisition and then subsequent closure<\/a> of various studios, including Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and The Initiative.<\/p>\n

The brand also saw fans unhappy when it raised the prices<\/a> of hardware and Xbox Game Pass subscriptions in 2025, and criticism has also been associated with wider Microsoft controversies such as its AI-heavy push and landing on the BDS movement boycott list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Xbox has experienced a bit of an internal shake-up, with Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer set to retire…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,2577,1996,105,7476,250243,41745,69748,77430,69747],"class_list":["post-496883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-microsoft","tag-tech","tag-technology","tag-xbox","tag-xbox-ally","tag-xbox-game-pass","tag-xbox-one","tag-xbox-series-s","tag-xbox-series-x"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}