Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President for Gaming, said he will retire after 38 years with the company and 12 years leading its gaming efforts. Asha Sharma, who currently heads Microsoft’s CoreAI division, will succeed him.
Xbox President Sarah Bond, long viewed as a likely successor to Spencer, is also departing the company. Matt Booty, the current head of Xbox Studios, is being promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer and will collaborate closely with Sharma.
In his departure note, Spencer wrote that he told Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella last fall he was “thinking about stepping back and starting the next chapter of my life.” He said he will remain at Microsoft “in an advisory role” through the summer to support Sharma during the transition.
Spencer, who began at Microsoft as an intern in 1988, moved into management and executive roles at Microsoft Game Studios by 2003. He took over as Head of Xbox in 2014, steering the company through the aftermath of the troubled, Kinect-bundled launch of the Xbox One. More recently he helped guide the company’s 2020 purchase of Bethesda Softworks and its $68.7 billion merger with Activision Blizzard, navigating the many regulatory battles that followed that announcement.
Meet the new boss
Sharma, who joined Microsoft just two years ago after roles at Meta and Instacart, said in an introductory message she intends to lead “the return of Xbox,” and a “recommit[ment] to our core fans and players.” She added that the effort would “start with console which has shaped who we are,” and expand “across PC, mobile, and cloud,” Sharma wrote.
