Sarah Bond’s departure is a “relief” for some Xbox employees, although they now have another concern for the future. The Verge has spoken with current and former Xbox employees, who say that working with Bond has not been easy.
We’re still feeling the aftershocks of the latest Xbox news earthquake. Just a few days ago, it was announced that Phil Spencer (CEO of Microsoft Gaming) and Sarah Bond (President of Xbox) were leaving the company (the former to retire, the latter by resigning) to make way for Asha Sharma as the new CEO of the gaming division. The news has sparked countless debates, and gamers have been sharing their opinions on the move on social media over the weekend. Meanwhile, employees in Microsoft‘s gaming division have also been discussing the change and, in some cases, have reacted with a degree of “relief.” After all, some team members felt that working with Bond wasn’t easy.
Sarah Bond and the “This Is an Xbox” campaign
The Verge spoke with more than a dozen current and former Xbox employees to get their take on the changes in Xbox‘s leadership. The conversations included comments about Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond, Asha Sharma, and other key figures in the gaming division, revealing that decisions made by the brand’s now-former president generated some resistance among the company’s internal teams.
Bond became president of Xbox in October 2023, and her vision quickly shaped the “This Is an Xbox” campaign. Following the departure of Kareem Choudhry (who was key in decisions such as backward compatibility and the launch of Xbox Cloud Gaming, formerly xCloud) and Jerret West (head of marketing) in 2024, the Xbox brand and product promotion teams began reporting directly to Bond. Shortly thereafter, the company launched the “This Is an Xbox” initiative, which sparked negative reactions from other employees.
In this regard, employees who spoke with The Verge indicated that the campaign “offended” many developers internally. Furthermore, “multiple sources” confirmed that Bond was difficult to work with and that she designed a team structure in such a way that “if you didn’t follow the vision or questioned it, you were out.” And, while it’s true that she demonstrated the “ability to establish collaborations with companies and developers,” her strategy was questioned within the company. Thus, a large number of the employees interviewed by The Verge said they felt “relieved” by her departure.
In fact, sources acknowledge that Phil Spencer’s decision was long overdue. In 2025, he took an extended vacation, and some teams had to wait for him to make key decisions, leading to rumors about his impending retirement. However, Microsoft denied these speculations mid-year, stating that Spencer would not be retiring “anytime soon.”
On the other hand, Bond’s departure came as a surprise to the community, given that many already saw her as the successor to the head of Microsoft Gaming. However, Xbox employees who worked with her viewed the move as “inevitable.” Even so, some developers learned of the news through social media and gaming websites. Spencer was originally scheduled to announce his departure today, February 23, but IGN received the information beforehand and was preparing to publish an exclusive report. Therefore, the announcements were accelerated, which is why Bond’s social media team took several hours to publish the Xbox president’s farewell letter.
Concerns About Artificial Intelligence
As mentioned earlier in the article, the conversations between The Verge and Xbox employees include comments and opinions about the most relevant figures in the company’s internal dynamics. This means that Asha Sharma has also come up in these discussions, specifically because her previous position as president of Microsoft CoreAI has generated “concern” within the gaming division’s internal teams.
Furthermore, employees also have doubts about her future performance given her “lack of experience in the entertainment and video game industry.” Along these lines, some employees fear that Sharma will “force the use of AI into everything Xbox does.”
And the brand’s new CEO is aware of this concern, as she stated in her introductory letter that she does not intend to pursue “short-term efficiency” or flood “our ecosystem with soulless AI hacks. Games are and always will be art, designed by humans and created with the most innovative technology we offer.”
Whatever the case, a new era is dawning for Xbox. With Sharma at the helm, the company will now work toward three key objectives: developing “great games,” “the return of Xbox” while maintaining its philosophy of extending experiences beyond a single device, and discovering “new business models and ways to play” without resorting to bad practices such as milking iconic IPs or making poor use of Artificial Intelligence. Time will tell how this strategy, and the company as a whole, unfolds.
Source: 3DJuegos
