Microsoft Xbox CEO Asha Sharma Overhauls Leadership Team
CNBC reported Tuesday that Xbox chief executive Asha Sharma has announced a sweeping Xbox leadership overhaul, installing new executives and sidelining veterans as Microsoft’s gaming division struggles to recover lost ground.
Sharma circulated an internal memo telling staff the unit needs to fundamentally change how it operates. She wrote that moving fast on meaningful product updates has become too difficult. The team spends too little time with players and developers, she argued, and lacks sufficient depth in core fundamentals.
New Faces From CoreAI and Instacart
Four of the incoming leaders come directly from Microsoft’s CoreAI engineering group, where Sharma worked before taking the Xbox role in February. That group oversees developer tools including GitHub Copilot and Visual Studio Code.
Jared Palmer, a former CoreAI vice president, will focus on product, engineering, developer tooling, and infrastructure. Tim Allen, who led design and research for CoreAI and GitHub, moves over to head Xbox design. Evan Chaki, a CoreAI general manager, will run a team of forward-deployed engineers tasked with cutting repetitive work and streamlining development.
Jonathan McKay, who previously led growth for OpenAI’s ChatGPT before joining CoreAI, becomes Xbox’s head of growth. David Schloss, a senior director at Instacart where Sharma herself once held a leadership role, will oversee the subscription and cloud business including Game Pass.
Veteran Executives Exit After Two Decades
The reshuffle also sees two long-serving Microsoft figures step aside. Kevin Gammill, a corporate vice president covering user experience and game publishing platforms, is departing. Roanne Sones, who oversaw Xbox devices and ecosystem, is taking a leave of absence later this summer and will shift to an advisory capacity afterward. Both Gammill and Sones spent 24 years at Microsoft.
A Division Under Pressure
The shakeup follows a difficult stretch for Xbox commercially. Microsoft reported last week that gaming revenue fell for the fourth time in the past six quarters. CEO Satya Nadella has publicly acknowledged the need to rebuild consumer affinity for Xbox alongside other Microsoft properties.
Nintendo and Sony have outpaced Microsoft in console sales this year. Sharma’s April move to cut Game Pass subscription prices was an early signal she intended to compete more aggressively on value.
The leadership changes reflect a broader bet that importing talent steeped in AI-era developer tools can modernize a gaming unit that has struggled to keep pace with rivals.
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