New Xbox boss says "I don't pretend to be the best gamer," but that's not her goal, anyway: "My focus is to make Xbox the best place to play, return to our roots, ship great things, and become stronger"

Xbox's new CEO has responded to suggestions that she could be faking her Twitter posts to better fit in with the gamer crowd, which she knows "would be a terrible idea and wouldn't work," but she admits that, yes, her gamertag was only created "recently to learn and understand this world."

Last week, it was announced that Phil Spencer is retiring from his role as the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, with Xbox president Sarah Bond resigning, too. It's a huge leadership shakeup, and even more questions were raised considering that Spencer's replacement was named as Asha Sharma, who joined Microsoft in 2024 as the president of the company's CoreAI product, and had no obvious background in games.

Over on Twitter, Sharma has been engaging with Xbox fans, discussing games and her own experiences with them. She says her top three games are Halo, Valheim, and GoldenEye, and also shared her gamertag so that folks could peruse her gaming history themselves. Her activity starts last month (thanks, Xbox Gamertag), in which time she's apparently played 30 titles. However, some have still been dubious about how she's presenting herself online, with IGN's Ryan McCaffrey suggesting that "an experienced gamer on the Xbox team may be helping her sound more like a 'real gamer' with her social replies" on Twitter.

"I agree. Faking would be a terrible idea and wouldn't work," Sharma now responds. "I also didn't expect my gamertag to blowup and the reality is more boring. I created it recently to learn and understand this world."

If you were at all perplexed by the range of games she's played, which her gamertag would suggest goes from Hollow Knight to Vampire Survivors, Borderlands 2 and Minecraft, she explains: "I've played with my family, and it's a shared home account across devices (which you can see in the range of games /achievements). Fixed that this weekend and everyone is only playing on their own GTs."

Even so, she continues, "I get where this is coming from. I don't pretend to be the best gamer and even though I'm playing, that's still not my goal." Instead, Sharma says: "My focus is to make Xbox the best place to play, return to our roots, ship great things, and become stronger for the future." And, if there was any doubt, "yes, I'm writing my own posts."

Comparisons to her predecessor, Spencer, are only natural – after all, he was well known for being a big gaming fan. However, the proof will be in the pudding, and only time will tell if Sharma will be able to lead Xbox toward a stronger future. Reassuringly, she has already said that "we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop," noting: "Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us."

Xbox will be "sunsetted" under new CEO, original co-founder expects: "Her job is going to be as a palliative care doctor who slides Xbox gently into the night."