"This isn't an insurgency": Xbox co-founder says Phil Spencer exhausted himself "managing the beast" at Microsoft to "try to do the right thing for games," and he feels "worst" for Sarah Bond

News
By published

The good fight had to end

Xbox - Future Owns
(Image credit: Future)

Xbox co-founder Seamus Blackley thinks now-former Xbox boss Phil Spencer might have exhausted himself trying to prop up the game side – but the person he's most concerned about in the aftermath Microsoft's leadership shakeup is ex-president Sarah Bond, who's just resigned after almost 10 years with Xbox.

"The person who I feel worst for is Sarah Bond, who was more than capable from a leadership standpoint," Blackley tells GamesBeat in a new interview. "Super cool, actual gamer."

Unlike Bond, who was once thought of as Spencer's natural successor, Spencer's actual replacement Asha Sharma was previously president of Microsoft's CoreAI product and has no direct gaming experience. Blackley reminisces that, back in the day (he left Microsoft in 2002), Xbox leadership was a blend of different people and experiences – but "it's never this balance of people that makes something work. The balance is what enables something to happen, but you need to have an idea that people drive through that remains pure somehow."

Ashley Bardhan
Ashley Bardhan
Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.