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The recent shuffle of Xbox leadership, which saw longtime Microsoft gaming CEO Phil Spencer be replaced by CoreAI executive Asha Sharma, sparked some understandably dramatic reactions. Notably, original Xbox co-founder and console designer Seamus Blackley predicted the shake-up will herald the absolute end of Xbox as a whole, but former Xbox boss Peter Moore hopes things aren't quite so drastic.
Moore, who oversaw the Xbox label for Microsoft from 2003 to 2007, sat down with GamesBeat to give his take on the restructuring, which included the sudden departure of president and presumed Spencer replacement Sarah Bond. Specifically, he confirmed that he'd seen Blackley's comments and said, "I hope he's a little misguided."
Blackley's view is that Microsoft is turning 100% of its focus toward AI, and that Sharma's appointment as Xbox CEO is proof in the pudding. As for Spencer leaving, Blackley said it was only a matter of time before his valiant attempt at "managing the beast" finally "just wore him out."
Moore, meanwhile, still sees the Xbox brand as invaluable to Microsoft's portfolio and doesn't see the company abandoning it completely any time soon.
"This is a division that did $24 billion last year. It's 8% of gross revenues. It's not something that they could replace quickly," he said. "I get that the operating margins aren't what productivity and cloud are for Microsoft, but it's an important part of their business."
Without Xbox, reckons Moore, Microsoft becomes just another faceless tech company removed from the daily lives of consumers.
"It puts Microsoft in the living room. It puts Microsoft in the world of entertainment. It puts Microsoft closer to the consumer. It emboldens Microsoft as not just a productivity company," said Moore. "That was always what we wanted to do, and what Xbox in particular was meant to be."
Compared to the general reaction to Sharma becoming the new CEO of Microsoft's gaming arm, Moore sounds more optimistic there, too.
"I hope she can bring that back and get a bit of the fight going again that we used to have. Have a lot more fun in the industry like we used to," he said.
Of course, no one knows how all of this is going to shake out just yet, but Spencer has been instrumental to Microsoft's gaming business, hardware development, studio acquisitions, and brand recognition for more than a decade. Even without such a controversial figure stepping in to replace him, his departure was always bound to signal the end of an era for Xbox.
That's to say nothing of Bond's exit, which was made slightly less conspicuous by her delayed acknowledgment of the situation, in which she expressed support for Sharma as CEO and said "this is the right time for me to take my next step, both personally and professionally" following challenges resulting from Xbox's Activision Blizzard acquisition.
For her part, Sharma has tried to assuage concerns over her ties to AI, saying in her initial message to Xbox employees, "we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop" and expressing her commitment to "great games" and studio empowerment. Whether you're convinced is, of course, up to you.
