a gaming education
Unlike Spencer, who spent years at Microsoft Game Studios before leading Microsoft’s gaming division, Sharma has no professional experience in the video game industry. And his personal experience with Xbox also seems somewhat limited; After sharing his gamertag on social media over the weekend, curious gamers discovered that his Xbox play history was almost a month old. This is in stark contrast to Spencer, who has amassed a score of over 121,000 over several decades of play.
In his interview with Variety, Sharma cited the 2016 fire watch as an example of the type of games with “deep emotional resonance” and “a distinctive point of view” that she is looking for from Microsoft. And on social media, Sharma shared his list of the three greatest games of all time: “halo, Valheim, gold eye“For what it’s worth.” After saying on social media that she would try, Sharma is also taking recommendations for games Borderlands 2This game appeared in his most recent game over the weekend.
At the time of this writing, take a look at some of the recent Xbox games played by Sharma.
At the time of this writing, take a look at some of the recent Xbox games played by Sharma.
Credit: Xbox.com
It is not necessary to be a personal fan of video games to be successful running a gaming company. Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi famously did not care for video games, even though he launched the Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System to worldwide success in the 1980s. Still, Spencer’s lack of direct experience with the world of gaming after his long tenure signals a sharp change at a time when Microsoft is struggling to redefine the Xbox brand amid growing hardware sales, a pivot away from software exclusives and a move to expand the Xbox brand to many different devices.
Xbox president and COO Sarah Bond, who was being groomed in every way to replace Spencer, also announced her departure from Microsoft on Friday, ending a nearly nine-year tenure as a public face for the company’s gaming efforts. The Verge reports that Bond caused much friction within the Xbox team when he supported the “Xbox Everywhere” strategy and “It’s an Xbox” marketing campaign, which according to unnamed sources was focused on streaming Xbox games on hardware such as mobile phones and tablets. Shortly before that campaign’s launch in 2024, Microsoft lost marketing executives Jarrett West and Karim Choudhury, leading to significant internal restructuring.
Longtime Xbox Game Studios executive Matt Booty, whose history in the games industry dates back to working for Williams Electronics in the ’90s, has been promoted to executive vice president and chief content officer for Xbox and “will continue to work closely with Microsoft.” [Sharma] To ensure a smooth transition,” Microsoft said in its announcement on Friday.
<a href