Asha Sharma was asked whether her endgame at Xbox was divestiture, Zachary Small reported for The New York Times. The question came in a profile of Microsoft’s gaming chief published on Wednesday.
“Xbox is not for sale,” Sharma said. “We will do whatever it takes to set the company up for success, and we will look at the right partnerships, the right operating model and everything needed to achieve that.”
Sharma, 38, became Xbox CEO in February with no prior experience in video games. She was previously president of product in Microsoft’s CoreAI division and chief operating officer at Instacart.
“We’ve got a long way to go with Microsoft, and we’re going to take the long-term view,” she said.
Spin-off talk
In June, The Information reported that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood had considered spinning out Xbox entirely, Tom Warren noted for The Verge. This month, The Information reported that both executives had more recently backed Sharma’s plans to overhaul the unit. Many analysts predict an eventual spin-off, according to the Times.
Nadella said on a podcast that he expected Sharma to return Xbox to growth in the next fiscal year, the Times reported. Xbox accounts for about 6% of Microsoft’s total profits.
Cuts and a reset
Sharma wrote in a July letter to staff that the business was “not healthy”. About 20% of Xbox employees lost their jobs over the summer, and Microsoft divested five studios, according to the Times. Microsoft plans to cut up to 3,200 Xbox jobs over its 2027 financial year, which ends in June, The Verge reported.
In late September, Xbox said nearly 270 more employees would lose their jobs. The cuts hit the team behind Halo, and the series moved under Activision. The developers behind Sea of Thieves and Age of Empires moved there too, according to The Verge.
Sharma says Xbox still has 500 million players every month. Game Pass reached 34 million subscribers before membership began to decline, the Times reported.
Kojima and Sony
After Sony ended its partnership with Hideo Kojima, Xbox signed a deal for his stealth game Physint. The agreement was substantially below what Xbox would typically spend to develop a premium game, people close to it told the Times. It includes film and TV rights.
“Competition and collaboration can coexist,” Sharma said of Xbox’s work with Sony.
Sharma wants Xbox games to reach a billion people. She plans to use cloud gaming to reach players in Africa, Latin America and South Asia. The next Xbox console is code-named Project Helix.