Xbox earthquake: the secret story behind Sarah Bond's abandonment
Long considered by all to be the natural heir to Phil Spencer to take the reins of the entire Microsoft Gaming division, the abandonment of Sarah Bond seems to hide decidedly complex backgrounds according to what emerged from a report by journalist Tom Warren on The Verge, who collected information from several of his contacts within Microsoft. It seems that, even, the abandonment of the manager represents a real relief for many employees of the company.
The ways in which this epochal handover came to light were far from optimal: according to Warren's sources, the announcement was in fact originally scheduled for today, but a rumor published in advance by IGN forced Microsoft to announce the restructuring ahead of time. This generated a chaotic situation in which many members of the development teams and Xbox employees discovered the change at the top of their management by reading the gaming press, rather than through the necessary internal communications. And the appointment of Asha Sharma, wanted directly by Satya Nadella and Amy Hood, seems to enjoy a great consensus within the company, although it took fans by surprise.
To make it clear that the separation between Sarah Bond and Microsoft did not take place in a properly idyllic climate, the cold official press releases take care of it. In the long memo published on the company's blog to present the new organizational structure, neither CEO Satya Nadella, nor the newly promoted Asha Sharma, nor Matt Booty, who now assumes the crucial position of director of content, spent a single word to thank or greet the now former president. The only one to give her a thought was Phil Spencer, while Bond herself entrusted her last message - late - exclusively to her personal page on LinkedIn, a detail that confirms the bad relations at the time of the release.
But what led to this deep internal fracture? According to Warren's informants, to understand it we have to take a step back to October 2023, when, immediately after the massive acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Sarah Bond had formally assumed the presidency becoming one of the main public faces of the brand. Under his leadership, we have seen a tremendous acceleration towards the "Xbox everywhere" strategy, a vision aimed at transforming our ecosystem into a ubiquitous platform untethered from traditional living room hardware. This sharp deviation led, during 2024, to the farewell of very important historical figures, including Kareem Choudhry, head of emerging technologies, and marketing director Jerret West. With the communication department passed directly under its control, we have seen the birth of controversial campaigns such as "This is an Xbox", strongly focused on the cloud and Smart TVs, accompanied by the promise of a proprietary mobile store which, to date, is still absent.
According to the in-depth report by The Verge, this stubborn chase for the mobile market and the cloud has generated very deep discontent among the development teams. Many employees would even have felt offended by a company line that seemed to snub those who currently play on consoles, in an attempt to chase a future user base to be built. All this while revenues from the sale of hardware recorded a worrying decline for the third consecutive year. Internal sources describe Bond's tenure as characterized by extremely rigid management: questioning the vision of the presidency meant concretely risking one's job. Nevertheless, even her detractors recognize her as an undisputed talent for weaving vital strategic partnerships with the big publishers in the sector.
The picture outlined is therefore that of a forced departure of Bond for having focused on a future made up of millions of players on all devices that not only has not yet materialized, but which has strongly penalized the identity of the Xbox platform by subtracting users from what is undoubtedly the best Xbox after the legendary 360.
Now, with the Phil Spencer era officially coming to an end and Sarah Bond's departure from the scene, Microsoft is preparing to completely rewrite its future. Asha Sharma's very first statements point straight to the heart of the community, promising "the return of Xbox". A message that sounds like a drastic reversal of the extreme multiplatform approach of the last two years and that seems to want to put us fans back at the center of the scene. But is it really possible at this point? Can we reverse the course of a cruiser now firmly pointed towards the direction of multiplatform, with a historic series like Halo coming to other shores, and a next-gen Xbox apparently marked by opening to all stores?
Probably the next Xbox Showcase will be the right time to understand what direction Asha wants to give to the division, but it is possible that we will already have some warning in a few weeks, from the Game Developers Conference. Stay tuned!
