New Xbox heads discuss the platform’s future following major shake-up

Xbox recently underwent a massive shake-up, confirming the retirement of long-time head Phil Spencer alongside the announcement that Xbox president Sarah Bond would be stepping down from her role. In the wake of this, Xbox’s new CEO (Asha Sharma) and COO Matt Booty sat down to discuss these latest events and what’s next for the brand.

Taking part in an interview conducted by Windows Central’s Jez Corden, the new heads of Xbox Asha Sharma and Matt Booty spoke on their roles within the company. The interview itself is rather lengthy and covers all manner of topics ranging from the notion of ‘return to Xbox’, AI and more.

In discussing Xbox’s new strategy following these latest shake-ups, Sharma offered a bit of a contrasting take, stating that “the plan's the plan until it's not the plan” (a strategy which does not seem too different to what they were operating under previously).

Given Sharma’s ties to AI in previous roles, the new CEO was also asked about the controversial technology and its place within Xbox. According to Sharma: “I think that with any new technology, it brings possibilities as a tool, but even more important, especially now — we need to draw lines on what we won't do. That's what I attempted to do when I shared my opening letter. I will not flood our ecosystem with slop. We won't have careless output, we won't have derivative work. I deeply believe in the words that I shared previously there.”

This statement is particularly interesting as Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella wrote back in January that “we need to get beyond the arguments of slop vs sophistication”. Of course, Nadella’s statement was met with a ton of backlash, and so it’s possible that Sharma’s comment was made with that in mind.

Of course, talk is cheap and so we will have to wait and see whether Sharma and Booty put their money where their mouths are. Regardless, 2026 is set to be an interesting time for Xbox. The full interview can be found HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of these new appointees? Can they right the Xbox ship? Let us know your thoughts down below.

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