Xbox chief Phil Spencer is leaving Microsoft
Xbox boss Phil Spencer is leaving Microsoft after nearly 40 years with the software giant. Xbox President Sarah Bond is also leaving Microsoft, marking a major shake-up in the management of Xbox and Microsoft’s gaming efforts. Asha Sharma, currently President of CoreAI Product, takes over as CEO of Microsoft Gaming.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella today announced the retirement of Phil Spencer in a memo to all Microsoft employees. “Last year Phil Spencer made the decision to retire from the business and ever since then we’ve been talking about succession planning,” says Nadella. “I want to thank Phil for his extraordinary leadership and partnership. During 38 years at Microsoft, including 12 years leading the Gaming business, Phil helped transform what we do and how we do it.”
Asha Sharma succeeds Phil Spencer as the new CEO of Microsoft Gaming. Sharma currently serves as President of CoreAI Product at Microsoft and has worked closely on Microsoft’s AI platform efforts since joining Microsoft in 2024. Spencer will remain in an advisory role through the summer to support the transition.
While Sharma isn’t a gamer like Spencer, she does have some experience as a consumer that could certainly help her lead a division as large as Microsoft Gaming. Sharma left his marketing role at Microsoft in 2013 and worked at Meta as vice president of product and engineering and at Instacart as chief operating officer before returning to Microsoft in 2024.
Nadella says he has “a long-standing interest in gaming and its role at the center of our consumer ambition” and believes Sharma has “deep experience in building and developing platforms, aligning business models with long-term value, and operating on a global scale, which will be key to driving our gaming business into its next era of growth.”
Sharma now has three commitments to the future of gaming at Microsoft: great games, the return of Xbox, and the future of gaming. “We will reaffirm our commitment to our core Xbox fans and players, those who have invested with us over the past 25 years, and to the developers who create expansive worlds and experiences that are embraced by gamers everywhere,” Sharma said in an internal memo. “We will celebrate our roots with a renewed commitment to Xbox, starting with the console that shaped who we are. It connects us to the gamers and fans who invest in Xbox, and to the developers who build ambitious experiences for it.”
In a memo to Xbox employees, Spencer reveals that he has made the decision to retire from Microsoft in the fall of 2025, just months after rumors circulated online about Spencer’s potential retirement. Microsoft said in July that Spencer “would not be retiring anytime soon.”
“Last fall, I shared with Satya that I was thinking about stepping back and starting the next chapter of my life,” Spencer says. “From that moment on, we aligned ourselves to approach this transition with intention, ensuring stability and strengthening the foundation we’ve built. Xbox has always been more than a company. It’s a vibrant community of players, creators, and teams who care deeply about what we build and how we build it. And that deserves a thoughtful, deliberate plan for the path forward.”
As part of the road ahead for Xbox, President Sarah Bond is also leaving Microsoft to “start a new chapter,” according to Spencer. “Sarah was instrumental during a defining period for Xbox, shaping our platform strategy, developing Game Pass and cloud gaming, supporting new hardware launches, and guiding some of the most important moments in our history,” Spencer said.
Microsoft is also promoting Matt Booty to executive vice president and chief content officer, after previously promoting him to the expanded role of president of games content and studios in 2023. “I read Phil’s memo with great gratitude,” Booty said in an internal memo to Microsoft’s gaming employees. “He has been a constant advocate for game creators and our studio teams, and I have learned a lot from his leadership over the years. All of our games have benefited from his foundational support.”
You can read Phil Spencer’s full retirement memo here.
Spencer has worked at Microsoft since joining as an intern in 1988. Early in his career at Microsoft, he worked on Encarta, Microsoft Money, and Microsoft Works. Spencer joined the Xbox division in 2001, and became general manager of Microsoft Studios in 2008. He then became leader of the Xbox division in 2014, overseeing the launch of the Xbox Series X/S and Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass push.
Spencer has also been at the center of Microsoft’s major gaming acquisitions, including Minecraft manufacturer Mojang, Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax Media.
“When I walked through the doors of Microsoft as an intern in June 1988, I could never have imagined the products I would help develop, the stakeholders and customers we would serve, or the extraordinary teams I would have the chance to join,” says Spencer. “It’s been an epic adventure and truly the privilege of a lifetime.”
