New Xbox CEO is under fire for her brief gaming history

To her credit, she’s spent the last month or so playing some excellent games. Halo: The Master Chief Collection was up first (she couldn’t take the role without being at least somewhat familiar with Xbox’s lead mascot, right?), alongside Forza Horizon 5, Minecraft, and Fallout 76. She also appears to enjoy critically acclaimed shorter indie games, as she’s 100% completed Firewatch, she’s only one achievement away in What Remains of Edith Finch, and she’s just missing three from A Short Hike.

Interestingly, last year’s underrated roguelike hit, Ball X Pit, appears to be her favorite. She’s only missing one achievement, despite having played just 42 hours over the span of eight days. It seems like Sharma was afforded a considerable amount of time between jobs to get some research done.

Sharma’s rapid immersion in Xbox gaming has led some to question whether she’s playing the games herself. Far too many women in games have had to endure this kind of gatekeeping for us not to give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she just wasn’t an Xbox gamer previously, and maybe she just got hooked on Ball X Pit (and who could blame her).

It’s an open question whether Sharma needs to be a gaming expert to lead operations at Xbox, but living up to Phil Spencer — a man who bled green and has a gamerscore of over 120,000 — was always going to be a difficult task.

Skepticism about Sharma among Xbox fans is so intense that some are speculating that her posts on X are AI-generated. And then there’s the rumor that Spencer’s retirement was more of a firing in disguise: “I’ve been passed something that reiterates to me that this was not planned,” Greg Miller said on the Kinda Funny Games podcast. This won’t help her legitimacy in the eyes of Xbox fans.

Establishing trust with gamers will be an uphill battle for Sharma, and her tough start in the new job isn’t helped by the fact that Xbox’s recent track record has been dubious at best. Fable and Forza Horizon 6 are two highly anticipated Xbox games due this year, but the green side of the console war hasn’t had much to write home about recently.

There’s no reason to believe Sharma’s desire to connect with Xbox players on X this past weekend wasn’t genuine, even if she betrayed some inexperience with the Xbox culture. But the community does not appear to be ready to give her the benefit of the doubt. Only time will tell if she is up to the task of running Xbox.