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As the dust settles on Microsoft’s dramatic changes at the top of its gaming team, fans are digesting the shock resignation of Xbox President Sarah Bond, after nearly a decade working on the console brand.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, IGN exclusively reported that Bond had resigned from her post, despite long being considered to be outgoing Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer’s heir apparent. Instead, that job went to Asha Sharma, previously Microsoft’s CoreAI product president.<\/p>\n
In the hours since, fans have been quick to read between the lines of what has been said \u2014 and not said \u2014 about Bond’s departure, including the belated posting of her own exit note to employees, which arrived some hours after formal statements from Microsoft boss Satya Nadella, Spencer, Sharma and the newly-promoted Matt Booty.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nIndeed, Bond’s departure was left to be announced by Microsoft within Spencer’s own statement \u2014 several paragraphs below the big news that he was handing over the baton to Sharma. Here’s exactly what Spencer wrote:<\/p>\n
“As part of this transition, Sarah Bond has decided to leave Microsoft to begin a new chapter. Sarah has been instrumental during a defining period for Xbox, shaping our platform strategy, expanding Game Pass and cloud gaming, supporting new hardware launches, and guiding some of the most significant moments in our history. I’m grateful for her partnership and the impact she’s had, and I wish her the very best in what comes next.”<\/p>\n
No mention is made of Bond in statements from Nadella, Sharma or Booty, who do not reference her departure at all. <\/p>\n
On social media, veteran Xbox exec Aaron Greenberg marked yesterday’s events with a flurry of lengthy posts, sharing his excitement for Sharma’s posting and a long message of thanks to Spencer on his retirement, following years as colleagues. But Greenberg makes no mention of Bond or her departure, either.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019ve decided this is the right time for me to take my next step, both personally and professionally”
\u201c<\/span><\/span><\/div>\nHours later, Bond did publicly release her own farewell message \u2014 though this time via LinkedIn. Bond’s lengthy statement references the fact that it was she who “decided this is the right time for me to take my next step, both personally and professionally,” though there’s little more explanation as to why. <\/p>\n
Bond joined Xbox in 2017 as Xbox\u2019s corporate VP of bizdev and partnerships. She became corporate VP of game creator experience and ecosystem after that before being named President of Xbox in 2022. <\/p>\n
Her full note on her departure is below:<\/p>\n\n\nHi team,<\/p>\n
I know there\u2019s a lot of news to take in today.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m incredibly proud of what we\u2019ve built together over the past eight-plus years. PC and cloud gaming are growing faster than ever, our next console is well underway, and together we\u2019ve helped lay the foundation for a more open gaming platform that spans devices and reaches players around the world.<\/p>\n
When we announced our intention to acquire Activision Blizzard in 2022, I committed to helping lead Xbox through what would be a critical period of change. Over the past four years, we\u2019ve navigated that moment together and positioned the business for what comes next. We took on some of the biggest challenges this organization has ever faced and did it as one team.<\/p>\n
With that, I\u2019ve decided this is the right time for me to take my next step, both personally and professionally. We\u2019re living through a transformative technological era that will shape the next generation of our industry, and I\u2019m energized by what\u2019s ahead. This moment also presents a unique opportunity for fresh eyes and new leadership to guide the team into its next chapter. I\u2019ve had the privilege of spending time with Asha over the last few weeks as we\u2019ve planned for this transition, and I\u2019ve seen firsthand her deep commitment to our players, developers, and brand. She brings deep technology and commerce experience, along with a strong track record of building and scaling platforms that the world uses. Xbox deserves this. I\u2019m excited to see her lead this next chapter for our team. I\u2019ll remain on as a Special Advisor to Asha to help ensure a smooth transition and set the organization up for continued success.<\/p>\n
I want to thank Phil for his mentorship and friendship over the years. He\u2019s been a consistent champion of this business and the people who make it what it is, and I\u2019ve learned a great deal from the way he leads through both opportunity and challenge. I\u2019m grateful for his trust and support throughout my time on the team. I also want to thank Satya for his sponsorship and support throughout my time at Microsoft.<\/p>\n
As I prepare to sign off, I\u2019ve been reflecting on three simple questions I\u2019ve tried to use to guide my days:<\/p>\n
Did I bring my best?
I hope the answer has been yes for many of you. It\u2019s been a privilege to work alongside this team.<\/p>\n
Always,
IGN has much more on this story, including the many farewells from veteran developers to Phil Spencer, Spencer’s personal words to the Xbox community following his departure, and Sharma’s own responses to initial concerns around her recent AI work and lack of gaming industry job experience.<\/p>\n
Image credit: Microsoft <\/em><\/p>\nTom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky <\/em>@tomphillipseg.bsky.social<\/p>\n<\/div>\nRead Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the dust settles on Microsoft’s dramatic changes at the top of its gaming team, fans are digesting the shock resignation of Xbox President Sarah…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[16236,5543,777,7052,6327,2254,6142,16238,16239,7954,11637,16237,16235,162],"class_list":["post-30507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-asha","tag-bond","tag-happened","tag-longterm","tag-phil","tag-president","tag-promotion","tag-protege","tag-resigns","tag-retirement","tag-sarah","tag-sharmas","tag-spencers","tag-xbox","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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