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Asha Sharma
Asha Sharma is CEO of Xbox, a role she took in February 2026 after Phil Spencer stepped down. She has publicly said the division is not for sale while a restructuring that includes roughly 3,200 layoffs this fiscal year is under way, and on October 14, 2026 she announced the creation of Xbox Labs, a small experimental team led by Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet.
Synthesized from 5
Yomimono stories · updated
6d ago
Asha Sharma became CEO of Xbox in February 2026, taking over from Phil Spencer. By July she was co-leading a Federal Reserve Board task force on productivity and jobs alongside Stanford economist Charles I. Jones and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, an appointment that drew attention because it came days after she outlined plans to cut about 3,200 Xbox positions by the end of fiscal year 2027. The same restructuring spins off Double Fine and Compulsion Games as independent entities and transfers Ninja Theory and Undead Labs to new owners.
In the fall, Sharma addressed the sale question directly. In an interview published September 30 she told The New York Times the division will not be sold, saying Xbox will proceed from a long-term perspective and will consider the right partners and operating model. She also spoke about the Kojima Productions partnership, saying she is pleased Hideo Kojima chose to work with Xbox and that the cooperative relationship with Sony will continue. Earlier, in September, she visited Kojima Productions in Japan and posed for a photo with Kojima that he posted to social media.
On October 14 she announced Xbox Labs, a small experimental team of game creators, engineers and scientists led by Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet. Sharma cited experiments in which games were decompiled and rebuilt for hardware they were not made for, including Windows games running on Apple Silicon and in browsers, and said the move does not change existing policies. The Xbox Labs website is live but specific projects are not posted.
Key facts
- Took over from
- Phil Spencer, who stepped down; Sharma took over the division in February 2026 ↗
- Sale statement
- Told The New York Times in an interview published September 30 that the division will not be sold ↗
- Xbox Reset layoffs
- Announced about 1,600 layoffs in July and said it would cut roughly 3,200 people this fiscal year ↗
- Federal Reserve task force
- Appointed co-leader of the Productivity and Jobs task force on July 10, 2026, alongside Charles I. Jones and Marc Andreessen ↗
- Xbox Labs
- Announced the creation of Xbox Labs on October 14, 2026, a small experimental team led by Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet ↗
- Xbox Labs scope
- She said the team will test ways to streamline porting and reconstruction of older titles and that the move does not change existing policies ↗
- Elder Scrolls VI
- Said on August 12 that she watched a live playthrough of The Elder Scrolls VI at Bethesda Game Studios ↗
- Kojima Productions visit
- Visited Kojima Productions in Japan and appeared in a photo with Hideo Kojima that he posted to social media ↗
Timeline
Synthesized by Yomimono from the cited Yomimono stories below, each itself
sourced, then editorially reviewed. Every
fact links the story it came from.
Facts
- Announced
- Xbox division is not for sale (interview with The New York Times) · 2026-10-03
- Announced
- visit to Kojima Productions in Japan · 2026-09-14
- Announced
- appointed co-leader of the Federal Reserve Board's new 'Productivity and Jobs' task force · 2026-07-10
- Announced
- plans to cut approximately 3,200 positions in the Xbox division by the end of fiscal year 2027 · 2026-07-10
- Noted
- took over the gaming division in February 2026 · 2026-10-03
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Oct 14
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced on October 14, 2026 the creation of Xbox Labs, a small experimental team of game creators, engineers, and scientists. Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet leads the group. Sharma cited recent experiments where games were decompiled quickly and rebuilt for hardware they were not made for, including Windows games running on Apple Silicon and in browsers through WebAssembly and WebGPU. She said WebGPU is approaching 90 percent support across browsers. An engineer used AI to decompile the Nintendo 64 title Snowboard Kids in 84 days, and a developer used Anthropic's Claude Fable to port Command & Conquer: Generals Zero Hour to Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Sharma said the team will test ways to streamline porting and reconstruction of older titles and make it easier for players to take part in game production. She stated the move does not change existing policies. The Xbox Labs website is live, but specific projects are not posted.
Oct 3
Asha Sharma, CEO of Xbox, told The New York Times in an interview published September 30 that the division will not be sold, directly addressing rumors that followed the company's large-scale reorganization. Sharma took over the gaming division in February 2026 after Phil Spencer stepped down. Under the "Xbox Reset," the company announced layoffs of about 1,600 people in July and said it would cut roughly 3,200 people this fiscal year. She said Xbox will proceed from a long-term perspective and will consider the right partners and operating model. Sharma also addressed the partnership with Kojima Productions on the new action espionage title PHYSINT, saying she is pleased Hideo Kojima chose to work with Xbox. She said the cooperative relationship with Sony will continue and that competition and collaboration can coexist.
Sep 14
Asha Sharma, who leads Microsoft's Xbox division, visited Kojima Productions in Japan and appeared in a photo with Hideo Kojima that he posted to social media. Sharma took over the Xbox division after Phil Spencer, who had led it since 2014. Game Spark notes the visit could involve discussion of Kojima's projects PHYSINT and OD, both announced without release dates.
Aug 12
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said on August 12 that she watched a live playthrough of The Elder Scrolls VI during a visit to Bethesda Game Studios. In a post on X, Sharma praised the game's scale and grandeur as "incredible" and said the story is "even greater," while keeping the subtitle hidden behind eight asterisks. Bethesda Game Studios replied to her post, thanking her for the visit and kind words. The post suggests the game's subtitle is eight English letters long, prompting speculation among fans on forums like Reddit about what the title could be, with some guessing it might be "High Rock," a region in the Elder Scrolls world. The Elder Scrolls VI was announced in 2018 with a teaser trailer, and no further details have been released since. In June 2026, Xbox Chief Content Officer Matt Booty said in an interview that he saw the game running next to director Todd Howard and praised its quality. Sharma's visit and comments indicate the game has progressed to a stage where it can be shown to executives, though no release date or concrete details have been announced.
Jul 10
The Federal Reserve Board has appointed Xbox CEO Asha Sharma as co-leader of its new "Productivity and Jobs" task force. The appointment, announced on July 10, 2026, places Sharma alongside Stanford University economist Charles I. Jones and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz. The task force is tasked with analyzing how emerging general-purpose technologies, including artificial intelligence, affect the U.S. economy and employment, with the goal of informing Federal Reserve monetary policy. The appointment comes just days after Sharma outlined plans to cut approximately 3,200 positions in the Xbox division by the end of fiscal year 2027. That restructuring also involves spinning off studios Double Fine and Compulsion Games as independent entities, while Ninja Theory and Undead Labs are to be transferred to new owners. Overseas outlets including PC Gamer and Game Developer have noted the timing of the appointment relative to the layoff announcement.