All articles tagged with #asha sharma
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma visited Bethesda amid mass layoffs and a protest outside the office, praising The Elder Scrolls VI after a live playthrough and calling its scale and story incredible, while unions plan rallies over layoffs and contract protections; Bethesda/Xbox say TES VI will not be affected by the layoffs.
A TrueAchievements poll asks readers if they want Platinum-style Xbox achievements after Xbox CEO Asha Sharma hinted at upcoming changes later this year; such a Platinum system would likely mirror PlayStation's trophy setup by requiring all base-list achievements to be unlocked, though official details and naming are not yet announced.
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma teased on X that Xbox is developing Platinum-style completion achievements to recognize 100% game completion, with a launch planned for later this year; details on how it will work remain to be announced.
Microsoft’s Xbox chief Asha Sharma unveils a four-pillar strategy (Core, Content, Creation, Connection) to strengthen the platform, grow Minecraft as the world’s creator hub, turn games into global franchises, and extend fan worlds, aiming for growth by FY2027 and double-digit player engagement by 2030. The plan also consolidates development around top franchises, divests five studios, advances a broad film/TV slate, and includes two rounds of layoffs totaling about 3,200 this year, with the console remaining the revenue backbone and Project Helix under review.
Microsoft’s newly appointed Xbox CEO Asha Sharma outlines a multi‑year plan to lift Xbox margins to rival levels by 2030, boost investment in Minecraft, expand global partnerships (including China), and grow casual gaming via King, while pursuing exclusive titles and broader media/experiential ventures to accelerate player and revenue growth.
Microsoft’s Project Helix aims to bring PC-like openness to Xbox, potentially letting players run PC games on a living-room box, but soaring memory costs (the RAMpocalypse) threaten to push open hardware to premium prices and hurt profitability. To keep a reasonable console-like price, Helix may need to stay closed or adopt a hybrid model (paywalls or revenue-sharing storefronts) rather than a true Steambox. Sony’s retreat from PC ports and the evolving stance on exclusives further shape the risk-reward, while CEO Asha Sharma says Helix will still “play your PC games” as aspects are re-evaluated, leaving the final model up for grabs with several strategic options on the table.
Layoffs at Xbox are framed as a distraction from a larger growth problem: the brand needs new users in an attention-saturated market. The article argues the path forward is for Xbox to become more social-media adjacent, leveraging Roblox-era dynamics and Minecraft to reach younger audiences, rather than relying on cost-cutting or exclusives alone. With Asha Sharma at the helm, the plan is a longer-term shift toward NTX (new-to-Xbox) growth, a bolder cultural direction, and a renewed emphasis on social and viral gameplay to compete in the evolving gaming landscape—the Robloxification era that’s already redefining how young players engage with games.
Microsoft defended Xbox CEO Asha Sharma amid backlash over 3,200 Xbox layoffs, saying the reductions are a restructuring of the Xbox business and not a move to replace American workers with foreign hires. The company clarified that H-1B figures cited refer to Microsoft-wide renewals and new hires and that most affected roles were not American. Sharma, described as American-born from Wisconsin, was also noted for being named to lead a Fed Reserve task force on productivity and employment.
The U.S. Federal Reserve has named Xbox CEO Asha Sharma to co-lead its Productivity and Jobs task force to study the economic impact of AI and other general-purpose technologies, alongside Marc Andreessen and Stanford economist Charles I. Jones. The appointment comes as Microsoft/Xbox reveals 3,200 layoffs through 2027, part of a broader strategic shift following Sharma’s rise to Xbox CEO earlier this year after joining Microsoft in 2024 as president of CoreAI.
Months after Microsoft Gaming announced a 3,200-job cut, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma was named to a Federal Reserve task force on jobs and the economic impact of AI, joining investor Marc Andreessen and Stanford economist Charles I. Jones; the lineup has drawn scrutiny over timing and potential conflicts around AI’s role in employment and productivity.
A Bloomberg-sourced report says Microsoft, led by CEO Asha Sharma, plans to expand exclusive titles for Xbox, with Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution confirmed as console exclusives. The strategy aims to grow the Xbox ecosystem by prioritizing tentpole single‑player games on Xbox while keeping multiplayer experiences on other platforms, raising questions about potential future exclusivity for franchises like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls. The move comes as Microsoft conducts significant layoffs in the Xbox division and signals a shift toward closer Xbox/Minecraft integrations and stronger co-marketing with its hardware.
WSJ reports Xbox Game Pass has about 30 million subscribers, well below the 77 million goal Microsoft set for 2026, a target surfaced during the Activision Blizzard deal proceedings. The last official count was 34 million (Sept 2024). CEO Asha Sharma acknowledged the broader Xbox restructuring and price changes that affected growth, saying the company must reset and outwork the path to durable growth.
Game Pass has about 30 million subscribers, roughly 4 million fewer than in 2024, and well short of Microsoft’s target of about 77 million by July 2026 (with a leaked plan for 100 million by 2030). Past price hikes and removing day-one Call of Duty titles are tied to subscriber losses, and internal memos from Xbox CEO Asha Sharma flag ongoing growth concerns as Microsoft adjusts pricing and strategy.
Microsoft’s Xbox unit is undergoing a strategic reset led by CEO Asha Sharma, including mass layoffs and selling off studios, after bets like Xbox Game Pass did not pay off; Game Pass is reportedly around 30 million subscribers (down from 34 million in 2024), with a price hike and changes such as not including new Call of Duty games at launch, prompting a shift to focus on higher-priority projects and selective exclusives; no announced first-party Xbox games have been canceled as part of the reset.
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma outlined a bold goal for Xbox to entertain more than a billion people each day, counting players and Game Pass subscribers, as four studios split off and about 3,600 jobs are cut. While Mojang and King remain strong and titles like Candy Crush, Fortnite, and Roblox illustrate large audiences, their combined peaks still fall well short of a billion, making the aim seem aspirational amid the layoffs and earlier missteps. King and upcoming titles could help close the gap, but the plan faces skepticism from the industry and staff alike.