Like a whole new email messaging system? That’d be a LOT of work. Gmail had to be in beta for years. An email platform is a lot. They probably already have an internal messaging system, but there’s no reason to separate that into just Xbox. But an Xbox messenger is just Xbox chat right? I mean they aren’t going to make an Xbox version of Microsoft Teams with all the features they need to share documents and do productivity and what not. They don’t even seem to want to chase a robust gaming messanger with discord around (no one does).
Internal shake up to make the change possible.
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Maybe it will help? I just don’t really see how, as Xbox and AI are two completely different business. So, going all in on technical expertise doesn’t seem like it’s going to help.
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I’m reminded of how much business is just about connections. Like presumably these people are qualified, but also if Sharma hadn’t worked with them and liked their work while on the CoreAI team then they wouldn’t be getting promoted over onto Xbox. For that matter it also sounds like CoreAI is dead. I don’t know if that was already confirmed.
The most interesting thing to me is that Jason is getting promoted for leading the next Gen charge. Not sure what you promote “VP of next gen” to, but he does deserve flowers. There’s also a statement and Sarah Bond is still being kept on in her advisory role. I’m assuming Phil is too. I wonder how long those last? Will we have some type of ceremonial departure at the June Showcase. Will they just stay on in those through the year and after that it’s like a, “We’ve taught her everything we know about the industry and business.”?
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At their level, very little is actual technical expertise - as in, they’re rarely going to get to actually code or build / design hardware etc.
Instead, it’s more important they can understand what technical people are telling them, can understand good design and messaging, and most of all, can make decisions and keep things in line towards a strategic goal / vision while still delivering for their users and not working their staff to death.
I’m still very hands on, but still a lot of my level now is design meetings, keeping suppliers in line and most of all translating our user requirements and project management stuff into technical requirements and back again - and I’m nowhere near their level.
Once you’ve got a good technical understanding, you can honestly work with almost any technology in any business - and the higher you go, the more it’s about budgets, keeping scope creep in check to deliver on time and empowering your teams, the only requirements are to understand, learn and support.
So their background wouldn’t worry me too much, as long as they’re willing to learn the differences
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The Gauntlet is here!
— Halo (@Halo) May 5, 2026
A new Firefight mode drops in Halo Infinite today: Five rounds of endless enemies, progressed only by defeating bosses, guaranteed to put even the strongest Fireteams to the test.
Think you can handle the heat? ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/vxraA2jQkX
Maybe Asha wearing that Halo jacket is a sign. But in all seriousness, I wasn’t expecting a new content.
Edit: Whoops. Wrong place. But I’ll leave it here since I did mention Asha with her jacket.
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New boot up coming next Wednesday. Sound on! pic.twitter.com/9HHrZHwjpH
— Asha (@asha_shar) May 6, 2026
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https://t.co/BZk5wWbsch pic.twitter.com/qzbL4DthhS
— Stein (@steinekin) May 6, 2026
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According to the source, Tom said Asha is thoroughly looking at options for exclusivity. No decision is made as of now. This could be the breakthrough move if we have to judge the internet audience.
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— Stein (@steinekin) May 7, 2026
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It’d be nice if we could just move on. But the internet and gamers being the internet and gamers. Exclusivity really just seems limiting to me, and it’s still wild how gamers are clamoring for it. Like why are non Xbox gamers chastising Xbox for sharing games. Shouldn’t they be the ones pushing for no exclusives? It’s wild when elsewhere people are complaining about fatigue over all the originals and streaming services on needs and those aren’t even hardware exclusive.
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So case by case basis? You know, which has some games go everywhere, but others be exclusive(MCC, Halo 5, Gears 4 and Gears 5).
Also, no redline wasn’t talking about porting every game. It was that every game is subject to be reviewed for porting or not.
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That won’t fly with this crowd. They’re calling her empress now but once she says time exclusive or some sort, it’s all rakes again. She’s stuck in a hard place. I do wish her well but to me she’s every bit as corporate as Nadella.
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Asha is definitely a corpo, she has her training and she knows how to rile up the people to get them on her products side.
But she also understands that she needs to do things that keep the current player base happy to get the most
Crowd to upgrade next gen and continue supporting the platform. Personally, I consider myself to be a hardcore Bubbles and I want to upgrade as soon as I can, but the fact that CoD was going to stay everywhere and just 4 games. Was what cemented for me that Xbox would be in for 3rd party for the long run. As Phil and Sarah mentioned it won’t be everything, but the thing they think make sense would get a multi platform release.
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You don’t get to being a CEO without being corporate and regardless Xbox will always have to answer to the CEO & CFO of Microsoft & ultimately the shareholders/investors. I’m not going to fault her for the reality of business, but I do think people always had an overblown response to Xbox’s stance of multiplatform releases. The industry is just changing. Playstation has also pursued a case by case strategy for exclusives. Arguably it’s just more embarrassing that they started with MLB the show where they weren’t even given a choice. PS has also lost a lot of their third party exclusives and they don’t really have that many first party games releasing to make exclusive at this rate.
Financially there’s no reason not to do multiplatform for every game that will sell well on PS and Nintendo because the console market isn’t even really fighting over market share anymore. However, there is that crowd to please. I do find it funny because it doesn’t seem like anything will actually change. As has been said Xbox has always been case by case and the no red lines just reiterated that (no red lines didn’t meant everything will be multiplatform day once, but it did mean that there’s nothing that can’t be). We have seen Xbox pursue a more aggressive multiplatform strategy because yeah that does mean their games make more money. If it started eating into a bottom line or they actively saw people dropping the platform then they’d pull back. Xbox can and always will do what makes the most business sense.
Honestly though, I’m not even sure why people still think exclusives are this holy grail. When there’s a massive amount of game difference like all the many many japanese publishers that didn’t support Xbox in the past then I get it. But for whom is it worth it to drop $400+ on a machine just to play one or two games? Especially when the best games continue to be third party and even the best multiplayer games are third party often with crossplay and crosssave. It just seems like fighting over pear clutching, and I’m not really sure who it’s supposed to benefit when these games still have to have a certain standard of quality (a higher one actually) and cost increasingly more money to develop.
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I believe whatever decision she makes, she is likely going to find a way to address it rather than vague alas case by case phrase. Like she could say, “live service focus titles will be going to all platform.” Something like that. It’s definitely a tough choice, especially when you don’t know where will it land.
Multiplatform choice led them no confidence walk out from fans and not exactly strong feedback from titles aside from FH and SoT. I think Starfield is one of the few exceptions. The point is, this decision is always a gamble and you can only hope for the best result.
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I mean the other games didn’t do THAT strongly on Xbox & PC either (Pentiment, AOE, etc). It could also be said that the problem was that they were late ports with very little marketing, so it’d actually be better to do multiplatform day one. I’m also not sure if a big walkout ever happened just like I’m not sure the price increase for Game Pass Ultimate ever really cost them that much. These seems like bigger problems for the vocal minority and wins to make them happy on Twitter. Which I don’t think that’s without merit. Xbox won’t have an easy time marketing to new people if there’s negative buzz around it. You’re right. It’s a gamble, but it’s also a superficial gamble that needn’t be.
On the phrasing, I mean… can she say that? Phil gave the most honest answer the business can give. Playstation for example never said “only XYZ” type of game because they can’t guarantee it’ll be that way. They said nothing and that’s just the conclusion people came to, and it’s not even a true conclusion because there’s been a mix for the PC & Xbox ports. Xbox is even more different because a lot of their history is in live service. They can say “Only live service games” but much of that would be the pillar games that people are making a fuss over like Halo & Gears. Most of their single player games are new IP at this point. Then there’s also games like Ninja Gaiden 4 which I don’t think that could have been made if it didn’t launch on PS day one. Xbox just isn’t big enough in the east and it was a joint effort with Xbox Game Studios publishing but Team Ninja and Platinum Games developing.
Long before consoles first party games, no publisher has ever made a vocal promise to fans about what type of games would be on what platforms. Inevitably they’re going to get caught in a lie. Maybe a deal gets made for this or that game. Maybe dev kits aren’t sent out properly. Maybe the projections happen and the only way XYZ game gets made is if it does or doesn’t release on XYZ platforms. Its impossible to know. I’d say either don’t say anything or give a direct honest answer that is, “We don’t have a crystal ball. We will review options for every game and decide what is best for that game.”
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Playstation are really the masters of messaging. They are also multi platform but no one seems to realize it. All the talk is about xbox’s multi platform strategies. Love Jez, but on an xbox2 a week or two ago, he went on a pretty good rant about exclusivity and openly said xbox is the only one that is struggling with this and are doing it. Talked about brand damage to xbox while nintendo/ps continue to be exclusive. I’m like, ps’s biggest game of the year released a month ago on xbox and pc. Their biggest game of this gen released on xbox and pc. this gen they have released games on xbox, nintendo, and pc. No one seems to realize this.
So I think asha’s exclusivity challenge is completely around messaging. She has to figure out how to message it so that they can continue multi platform but no one notices just like ps does. I have no idea how she can turn that around, but I believe she has a strong background in this type of messaging/marketing. So will see.
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why does the community seem to accept live service games are ok to be multi platform? The reason I generally hear is live service/multi player games need as many players as possible to succeed. Ok, that is fine, but why isn’t that also true for single player games? Don’t single player games need lots of players to succeed as well?
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I believe they see it as live service needs longevity and so, more people from other platform is needed. In theory. Single player only needs one time if not couple more for replays. Live service is in theory a forever game. But we’ll see. Maybe FH6 can be their test since it’s only coming to Xbox/PC.