We Are Xbox - Asha Sharma And Matt Booty's Message To The Teams (Xbox Wire)

[Sparda3g]

@Biggzy

Yeah this is back to case by case basis. But this is still a shift because only a few months ago, Xbox was all in on multiplat.

The data so far is mixed: Sea of Thieves and Forza have done really well on Playstation. But then you have Gears which was much more muted.

Sounds to me live service go multi and single stays exclusive. But I let them decide.

[Biggzy]

@Sparda3g

Sounds to me live service go multi and single stays exclusive. But I let them decide.

I am very confident at the very least live service games will continue to be multiplat, as it just makes business sense to reach as many players as possible due to the economics of those games.

[Kals_Els]

@Sparda3g

Xbox chief Asha Sharma also mentioned during her all-hands yesterday that the teams are meeting daily on Project Helix, and that there will also be biweekly Xbox Series S/X console updates until end of the year. The reinvestment in Xbox OS is very interesting.

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) April 24, 2026

Does she mean updates for us? Because that’s way too many and could lead to issues with testing.

Or like updates from the team on how features are coming along.

[Kals_Els]

@Biggzy

Yeah this is back to case by case basis. But this is still a shift because only a few months ago, Xbox was all in on multiplat.

The data so far is mixed: Sea of Thieves and Forza have done really well on Playstation. But then you have Gears which was much more muted.

I think a lot is riding on the rest of the year as big franchises will be launching day and date. If they sell really well, I think nothing changes but if the sales are softer than expected I reckon plans will start changing.

It’s always been case by case, the no red line comment was on which games could be considered for porting. Not every game will get ported of course, but they likely did look into Halo MCC and Infinite to bring to PS5.

But leadership change likely push that back.

[Mort]

@Sparda3g

Xbox chief Asha Sharma also mentioned during her all-hands yesterday that the teams are meeting daily on Project Helix, and that there will also be biweekly Xbox Series S/X console updates until end of the year. The reinvestment in Xbox OS is very interesting.

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) April 24, 2026

All hail the Queen.

[Titan]

@Haven

… Nah they have definitely given her more leeway than the old guard, which is a good thing.

I agree. I’m saying it’s not personal, it’s just timing. This isn’t specifically/solely happening at Xbox is all. In response to “Why wasn’t Phil given this freedom?” He had been. Then at the very end Microsoft was in their “AI is the future phase.” and more strict on everyone to try and find money to support that. Now AI hasn’t panned out and they’ve lost a lot of consumer support, so they’re changing their approach.

[Titan]

@Biggzy

Yeah this is back to case by case basis. But this is still a shift because only a few months ago, Xbox was all in on multiplat.

They weren’t “all in” though. It’s been kinda random. Obsidian made Outer Worlds 2 available everywhere at launch, but Avowed took a year to port over. Keeper is still Xbox & PC only but Kiln is everywhere at launch despite both being similar sized and priced Double Fine games. They haven’t been porting everything over from their backlog or even all releases from earlier this Gen. There’s even still some third party timed exclusives.

It currently very much is case by case. The criteria might change, but it’s also hard to tell now what the criteria is. Seemingly it’s based on what the studio wants as well and their ability to support PS and/or switch as a platform. I also think they’ve been looking at the cost to port and expected sales. Maybe now they’ll throw in an additional criteria of the weight the game can bring for brand reputation value.

[Haven]

@Titan

I agree. I’m saying it’s not personal, it’s just timing. This isn’t specifically/solely happening at Xbox is all. In response to “Why wasn’t Phil given this freedom?” He had been. Then at the very end Microsoft was in their “AI is the future phase.” and more strict on everyone to try and find money to support that. Now AI hasn’t panned out and they’ve lost a lot of consumer support, so they’re changing their approach.

I don’t know/ I do know Microsoft is afraid of losing more market share and there has been a sort of restructuring, but I do feel he favors Asha in some way, it almost sounds like she has carte blanche on too many things maybe because she has worked in AI and seems to get him. I do also feel like Asha on some level talks like Nadella.

[MasterChief]

So this did go viral, this guy has over 2 million followers on Facebook alone, little stuff like this does go a long way, keep it going Asha!

[peter42O]

@Widey85

I’m mostly expecting the “pick and choose” would be more additional stuff on top of the base tiers - similar to what Sky offers in the UK and I’m guessing cable companies do in the US.

For example, Disney Plus and Netflix, both with ads, are included in my Sky sub - but I can pay the difference from that base ad tier to a higher one.

So for example, if they offered a way to upgrade the EA Play or Ubi Classics sub to the Day 1 versions just by paying the difference, I’d likely do it.

I imagine others might be discounts on their own subs like WoW etc.

I just can’t see otherwise the pick and mix approach would change much - people complain about EA Play or Ubi Classics but they likely cost little to nothing, while perks and stuff like Fortnite bucks likely cost Microsoft nothing as they’re advertising offers basically.

For example those 3 month Discord Nitro or Spotify offers for new subscribers cost Xbox nothing - you can get them practically everywhere on mobile phone provider loyalty programs, supermarket loyalty programs, even on the subscription pages themselves.

So removing perks or some old EA / Ubi games are not going to impact the price much - I think people thinking pick and mix means removing those and saving 5 or 10 quid on Ultimate are going to be very disappointed

If I can swap out all the Fortnite and other shit that I have zero interest in for the COD campaign every year at that $30 price tag a month, then im good with it. I just don’t want it to become convoluted and confusing or where it’s a billion different options. But just have to wait and see what happens.

@Titan

This isn’t specifically Satya Nadella giving Asha more freedom than Phil; there has been a wider sweeping change at Microsoft to revitalize the consumer facing businesses. Plus it could very well be that Phil had his hands more tied up integrating ABK and Asha only came in once things were more stable. Nothing Asha is doing is being started from the ground up. Like Helix wasn’t made this year. She’s just executing Xbox’s strategy with the foundation that already exists.

I agree. I just think it’s weird that people are acting like Asha has done God’s work or some shit when Phil could have done the exact same stuff IF Nadella would have let him.

[Titan]

@peter42O

I agree. I just think it’s weird that people are acting like Asha has done God’s work or some shit when Phil could have done the exact same stuff IF Nadella would have let him.

More than that, can we stop acting like Phil’s tenure was only the last two years (even then integrating ABK alone is huge)? Or that most of the stuff on memo Matt and Asha sent wasn’t what Xbox had already been doing?

I think Sharma is great for the marketing and execution. I also think she was given a very strong foundation to work off of. And the last two years in addition to integrating one of the biggest gaming companies, Phil had to deal with the god awful economy and a Microsoft that was pushing for AI. Frankly in hindsight it’s just great that things didn’t get as bad as it could have. Xbox built up a very strong foundation that they can still leverage and push forward.

[clashfan]

This is what I was told by people close to the situation in Game of Thrones terms.

Phil is a conciliator. Sharma is a conqueror.

[Biggzy]

@Titan

…ian made Outer Worlds 2 available everywhere at launch, but Avowed took a year to port over. Keeper is still Xbox & PC only but Kiln is everywhere at launch despite both being similar sized and priced Double Fine games. They haven’t been porting everything over from their backlog or even all releases from earlier this Gen. There’s even still some third party timed exclusives. It currently very much is case by case. The criteria might change, but it’s also hard to tell now what the criteria is. Seemingly it’s based on what the studio wants as well and their ability to support PS and/or switch as a platform. I also think they’ve been looking at the cost to port and expected sales. Maybe now they’ll throw in an additional criteria of the weight the game can bring for brand reputation value.

Jez cleared this up quite a while ago. It was studio bandwidth that would determine if a game launched later on other platforms, but the overall intention was for every game to be multiplatform.

We will see if this starts changing, as per Ash’s comments. It could ultimately stay the same but move towards launching later, which I think is not a great idea as you kinda have the worst of both worlds - the platform still loses exclusivity but the game misses the marketing of the initial release as well.

[Titan]

@Biggzy

Jez cleared this up quite a while ago. It was studio bandwidth that would determine if a game launched later on other platforms, but the overall intention was for every game to be multiplatform.

We will see if this starts changing, as per Ash’s comments. It could ultimately stay the same but move towards launching later, which I think is not a great idea as you kinda have the worst of both worlds - the platform still loses exclusivity but the game misses the marketing of the initial release as well.

Yeah I think successes like Sea of Thieves and Forza Horizon 5 (games launching 4+ years later) on Playstation are massive outliers. For most games once they’re more than a year old and without that initial marketing beat, it becomes very difficult to find an audience and have visibility as a “new” game. Similarly if gamers “expect” an exclusive to eventually port over to other platforms the platform prestige of exclusives disappears. It’s best to pick a lane and make a clear statement, but I dont think we’ll see that for a long while.

[Ironfistchinmi]

@Kals_Els

Or like updates from the team on how features are coming along.

I think it’s this, as the other is too much as you say.

[Staffy]

@Haven

So are they saying acquisitions are back on the table. It sounds like she is being allowed to play with a lot of money. I guess that 30 percent return is really gone.

• Use M&A deliberately to accelerate growth where organic paths are too slow.

They should just pull the trigger and get SIE and the meltdowns would be of unprecedented proportions. And I’ll be like…

[Titan]

@Staffy

They should just pull the trigger and get SIE and the meltdowns would be of unprecedented proportions. And I’ll be like…

I feel like that meltdown is kinda justified. But I’d find it kinda hilarious if Xbox DID go full publisher and bought SIE but Sony retained ownership of PS as a platform. Sony already releases no games and supposedly Xbox as a platform has been dead 100 times over.

[Haven]

@Staffy

They should just pull the trigger and get SIE and the meltdowns would be of unprecedented proportions. And I’ll be like…

I’m not sure anyone has the stomach for acquisitions anymore unless it’s a small one like acquiring Crytek, 4A games and so on.

[Haven]

@clashfan

This is what I was told by people close to the situation in Game of Thrones terms.

Phil is a conciliator. Sharma is a conqueror.

I’d chill with that Asha hasn’t really done anything that pulls on the strings of Microsoft’s money. She has said a lot of things, brought Gamepass price down from $30 by removing COD and in a way charged us 3 dollars extra from the original price before the 30 dollars increase. I’d wait to the June showcase to see if she announces exclusives or not.

[Meister10000]

@Haven

I’d chill with that Asha hasn’t really done anything that pulls on the strings of Microsoft’s money. She has said a lot of things, brought Gamepass price down from $30 by removing COD and in a way charged us 3 dollars extra from the original price before the 30 dollars increase. I’d wait to the June showcase to see if she announces exclusives or not.

I’m more interested in seeing stuff outside Game Pass and in focusing on play anywhere, as well as more support from big- and small-name publishers for the initiative.