Phil Spencer’s Retirement Was Planned – Xbox Chaos Announcement Wasn’t, New Report Says – WGB
The other day, I posted a quick story about Greg Miller that seemed to suggest that Phil Spencer’s retirement was unplanned and was actually the result of Microsoft firing him in favor of a new CEO. However, Tom Warren of The Verge now comes up with a different story.
Writing in The Verge (Paywalled), Warren reiterates the idea that Spencer did indeed make the decision to retire last year. However, what was not planned was when the announcement was made. According to Warren, “Microsoft was forced to announce early because it started leaking again IGN he was planning to run the story, according to sources familiar with the situation.”
This is said to have started a day of chaos as teams within Xbox heard about Phil’s decision from reporters and news reports first, instead of using any internal memos. This may be where some of the confusion Greg Miller mentioned comes from – it wasn’t Spencer’s retirement that was unplanned, it was the announcement itself.
Warren also goes into more depth about Sarah Bond, the President of Xbox who also announced that she is leaving Xbox instead of taking Spencer’s role, as many thought.
“The decision to ignore Bond may have come as a surprise to many Xbox fans, but to more than a dozen current and former Microsoft employees I spoke with, it seemed inevitable in recent months,” Warren said in his post.
It seems Bond wasn’t ready for the announcement, either.
Microsoft executives shared four memos with Xbox teams on Friday, but only Phil Spencer spoke about Bond. Satya Nadella, Microsoft Gaming EVP Matt Bootyand new Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma all had kind words for Spencer, but no mention of Bond. “Even Bond’s memo to his teams didn’t arrive until hours after the announcement and wasn’t part of Microsoft’s blog,” Warren wrote.
Warren explains that Bond was the driving force behind turning everything into an Xbox. Ads were playing showing tablets and phones on Xbox. Warren says the campaign “upset a lot of Xbox employees internally.”
“Most current and former Xbox employees I’ve spoken to in recent days are relieved that Bond is leaving Microsoft,” Warren said. “I’ve heard from many sources that Bond was difficult to work with, and he created a team structure that meant if you didn’t follow the vision or had doubts, you were out.”
Warren notes that the decision not to go with Bond and instead promote Asha Sharma reflects a strategic reset for Xbox. Reading his memo, however, it doesn’t seem like they plan to back away from being multiplatform.
Unsurprisingly, Sharma’s promotion has many employees worried because of his background in using Microsoft’s CoreAI Product and his lack of any experience in games and entertainment.
Although, to his credit. Sharma doesn’t even pretend to be an actor, and has been taking suggestions for games to try out from people at X. Bond obviously went to great lengths to cultivate an image of being a gamer like Phil Spencer, but he really wasn’t.
“Those who know Sharma best describe him as passionate, willing to learn, and able to get teams working with a clear vision rather than a product builder,” Warren said in his article. “He also has a history at Instacart and Meta of overseeing the launch of the platform and getting people to use the products, the kind of user acquisition that Xbox has failed at in recent years.”
Warren’s report suggests that this was not a sudden collapse of leadership, but a carefully planned transition revealed when leaks forced Microsoft’s hand. In the process, long-standing internal rifts emerged, key figures were quietly sidelined, and Xbox now finds itself entering a new era under leadership that many employees are still trying to understand.
I can’t say that I’m completely convinced that Spencer’s departure was actually his decision, but I think we can say with certainty that Bond’s decision to leave was forced by Microsoft’s decision to give the throne of Xbox to someone else.
