{"id":25268,"date":"2026-05-06T15:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T15:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/25268\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T15:06:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T15:06:00","slug":"microsofts-new-xbox-shake-up-is-all-about-platform-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/25268\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft\u2019s new Xbox shake-up is all about platform changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microsoft\u2019s new Xbox chief, Asha Sharma, has spent the past couple of months making her mark<\/a> on the Xbox organization. After focusing on highly requested Xbox<\/a> console features, reducing the price of Game Pass<\/a>, and moving Microsoft Gaming back to Xbox<\/a>, Sharma is reorganizing the Xbox platform team at Microsoft today.<\/p>\n

The changes will see some veterans depart, promotions, and new faces with more technical expertise to help the Xbox platform team. Jared Palmer, who used to work with Sharma in Microsoft\u2019s CoreAI division, is joining Xbox as VP of engineering and a technical adviser to Sharma. In a memo to Xbox employees, seen by The Verge, Sharma says that Palmer will work \u201cdirectly with me on our most complex product and engineering problems, with a focus on developer tooling, taste, and infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tim Allen, former Microsoft CoreAI VP of design and GitHub\u2019s senior VP of design and research, is also joining Xbox to lead design. Sharma says Allen\u2019s appointment is the \u201cfirst time bringing together product design, design engineering, research, and creative with a fan-first focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonathan McKay, former head of growth at Microsoft\u2019s CoreAI division, is also joining Xbox to lead its growth, data platform, and analytics. Evan Chaki, a former general manager in CoreAI, is joining a new team in Xbox to \u201clead a forward-deployed engineering group focused on removing repetitive work, simplifying development, and improving how we operate.\u201d<\/p>\n

That are a lot of people joining Xbox from Microsoft\u2019s CoreAI team, and it seems like Sharma is bringing over her former colleagues to give the Xbox organization a little more technical expertise for platforms and experience with things like growth and data. It\u2019s also a lot of AI experience, which is bound to sound the alarm bells with some Xbox fans, but looking at the appointments there\u2019s no clear AI push for Xbox here.<\/p>\n

In fact, last week Sharma posted on X<\/a> that Xbox is \u201crefocusing our AI efforts to solving player problems like enhancing real-time graphics, improving discovery, and deepening personalization.\u201d That sure sounds like a lot more focus on improving the underlying Xbox software platform instead.<\/p>\n

These leadership changes at Xbox largely affect the platform teams under former Xbox president Sarah Bond. Microsoft originally announced Bond\u2019s departure<\/a> in February, and she has remained in place as a \u201cspecial advisor\u201d to Sharma to help with the leadership transition. Many had expected Bond would be named Xbox chief, but Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella decided to shake up<\/a> Xbox leadership with an outsider.<\/p>\n

As part of this new Xbox shake-up, Roanne Sones, corporate vice president of Xbox devices and ecosystem, will be \u201ctaking a leave of absence after this summer and will be staying on as an advisor.\u201d Sones previously reported up to Bond, and helped lead the launch of the Xbox Ally devices.<\/p>\n

Kevin Gammill, corporate vice president of Xbox user experience, is also stepping down after nearly 20 years at Microsoft. \u201cHe has dedicated more than 15 years to Xbox and will support the transition,\u201d says Sharma. \u201cI\u2019m grateful for his leadership and everything he has built here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Ronald, vice president of next gen, is also getting a promotion as part of these changes. \u201cOn hardware, we are elevating Jason Ronald, accountable for Project Helix, and our platform,\u201d says Sharma. It\u2019s not clear what Ronald\u2019s new title is, though. Jason Beaumont \u201cwill lead the product and serve as interim head of engineering,\u201d as part of these changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an important time for Xbox,\u201d says Sharma. \u201cOur goal with this change is simple: build a platform that is affordable, personal, and open by staying close to the work and the people we serve. We will continue to add the capabilities needed to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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See All Xbox<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Microsoft\u2019s new Xbox chief, Asha Sharma, has spent the past couple of months making her mark on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1404,8,3244,9,976,7,3245],"class_list":{"0":"post-25268","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-gaming","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-microsoft","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-tech","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-xbox"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116528256295487277","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}