Overview
- A Wall Street Journal profile published this week reported that CEO Asha Sharma spends several hours each month replying to customer support tickets to learn how players experience Xbox hardware, games and services.
- Sharma says the hands-on work exposed how complex fixing a single player’s issue can be and is meant to surface concrete problems in Xbox’s support and product systems.
- Since taking over in February 2026, Sharma has led a business 'reset' that included sweeping layoffs that grew from about 1,600 roles in July to roughly 3,200 by the end of Microsoft’s fiscal year.
- The reset also involved studio changes and policy shifts, including returning Compulsion Games and Double Fine to independence, moving Ninja Theory and Undead Labs toward new ownership, scrapping an unpopular Xbox AI assistant, and launching a disc-to-digital licensing program.
- Xbox management is publicly targeting a return to growth by June 30, 2027 and higher margins, but the changes have produced both praise for transparency and skepticism that the ticket work is a PR move while workers and players face short-term disruption.