Asha Sharma named EVP and CEO, Microsoft Gaming as Phil Spencer retires and Xbox president Sarah Bond departs
Microsoft announced that asha sharma will become Executive Vice President and CEO, Microsoft Gaming, in a corporate leadership reshuffle that follows the retirement of long‑time gaming chief Phil Spencer and the resignation of Xbox president Sarah Bond. The appointments reassign platform and content oversight at a moment the company says its gaming services reach more than 500 million monthly active users.
Asha Sharma: Development details
In a company communication dated Feb. 20, 2026, Satya Nadella shared that Asha Sharma will report directly to him as head of Microsoft Gaming. The message noted Sharma’s recent two years at Microsoft and her prior roles as Chief Operating Officer at Instacart and a vice president at Meta, highlighting experience building large consumer platforms and developer ecosystems.
As part of the reorganization, Matt Booty will become Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer, reporting to Sharma. The announcement credited Booty’s leadership with growing the company’s portfolio to roughly 40 studios spanning Xbox, Bethesda, Activision Blizzard, and King, and listed major franchises under those studios, including Halo, The Elder Scrolls, Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Candy Crush, and Fallout.
The company communication framed the changes as succession planning following Phil Spencer’s retirement last year. The post also said Spencer will continue working closely with Sharma to ensure a smooth transition.
Context and pressure points
The leadership changes come after a period of explicit succession discussion. The corporate message recalled Spencer’s 38 years with the company, including 12 years leading the gaming business, and credited him with expanding the unit’s reach across PC, mobile and cloud, nearly tripling the business, and guiding acquisitions such as Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax and Minecraft.
Separately, Xbox president Sarah Bond resigned after nearly a decade with the console brand. Bond joined Xbox in 2017, advanced to roles overseeing business development, partnerships and creator experience, and was named President of Xbox in 2022. In a farewell message she posted later the same day, Bond wrote that she had decided this was the right time to take her next step, noting progress on PC and cloud gaming and that a next console is underway.
Spencer’s transition statement explicitly referenced Bond’s decision to leave, praising her contributions to platform strategy, expansion of Game Pass and cloud gaming, and support for hardware launches. Other executives who issued messages about the leadership changes did not reference Bond’s departure in their communications.
Immediate impact
The reassignments reorganize how content and platform strategy are led: Asha Sharma will oversee the broader gaming organization while Matt Booty will focus on the content pipeline across the company’s studios. The corporate message emphasized the combination of consumer product leadership and gaming experience as the rationale for the leadership pairing.
For employees and studio leaders, the transition will be supported directly by Phil Spencer, who remains involved to help stabilize reporting relationships and ongoing projects. For players and creators, the communication reiterated the scale of the gaming business, noting more than 500 million monthly active users and a multi‑studio content portfolio that includes well‑known franchises.
Bond’s public farewell framed her departure as a personal and professional next step and underscored work completed during a period that included the 2022 intention to acquire Activision Blizzard. Her note highlighted the organization’s progress in cloud and PC gaming and positioned her exit as the opening for new leadership to guide future initiatives.
Forward outlook
The company has identified immediate structural milestones: Asha Sharma will assume the executive CEO role for Microsoft Gaming and Matt Booty will take on chief content responsibilities, with Phil Spencer assisting the handover. The communication set a clear managerial line — Sharma reporting to the chief executive — and positioned Booty beneath her for content strategy.
What makes this notable is the consolidation of platform product leadership and content oversight under a newly constituted executive tandem while the outgoing leader remains engaged to smooth the transfer. The timing matters because the organization is midstream on multiple strategic fronts identified in internal messages — major studio programs, a next console effort referenced by the departing Xbox president, and a global platform that leadership says serves hundreds of millions of users. The matter remains under review where executives have not provided additional operational timelines beyond the transition support already announced.
Confirmed next steps are limited to the executive appointments and Spencer’s continued role in transition; the company’s communications invite attention to how the new leaders will pair platform scaling with content stewardship in the months ahead.
