Asha Sharma is trending due to her recent appointment as the new CEO of Microsoft Gaming, a significant development within one of the largest sectors of the gaming industry. This transition has sparked considerable interest, given the prominence of the newly formed role, especially following the retirement of longtime gaming head Phil Spencer. The shift in leadership at a major tech company naturally draws attention, particularly when it involves high-profile individuals.
Recent news articles have highlighted Sharma’s background within Microsoft and her ascension to this key position, further fueling search interest. Notably, Variety reported on her vision for the future of gaming, including the integration of AI into game development, which aligns with current trends in technology and gaming. This connection to innovation resonates with a broad audience eager to understand the implications of her leadership.
Additionally, the coverage from Reuters emphasizes the impact of this leadership change at a time when the gaming industry is experiencing rapid evolution and competitive pressures. As queries about her plans for Microsoft Gaming and experiences in the role increased, the search interest surged above 20,000, reflecting a strong public curiosity about her potential influence on the company’s direction and the gaming landscape overall.
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Internet Reacts
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\> The new CEO of Microsoft Gaming will be Asha Sharma, currently the President of Microsoft’s CoreAI product. hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
C
Formerly with Meta and Insta Cart? Ehhhhhhhhhhh
T
>Ehhhhhhhhhhh Replace the H with a W
B
CEO of Enshittification.
K
Chief Enshitification Officer is an appropriate title.
U
> Instacart Saying this as a shopper who plays Xbox…fudge
L
And on the board of Home Depot!
S
It’s never been so joever
M
Both Phil and Sarah gone, Xbox leadership is getting culled and console hardware is probably next Matt Booty is like the worst pick for a promotion he has a track record of terrible management
T
Matt Booty is a suit who will do what his bosses say no questions asked. He’s the perfect replacement as far as management is concerned
V
Aislop production up 1000% at Microsoft headquarters.
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“Man Who Thought He’d Lost All Hope Loses Last Additional Bit Of Hope He Didn’t Even Know He Still Had”
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Todd Howard: “We won’t use AI” Asha: “Oh, really?”
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Xbox AI games incoming
A
Microsoft proving it can always get worse
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The level of over they’ve just reached doesn’t have an accurate word to describe how over it is
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Why have her in charge instead of Sarah Bond? Wasn’t she supposed to be the heir apprent?
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Obviously Bond’s vision of the future of Xbox and Satya Nadella’s vision of the future of Xbox didn’t mesh.
S
So Bond wasn’t pro-AI enough for Nadella then.
A
This reeks of a Sayta overriding Phil’s decision. Especially as it’s been obvious for the last two years that Phil was setting Sarah up to be his successor.
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The sooner Nadella is out of MS, the better. Dude has been absolutely huffing AI
O
Copilot is so ass
D
I mean it’s not like the Xbox brand has been going well enough that I’d be overly confident in keep any of the current hierarchy.
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Microsoft is knees deep in OpenAI and is a multi trillion dollar business. They couldn’t care less about games – if they show can make games with AI their market cap will rise enough for them to just buy Sony. Seriously – Sony’s market cap is 140 billion while Microsoft is on pace to make $140 billion profit in 2026. Microsoft will use Xbox to showcase their AI products.
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Xbox is next-level dead with this, holy cow. Microsoft speedrunning enshitification in every corner of their company. Hope it just all collapses at this point
C
🤖 AI generated Master Chief 🤖 It’s actually getting worse for Xbox wow
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Four years as VP of product and engineering at Meta Three years as Operating Chief at Insta-Cart Xbox is beyond fucked.
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I don’t think Phil will be remembered fondly, but having an AI exec in charge does not breed confidence.
D
Someone tweeted out yesterday how Sony does something bad like shutting down bluepoint, but then Microsoft follows up their bad news by stepping on a landmine right after. I can’t believe how quickly they stepped on a landmine. Not that they had legs to really lose at this point, but still.
R
This reminds me of when I was a teenager and got a bad report card the same day my stepsister crashed her car.
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Result. Soft blows all round
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I’d imagine the car crash would overshadow/soften the blow of the report card. Was that not the case?
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That’s what I thought they meant, the parents barely cared about the card because they were focused on the car
R
Yeah, if I recall, I barely even remember talking about the card.
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Just assuming, but the crash would’ve pissed off the parents who the proceded to be even more negative and upset at the report card than normal because they were already angry.
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It depends on what came first. I hope the report card was first lol
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Maybe they have the inside scoop on news and decide to release their bad news right before the Xbox news breaks.
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That’d be so funny tbh
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Sony’s strategy for the console wars for the last… I wanna say decade has been “Let Microsoft do literally anything because Jesus Christ.” And it’s been working out phenomenally well
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I’m pretty sure you could put any random Xbox fan in charge of Xbox circa 2012 and they would have done a better job than Microsoft has, it’s genuinely impressive how quickly and fully they threw out their lead coming out of the 360 era
R
even the back half of the 360 era they were in trouble. Their focus on kinect and failure to have any system-selling franchises outside of Halo & Gears of War was really noticeable around 2010-2011, it just wasn’t apparent until the xbox one.
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True, but that Xbox one reveal I think single handedly killed the brand tbh, it put them on the back foot immediately and they never caught up again
R
It absolutely put them on the back foot. But if they released a continuous stream of high quality exclusives, that wouldn’t have mattered in the long run. Sony put the PS3 on worse starting ground against the 360 at the start, but they managed to recover by the end. It took until like, 2024 for Xbox to have a continuous stream of exclusive/Xbox published games released. Far too late at that point.
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It was bad timing too bc the 7th Gen was the most crucial, it’s when digital games started becoming a thing and to get ppl to switch meant giving up/rebuilding your library. Microsoft spinning in circles trying to get *anything* out was the death blow
C
I think that the Kinect was a good idea with a really bad execution. The technology was not ready yet, in fact even if made on this day I don’t think that we could have a 100% function Kinect. Microsoft did had made some good exclusive, but the lack of marketing did put them in obscurity. I feel like the Xbox One was they change of finally turning thing around, but they screwed over so badly that they never recover.
H
The problem with the Kinect is that microsoft refuses to learn from Apple. The Kinect failed for the same reason windows phone failed. Nobody really cares about the physical tech, they care about the apps or in this case games. Microsoft figured if they build the tech, someone else will make great games for it but that’s not the case. Microsoft should have funded some 20-30 studios to hold Kinect games that are actually fun to play and have good story and not just highlighting the tech. iPhone and android were successful because of the app stores. Doesn’t matter if you have some random IR repeater or a fingerprint reader or a stylus or a folding screen. At the end of the day if there are no apps nobody will buy your product.
H
I get it: motion controls were popular and it was a fad. But also the Xbox One reveal was absolutely terrible and Titanfall wasn’t the new IP sensation they were hoping for.
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One of the biggest fumbles in gaming history, for real. The 2013 E3 was one for the books. Xbox dropped the ball SO HARD. I still remember watching the whole massacre live, I knew I was watching history right there.
H
The thing that always gets me is that Sony’s PS4 rollout was nothing special and their games weren’t playable at E3 except for Driveclub. You could play all the first party games at the Xbox booth. It didn’t matter though. They fucked up the always online DRM shit beyond repair.
K
Sony has the exact same plans for always online and DRM, including wanting to package the move controllers with the console like MS did with Kinect. MS went first and there was massive negative backlash, and Sony pivoted away from all of it.
Additional Sources:
Variety – New Microsoft Gaming, Xbox CEO: Asha Sharma on Great Games, AI Use
Reuters – Microsoft Gaming head Phil Spencer retires, insider Asha Sharma takes over
