Newly appointed XBOX CEO Asha Sharma has made it clear she wants to turn XBOX into the number one gaming and entertainment company by 2030. Speaking at the Bloomberg Tech event in San Francisco, Sharma talked about the future of the brand and explained how Microsoft’s multi-billion dollar purchases of Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax show how much the company has already put into gaming.
“If you think about it, Microsoft has invested more aggressively than nearly anybody in this category over the last six years. We’ve bought Activision and Zenimax. We’ve invested in our core platform. We’ve invested in hardware cycles. We invest in subsidies even when we’re losing money because of memory and storage,” she added. “So we’re long on gaming. We’re long on XBOX. We’ll keep investing. But we’ve got work to do. You shared the numbers, we’re not in a healthy spot, and so the next 100 days is going to be about resetting the business.”
She also shut down reports that Microsoft wanted a 30% profit margin for the XBOX division, saying that the goal is not simply to hit a profit target. Instead, she said the focus is much bigger than that, with the aim of XBOX becoming the “number one gaming and entertainment company, and that’s what we’re going to go do” by 2030.
Since becoming CEO, Sharma has made several changes. The branding has shifted from “Xbox” to “XBOX,” while the “This is Xbox” campaign and the “Microsoft Gaming” name have been retired. She has also lowered the price of XBOX Game Pass and introduced XBOX Player Voice, a new platform where fans can share feedback, suggestions, and feature requests. There are also reports that XBOX is moving back toward exclusive games to help sell more consoles and strengthen the brand’s identity.
With Sharma planning to “reset the business” and make XBOX the number one gaming company, more changes are likely in the coming months. However, making big commitments is easy, but delivering on them is much harder, especially with strong competition from platforms like PlayStation. Only time will tell whether XBOX can turn this new plan into real success. For more XBOX related coverage, keep checking GameObserver.
