Microsoft Gaming, chief executive Asha Sharma, is promising a more human vibe for Xbox, and she is already swinging at “bad AI”.
In her first big interview since taking over after Microsoft, former gaming chief Phil Spencer retired, Sharma told Variety that “great games” need “deep emotional resonance” and “a distinct point of view.”
Sharma laid out her priorities in an internal memo announcing her promotion, listing “great games,” “the return of Xbox” and the “future of play.”
Sharma, whose earlier gigs include senior roles at Instacart and Meta, said she wants stories that make players “feel something,” pointing to Campo Santo’s 2016 mystery Firewatch.
She admitted she is an outsider to the gaming world and has “a lot to learn,” but insisted she will stay “grounded in what the community is telling us.”
“I’m coming into gaming as a platform builder and must earn the right to be trusted by players and developers and prove ‘consistency over time,” she said.
Sharma is taking charge of the main rival to Sony’s PlayStation and Nintendo, as the industry is in a rough patch, and expectations are all over the shop.
In the Variety interview, she referenced Matthew Ball’s State of Video Gaming in 2026 report, calling the sector’s “transformation” a case of “protecting what we believe in while remaining open-minded about the future.”
Her AI background has some people fretting about generative tools creeping into everything, so Sharma went straight for the jugular with “no tolerance for bad AI.”
“AI has long been part of gaming and will continue to be… the business needs new ‘growth engines, but that ‘great stories are created by humans.”
