Asha Sharma, who took over as Xbox CEO in February, has announced a sweeping leadership overhaul—pulling in several executives from Microsoft’s CoreAI engineering group and telling staff that the gaming division needs to move faster and get closer to its community. “We spend too much time inward instead of with the community,” Sharma wrote in an internal memo viewed by multiple outlets. “We lack the depth we need in some of the fundamentals.”The memo, first reported by CNBC, outlines both new appointments and the departure of two longtime Microsoft veterans who together have nearly five decades at the company.
Four of the five new hires worked directly with Sharma at CoreAI
The biggest addition is Jared Palmer, former VP of product at CoreAI, who joins as VP of Xbox engineering. Sharma says he’ll work directly with her on the division’s most complex product and engineering problems. Before Microsoft, Palmer was VP of AI at Vercel—a company that acquired his startup Turborepo in 2021.Tim Allen, another CoreAI and GitHub veteran, will lead Xbox design—the first time, Sharma notes, the division will unite product design, engineering, research, and creative work under one roof. Jonathan McKay, who spent a year running growth for ChatGPT at OpenAI before joining CoreAI, takes the same role at Xbox. Evan Chaki, a general manager at CoreAI, will lead a new team of forward-deployed engineers focused on cutting repetitive development work.Rounding out the new faces is David Schloss, a senior director from Instacart—where Sharma previously served as COO—who will head Xbox’s subscriptions and cloud business.
Two 24-year Microsoft veterans are stepping aside as Sharma’s era takes shape
On the way out are Kevin Gammill, corporate VP of Xbox user experience, and Roanne Sones, corporate VP of Xbox devices and ecosystem. Both spent 24 years at Microsoft. Sones will take a leave of absence after this summer before returning as an advisor; Gammill is departing outright.Several existing Xbox leaders are also getting new mandates. Jason Ronald, formerly VP of Xbox gaming devices, is being elevated to lead Project Helix—Microsoft’s next-generation console effort. Jason Beaumont steps into an interim head of engineering role, while Fatima Kardar takes on a new personalization organization focused on search and discovery alongside her existing AI responsibilities.The reshuffle comes as Xbox reported a 33% drop in hardware revenue last quarter. Sharma has already cut Game Pass prices and reversed the decision to include new Call of Duty titles in the subscription at launch. The Copilot gaming feature, announced for consoles just two months ago, is also being wound down.
