- Xbox CEO Asha Sharma blames previous leadership for spreading the brand too thin.
- She argues the company brought too many studios under its umbrella.
- At the same time, Xbox failed to focus on its core business and values in pursuit of exponential growth.
Xbox has undergone a major shift, with over 1,000 layoffs affecting multiple talented teams across studios. The brand has also removed four first-party studios from under its management, but it aims to fund them for a while so they can finish existing projects.
In a new interview, Asha Sharma blamed Phil Spencer and the previous leadership for its current state.
The new CEO argues that Xbox spread itself way too thin by acquiring multiple studios. Expanding too fast and too suddenly backfired for the gaming company instead.
Why it matters: The new Xbox leadership has finally realized that the ‘bigger is better’ ethos is not the way forward for the company. Instead, the brand aims to redeem itself by focusing on money-making core franchises and investing in fewer first-party studios.
Speaking to Fortune, Asha Sharma says that Phil Spencer made wild bets to expand the Xbox business. This strategy of acquiring many studios failed to bring results because the previous leadership did not focus on the Xbox’s core business.
In order to grow, we made a bunch of bets… and as we did that, we inherently didn’t focus on the core business.
-Xbox CEO, Asha Sharma.
A lot of those invested resources failed to reap the results Xbox expected and, in fact, may have caused more damage than good in the process. Therefore, the current reorganization efforts are merely an attempt to reset and reshape the company.
The number one measure of your strategy is what you put your resources behind, and we simply spread ourselves too thin.
The new Xbox leadership is betting on launching games faster in the annual core money-making franchises. The way first-party studios operate will also be simplified, as some teams were operating under a staggering 14 layers of management.
Do you think the previous Xbox leadership made the wrong decision to acquire so many studios? Did the brand really neglect its core business? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, or join the discussion on the Tech4Gamers forum.
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Shameer Sarfaraz has previously worked for eXputer as a Senior News Writer for several years. Now with Tech4Gamers, he loves to devoutly keep up with the latest gaming and entertainment industries. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and years of experience reporting on games. Besides his passion for breaking news stories, Shahmeer loves spending his leisure time farming away in Stardew Valley. VGC, IGN, GameSpot, Game Rant, TheGamer, GamingBolt, The Verge, NME, Metro, Dot Esports, GameByte, Kotaku Australia, PC Gamer, and more have cited his articles.
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