Microsoft appoints outsider Asha Sharma to overhaul struggling Xbox gaming unit

Asha Sharma, a 38-year-old former Meta product VP and Instacart COO, was installed by Satya Nadella to rescue Xbox, a division whose profit margin has slipped to about 3%. Within months she has eliminated 1,868 jobs and is preparing additional layoff waves, while trimming management layers and reallocating resources to high-value franchises like Blizzard Entertainment. Sharma’s plan includes a tiered Game Pass offering, a handheld device slated for the 2027 holiday season, and a new console expected in 2028, all built around the Project Helix hardware platform.

She is also creating a dedicated commercial arm to monetize top IPs such as Minecraft and is leveraging AI to accelerate engineering. The overhaul has sparked speculation about a possible future spinoff, but senior Microsoft officials say Xbox remains a strategic asset for cloud and retail partnerships. Sharma’s aggressive, boardroom-style leadership contrasts with her predecessor Phil Spencer’s gamer-focused image, making the Xbox revival a closely watched experiment.