Microsoft’s newly appointed gaming boss Asha Sharma has made more leadership changes at Xbox, this time hiring a handful of executives to help lead the company that include an industry analyst who said games were losing the attention war to gambling, porn and crypto.
That analyst is Matthew Ball, who joins Xbox as chief strategy officer, The Game Business reports, and is reportedly tasked first and foremost with strengthening the console side of Xbox, especially in light of rising component costs.
Ball worked previously as head of strategy at Amazon Studios and, more recently, as a venture capitalist and market advisor. He’s the author of the book The Metaverse, which explains what the concept is and why it’s important – not to be confused with Facebook owner Meta’s expensive technological flop – and of the annual State of Video Gaming report. It was that report earlier this year that Ball referenced the “attention war” games are fighting with booming technologies like TikTok, crypto, AI apps and OnlyFans.
Xbox is also hiring a new chief technology officer in Scott Van Vliet, who has an AI-focused background at Microsoft but has worked in games as well. He apparently worked at Amazon Game Studios – not a great look right now – and helped lead the Digital Play team at toy manufacturer Mattel. Vliet’s job is reportedly to improve how Xbox builds products; I wonder if this includes its new Xbox console Project Helix.
“These changes are about strengthening our foundation by creating more clarity and improving execution,” Asha Sharma apparently said in an email to staff. “As we head toward Showcase and beyond, we’ll continue making the changes needed to position Xbox for the future.” The showcase Sharma is referring to is the Xbox Games Showcase 2026, which airs 7th June at 6pm UK time.
These executive Xbox hires follow several from earlier in the month, which saw Sharma bring in more people with AI backgrounds to help run the division. This doesn’t necessarily mean Xbox is going full-throttle AI, though AI remains a big part of Microsoft’s overall strategy, but could be because Sharma has an AI background herself and knows these people from there. In fact, Sharma ditched the AI-driven gaming sidekick idea Copilot recently in an effort to get the division moving faster.
Sharma was appointed as boss of Xbox when Phil Spencer retired earlier this year, and has since made numerous tweaks and changes to the Xbox business – ditching the ‘Xbox Play Anywhere’ campaign most notably – as she promises to “reset” the console business and rejuvenate it. There have been encouraging noises, but the changes are only incremental and theoretical currently.
Meanwhile, Microsoft continues to face political pressure from movements calling to boycott its gaming business because of the company’s ties to Israel’s Ministry of Defense and the storage of personal Palestinian information on Microsoft server hosting facilities.