Freshly minted Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma has kicked off the most recent period of Xbox management with an open thread on Elon Musk’s social media platform. Coming from Microsoft’s AI division, the previous marketer with little expertise in gaming faces a wave of skepticism from followers on the actual second when belief within the Xbox model has by no means been extra challenged following waves of developer layoffs, recreation cancellations, and studio closures.
She started with a easy query to her inflow of recent gaming followers. “Prime 3 biggest video games ever? Why? GO” reads her second post on X since changing outgoing 38-year Microsoft veteran Phil Spencer. “For me it’s Halo, Valheim, Goldeneye,” she instructed one consumer. Others requested which Halo. An Xbox Gamertag Sharma shared with one other consumer included playtime in each Halo Infinite and Halo: The Grasp Chief Assortment.
New #Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has now publicly shared her Gamertag. She has a ten,860 gamerscore and seemingly solely began taking part in on Xbox or this GT one month in the past.
She (or whomever runs the account) has performed 29 video games within the span of that month. pic.twitter.com/3EMvDVLNo3
— NIB (@nib95_) February 21, 2026
The account has a surprising variety of achievements in Ball x Pit, certainly one of 2025’s breakout indie video games that debuted on Recreation Move. One consumer advisable Borderlands 2 which Sharma mentioned she would strive. A short while later, it appeared on her current exercise listing. For some it’s an indication that the chief from Meta and Instacart is engaged, accessible, and no stranger to video games. Others are skeptical that it’s not all simply a part of some rigorously and artificially curated PR rollout.
Amid the a couple of thousand responses, Sharma was requested the plain query on most Xbox gamers’ minds: what about exclusives? Microsoft’s shift from fierce console conflict competitors with Sony to actively porting its greatest franchises to PlayStation 5 has learn to many long-time followers as a betrayal and, even perhaps worse, an indication that the tech big has given up on Xbox as a viable contender within the console gaming house.
Hear you
— Asha (@asha_shar) February 21, 2026
“Hello Asha Sharma, as the brand new Xbox CEO I hope that you simply perceive how essential unique video games are and the way video games like Halo, Forza, Gears. Fable… Created an id for Xbox and its gamers turning into a key level for Xbox’s success,” wrote one participant with a Gamerscore over 200,000. “Xbox video games have to be solely on Xbox.”
“Hear you,” she wrote again.
The sentiment, imprecise and noncommittal because it was, immediately gave some hope to the diehard Xbox followers in Sharma’s mentions. Others suppose it’s only a low cost means to purchase just a little good will earlier than Microsoft accelerates Xbox’s pivot to being only a third-party writer or strikes ahead with extra cuts and closures because the tech big continues shifting all of its sources and power into the AI race.
Elsewhere within the casual Q&A, some customers on X accused Sharma’s solutions of being written by a chatbot. “I don’t imagine you,” wrote one particular person. “In reality, I feel your account is an AI.” The brand new CEO of Xbox responded: “Beep Boop Beep Boop.”
