Outgoing Xbox President Sarah Bonds Xbox Everywhere Strategy Offended Employees: Report

The gaming world was shocked last week by Microsoft’s announcement of sweeping reforms to Xbox leadership, which led to the game being shaken by its . Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, who was a former executive, said he was retiring effective immediately. Now he is the work of Microsoft insider Asha Sharma, who has been working on AI. Spencer also stated that Xbox president Sarah Bond was leaving the company. Bond was ‘favorably favoured at Microsoft over the ‘Xbox everywhere’ strategy, according to a new report.

Sarah Bond’s Strategy ‘Offended’ Xbox Employees

The Verge (paywalled) Monday reported the passing of Bond, who was widely regarded as Spencer’s successor and had become the face of Xbox in recent years for Xbox leadership after speaking with Xbox employees. The report says Bond was the leader of Microsoft’s “This is an Xbox” marketing campaign that launched in 2024 under a banner named by Mark Zuckerberg. Nevertheless, the campaign — which told customers that they didn’t need to buy an Xbox console to play Xbox games — did not win any favours (even within Microsoft) for its own sake.

Xbox employees internally were reportedly offended by the marketing campaign, which targeted phones, tablets, smart TVs and other supported devices rather than consoles of Xbox Series S/X. It claimed that many Microsoft employees were ‘relieved’ that Bond was leaving Xbox when he left the company. Two senior Xbox executives left the company months after her promotion as Xbox president and chief operating officer in late 2023, reportedly hard to work with.

Bond’s “Xbox everywhere” policy was reportedly repeatedly asked internally by many of the people who were in charge of his strategy, which is known as an “X box everywhere”. Microsoft has scoured new Xbox users through Cloud, Game Pass and Xbox Play Anywhere features on an array of supported devices such as laptops, phones, tablets, smart TVs (along with the Fire Stick) and Windows-based gaming handhelds. Sales for this year’s Xbox Series S/X have also fallen out because sales of their consoles are now downgraded to its current low point in 2016?

Its Gaming revenue fell 9 percent last month, according to Microsoft, and Xbox content and services revenues were 5 percent lower in the second quarter for FY 2026. Conversely, Xbox hardware revenue slipped 32 percent.

Phil Spencer’s Retirement ‘Not Planned’

The Verge’s report also supported Microsoft’d announcement that Phil Spencer had resigned last year. The report says the retirement of the former Xbox chief was ‘inevitable’ for employees over the past year.

The announcement of widespread layoffs at Xbox was made online in July last year, with Microsoft revealing that there were “lotours of Spencer retiring” (rumour) who would be retired. At the time, Microsoft denied the rumours, saying Spencer was ‘not retiring anytime soon’. More than seven months later, the company announced his retirement.

However, Greg Miller, founder of Kinda Funny media company and noted industry source, has said Spencer’s retirement was not ‘planned’; that the former Xbox boss had to quit his job after being fired.

In the latest episode of the Kinda Funny Games podcast, Miller said he didn’t think changes were making for the past year when talking about the Xbox leadership shake-up. This was not planned,’ Miller said in a statement that “I’ve been passed something that again reiterates to me this was what I didn’t do.

Phil Spencer led Xbox since 2014
Photo Credit: XboxOn/ YouTube

Xbox’s 25th Anniversary

Xbox is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2026, which seems odd for Spencer, who has been the face of Xbox since 2014, to abruptly retire before the landmark event. Spencer told Xbox Games Showcase last year that he was looking forward to future games from Xbox’s largest franchise in 2026, “I am looking for the biggest game I can expect.”

Now, next year marks 25 years of Xbox for “Looking ahead”. You have been building and launching platform and franchises that helped popularize it, which is a milestone for the platform/flourdships you’ve ever built. I can’t have done that without all the people who were with us on this journey.’ Spencer had told the show at the time ‘We couldn’T do it any more than anything else we did, and they didn’s not get to be here for our trip.

We think we will be bringing a new generation of players to these iconic franchises. I’m looking forward to sharing that players are going to celebrate 25 years of Xbox with redesigned Fable, the next Forza, Gears of War E-Day and the return of – for example, if they have been playing classic since the beginning? ” , ‘I’m sure it is worth reading.

It was later announced as Halo Campaign Evolved, a remake of Halon Combat Evvede (the “classic” Spencer), to PC and Xbox Series S/X in addition to PS5 this year.

For two years, Spencer supervised Microsoft’s pivot to a multiplatform release strategy over the last two decades. PS5 and Nintendo Switch are now able to play multiple first-party Xbox titles, with more coming this year. A confirmed PS5 release of Fable, Forza Horizon 5, Halo Campaign Evolved is already confirmed and Starfield is rumoured to be released on Sony’s console this year as well as the PlayStation 4 launch of Starfeld.

Asha Sharma, who was an AI executive at Microsoft, is Spencer’s replacement but has not been a gaming veteran, and said she will return to Xbox core fans for the same time. Sharma wrote in her memo that she would focus on the ‘return of Xbox’ mainly through a renewed commitment to Xbox consoles.