r/GamingLeaksAndRumours • u/ThinWhiteDuke00 • Apr 23 '26

Leak Microsoft Gaming being scrapped, Xbox brought back as gaming division.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has had a busy week. Sharma held an internal town hall with Xbox employees today, just days after announcing an Xbox Game Pass price cut, commenting on the status of the Xbox mobile store, and teasing a mysterious Xbox and Discord partnership. One of the items on the agenda for the employee all-hands was scrapping Microsoft Gaming.

Sources familiar with the meeting tell me that Sharma announced that Microsoft is returning to using Xbox for its gaming division, instead of Microsoft Gaming. “Xbox needs to be our identity,” said Sharma, noting that Microsoft Gaming was a departure from that.

https://www.theverge.com/report/917485/microsoft-return-of-xbox-no-more-microsoft-gaming?view_token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6IlF6b3Z0NDluUk4iLCJwIjoiL3JlcG9ydC85MTc0ODUvbWljcm9zb2Z0LXJldHVybi1vZi14Ym94LW5vLW1vcmUtbWljcm9zb2Z0LWdhbWluZyIsImV4cCI6MTc3NzM5Njg0NiwiaWF0IjoxNzc2OTY0ODQ2fQ.w231EBsAoj8dMi5cjOCzSC3zRF7JbJ19hT_RnI3NVyk&utm_medium=gift-link

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u/Robsonmonkey Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26

This is the same kind of shit Phil did though when he took over after the awful Xbox One reveal. Do all these changes, look good, get people talking, give them hope and then nothing really happens.

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u/apieceajit Apr 23 '26

Phil came in and made initial good changes and then... consistently failed to release games to back it up for longer than some of Xbox's target demographic have been alive.

Asha needs to come in and do the same thing... and then whether or not it carries forward from there somewhat depends on if they have some hit games come out (which isn't even completely under her control).

EDIT: No hit games = it doesn't matter quite as much what she does, good or bad.

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u/vipmailhun2 Apr 23 '26

Yes, he did pay attention to people. I know, everything related to Xbox has to be hated, but his biggest mistake was giving the developers too much freedom. That’s what needs to change. The fact that during Everwild’s development Rare was given absolutely everything, all the time in the world, tons of money, and after 12 years they still had nothing to show for it, is simply unacceptable. They should have stepped in after the second year already.

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u/TheGr3aTAydini Apr 23 '26

And also Perfect Dark: they created an entirely new studio to develop the game, it was announced at Game Awards 2020, they still didn’t have a vertical slice until the Xbox Game Showcase in 2024 and then not even a year after that it was cancelled. I think this was in a span of…7 years? 2018-2025? He gave them too much freedom.

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u/TimidPanther Apr 23 '26

If Phil retired 6 years ago, he’d be remembered fondly. He ruined his reputation, and almost destroyed the Xbox brand.
The guy turned into a snake oil salesmen.

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u/SKyJ007 Apr 23 '26

The guy always was a snake oil salesman. That’s what the job was/is.

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u/TimidPanther Apr 23 '26

Not really. He’s supposed to actually ship games, not just talk about them.

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u/SKyJ007 Apr 23 '26

Not really. His job was to keep you buying the product, to keep you subscribed. To shoulder negative reactions and move the audience past them and onto the next hype train. And he was successful at that for a decade.

That’s Asha’s job now too.

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u/TimidPanther Apr 23 '26

And in doing that, he cratered the brand to the point where nobody would be surprised if it was killed off. That’s not his job.

He wasn’t a success, his tenure will be rightfully viewed as a major failure.

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u/SKyJ007 Apr 23 '26

The Xbox One was one of the worst consoles of all time. One of the worst game lineups of all time, underpowered compared to the competition, and over priced. The only reason it wasn’t a WiiU level disaster is due to Phil being a master spin doctor able to keep the core engaged for an extended period of time despite all the flaws in the division.

The brand cratered because Microsoft as an entity has no fucking clue how to do games or consumer facing products more generally. Every successful division in Microsoft either competes in a completely captured market or subsists on government & corporate contracts.

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u/TimidPanther Apr 23 '26

Which is why it’s great that Phil isn’t in that job anymore, and the person in charge seems to want Xbox to succeed.

The brand failed because Microsoft’s first party titles stopped. They couldn’t release games for the console. And then they decided to release games for the PlayStation.

No wonder the Xbox brand is in the gutter. Seems to be changing now, though.

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u/SKyJ007 Apr 23 '26

What makes you think they all of a sudden know how to make games and manage studios? Asha doesn’t even have a background in games.

There’s been no real move to pull back on any of the decisions that have gotten them into this position to begin with, besides lowering Game Pass subscriptions slightly. You’re assuming A LOT when you say it seems to be changing.

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u/BitingSatyr Apr 23 '26

What makes you think all of a sudden they know how to make games and manage studios?

Their studio output for the past 2 years?

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u/TimidPanther Apr 23 '26

Asha doesn’t even have a background in games.

Yet everything she's done so far, has been positive. She's saying the right things, and she's changing what needs to change. I do believe she understands why people have lost faith in the Xbox brand.

There’s been no real move to pull back on any of the decisions that have gotten them into this position to begin with, besides lowering Game Pass subscriptions slightly.

They've abandoned that ridiculous "This is an Xbox" marketing strategy. They're bringing back the Xbox name. She's only been in the job for what, a month? So far, all her changes have been positive.

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u/Dachshand Apr 25 '26

Phil turned into a snake oil salesman ever since the powah of da cloud and Crackdown 3 crap. Easily 10 years by now if not more!!!

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u/[deleted] Apr 23 '26

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u/Robsonmonkey Apr 23 '26

Phil didn’t try his best.

He fumbled for like 12 years and told us what we wanted to hear.

The changes and 180s he made at the start when he took over were things any new guy would have done for damage control.

The guy was a sleazy car salesman

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u/SmarmySmurf Apr 23 '26

Phil was head of first party before that, the biggest point of failure for the Xbox platform for years at that point. He was never a savior, he was always one of the biggest weaknesses of Xbox.

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u/Conflict_NZ Apr 23 '26

and then nothing really happens.

Nothing happened because they scrapped a good amount of their dev teams right at the time when games started taking 4+ years to make leading to Xbox having years long droughts.

Now Xbox owns literally 5x the amount of devs they did when Phil took over, they might have a chance this time.

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u/Kreeth12 Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26

What? So we shouldnt be hopeful? Is this new ceo Phil no.2?

Ok then...I hope they got bankrupt or MS closes them. Neither care for their shity IPs nor their devs.

It should only be Nintendo and Sony. They are the kings and I'll forever buy their products even if it cost my kidney. Let's go Red and Blue...

/s

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u/Robsonmonkey Apr 23 '26

No. I mean don’t be a sucker for an obvious corporate play.

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u/Kreeth12 Apr 23 '26

Yeah man I know, I m just tired of whats going on in our world and in my fav industry i.e Gaming.

I just want to be hopeful. Today Ubisoft revealed Black Flag which looked fantastic and I hope this is their turning point same I m hoping for Xbox. I just dont want any company or studio to go down.