Ex-Microsoft Xbox lead says he thinks Phil Spencer "did a fantastic job," and believes new CEO Asha Sharma has an "edge" — "I'm very optimistic."

One of the biggest ever shake-ups of Microsoft's Xbox leadership came earlier this year in February, with Phil Spencer retiring after 38 years at the company and 12 serving as the head of the brand. He's been succeeded by the new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, who previously served as CoreAI Product president. Game Content & Studios president Matt Booty was promoted to Microsoft Gaming's EVP and chief content officer, also.

Sharma's history with AI work immediately had many in the community fearing that Xbox would be flooded with AI slop under her wing, though she vowed that wouldn't happen when she was appointed, and as my colleague and Windows Central executive editor Jez Corden wrote, her expertise with integrating useful features and building social systems stands to benefit Xbox greatly.

There are many valid reasons to be either skeptical and hopeful, and pretty much everyone has an opinion about Spencer's legacy as well as whether or not Sharma is the right person to follow in his footsteps. That includes former Microsoft gaming VP Ed Fries, one of the leading minds behind the original Xbox console, who shared his views in a recent interview with The Expansion Pass.

"I think Phil did a fantastic job. We don't agree on everything, but we probably agree on 98% of things, so, you know, I think he did a fantastic job, happy for him retiring," he began. "Matt Booty has worked under Phil for many years, and has worked in the games business a lot longer — comes all the way from the [Midway Games] days, the early days ... he is a great person to run the studios that are over there."

Phil Spencer is often lauded as the man who saved Xbox following the dark, disastrous days of the Xbox One launch that were plagued with overpriced consoles, a Kinect system few people cared about, and a focus on multimedia entertainment over games. Thus, it's not surprising to hear that Fries holds him and his work in high regard, or that he feels similarly about Matt Booty as well.

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His view of Sharma, however, is one I suspect many will find more interesting. Fries points out that she's new blood in the Xbox ecosystem, and that she has a certain "edge" in that she can bring fresh ideas to the table "and make things happen, change the world." Notably, he said something similar in February, pointing out that Matt Booty can focus on Xbox's games while Sharma works on the business side of things.

"With Asha, I mean, she's new, but she's the age I was when I took over the games group, you know?" He said. "It's kind of an edge when you believe anything's possible, and you can have great ideas, and be naive enough to not know they're impossible, and make things happen, change the world. So, I'm very optimistic."

Ever since Sharma joined the Xbox team, Microsoft has improved or added a variety of valuable features, including some major personalization upgrades and an overhaul to the Achievements system. Reportedly, she also believes Xbox Game Pass "has become too expensive for players" after last year's huge price hike, and is pursuing "a better value equation" with adjustments in both the short and long term.

As Xbox's new CEO, one of Sharma's biggest tasks will be to help ensure a successful launch of Microsoft's next console, an ambitious device codenamed Project Helix that will function as a console-PC hybrid with benefits and conveniences from both types of systems. Fries noted that the work on Helix reassures him that Microsoft greatly values Xbox, and that that pleases him as one of its original architects.

"I was really happy to hear about [Project Helix] ... I think that Xbox is so much bigger now then when I was there, it's hard for me to even wrap my head around it," he added. "But it's an important business for Microsoft, [and] it feels like [Satya Nadella], CEO of Microsoft, understands that it's important and wants to continue to support it. So that makes me happy, 'cause I like to see the things that I worked on still be here, and be around."

Do you agree with Ed Fries about Phil Spencer's legacy and Asha Sharma's potential to accomplish great things for Microsoft and Xbox? Let me know in the comments, and vote in our poll.

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