Microsoft's Xbox CEO Asha Sharma hires "widely respected" gaming industry analyst for strategy — the move helps "position Xbox for the future”

It's only been three months since Phil Spencer retired and Microsoft's new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma stepped up to fill his shoes, but in that time, she's made many significant changes and announcements. These include a massive price cut for Xbox Game Pass, a range of improvements to the Xbox user experience, the end of "Microsoft Gaming" in favor of Xbox, a huge manifesto for the brand's future, the introduction of a new Xbox Player Voice forum, and more.

The most recent of these was an Xbox leadership overhaul that saw Sharma bring several of her former colleagues from Microsoft CoreAI and Instacart into the fold to serve the goal of creating "a platform that is affordable, personal, and open," achieved "by staying close to the work and the people we serve." Now, according to a new memo seen by Windows Central, she's expanding executive Xbox leadership further with three new hirings and promotions.

The first of these is the pickup of Matthew Ball as Xbox's chief strategy officer, who Sharma commented is "widely respected across gaming, media, and technology" and a "longtime gamer" that's actually already been advising her since day 10 of her tenure. "Matthew has been partnering with us on strategy since day 10 and will officially start this month, reporting to me," she said in the notice.

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Ball is best known for his yearly "The State of Video Gaming" reports that Sharma calls "essential reading across the industry," and is well-respected for his extremely thorough data-supported analyses in general. He's held similar positions in other companies before, including Amazon Studios, Otter Media, McKinsey & Company, and Accenture.

Sharma has also brought on Microsoft's chief vice president of Azure OpenAI and AI infrastructure Scott Van Vliet as Xbox's new chief technology officer, citing his experience spending "more than two decades building technology and consumer platforms across cloud, commerce, gaming, and entertainment."

"Stoked to share I’m joining XBOX as CTO. I’ve been a gamer my whole life and an XBOX fan since day one, so this is a rare opportunity to bring together two things I care deeply about: building platforms and gaming," Vliet wrote on LinkedIn. "A huge thanks to Asha for the opportunity to help create the future of play. Let's get to work."

Additionally, she's appointed Chris Schnakenberg as Xbox's corporate vice president of partnerships and business development. Schnakenberg previously worked at Activision Blizzard — the major developer and publisher Microsoft acquired in 2023 following a lengthy legal process — for over 12 years before joining the firm in 2024.

Ultimately, Sharma says these further leadership changes were made "to strengthen how we operate and deliver on our XBOX vision," and notes that "we’ll continue making the changes needed to position XBOX for the future." That suggests that sooner or later, additional shifts may come; as long as they lead to a stronger and better future for Xbox like Sharma's suggested, I'm fully onboard.

Do you believe Matthew Ball is a good fit for the chief strategy officer role at Xbox? What about the others that have joined the team? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and in our poll as well.

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