Xbox Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer Asha Sharma is leading Microsoft's gaming division through a major restructuring as the company faces declining revenues, lagging subscription targets, and rising hardware costs, according to recent statements from multiple outlets as of September 12, 2026.
Microsoft placed Sharma in charge of the $23 billion Xbox business despite her having no prior video game industry experience, LiveMint reported. The 14,000-person division currently operates on a 3% profit margin with declining revenues, while its flagship GamePass subscription service has failed to hit internal projections.
To stabilize the business, Sharma has pursued an aggressive internal policy regarding corporate transparency. "Clarity is kindness," Sharma tells colleagues when delivering difficult updates regarding unit performance.
During a Gamescom interview with the BBC, Sharma addressed the broader industry challenges, including hardware supply constraints and post-2020 economic conditions. "There were a lot of wonderful things" seen coming into the current generation of consoles, but "there were a lot of challenges as well," Sharma said.
Sharma pointed to rising component costs, including RAM and computer part shortages, post-2020 economic shifts, changing demographics among younger players, and "new technology as well." She noted that the gaming sector "needs to start to innovate on affordability and efficiency."
When questioned on whether Microsoft's investments in artificial intelligence were increasing hardware supply problems, Sharma frame GPUs as central to gaming development. Gaming "is the proving ground for the GPU," Sharma stated, adding that it is "wonderful that there are more uses for this technology around the world."
Regarding physical media and Xbox's upcoming system codenamed Project Helix, Sharma emphasized supporting user game libraries. "Look, whether you play physical games, digital games, it's really important that your libraries can go wherever you are," Sharma told the BBC. "And we're really committed to preserving great gameplay.
If you think about all around Europe, there are stacks of games on everybody's shelves. And so today, we're announcing the ability for players, for a thousand titles with physical discs, to be able to have a digital entitlement. And so they get the wonderful goodness that comes from digital libraries, but in the form of the physical libraries that they also have.
And we're just getting started. You know that we announced PC back compat. We've long pioneered backwards compatibility.
And so you'll continue to see that as we go forward in the generations."
Sharma clarified Xbox's commitment to giving players flexible choices between physical and digital formats. "I want Xbox to be where the world plays. And in order to be where the world plays, I know that players love physical media, and I know that there's a lot of benefits in digital media, and I want to make sure that people have a choice in that," Sharma explained. "And so, I'm excited for what we are able to do today as a first step towards that, and you'll see more."
When pressed directly on whether Project Helix will feature a physical disc drive, Sharma declined to provide details. "So, we're not sharing more on Helix. I know you had to ask it, but we've been hard at work on a great next generation and a great family of devices for Helix, and we'll share more soon," Sharma said.
The leadership changes follow widespread restructuring at Xbox, which resulted in 1,600 layoffs, with an additional 1,600 positions scheduled to be eliminated by summer 2027.
