I wanted to sit down and write a few lines about the recent news of @asha_shar becoming the new head of Xbox. Moon Studios obviously has a rich history with Xbox, and it’s absolutely fair to say that if the folks at Microsoft hadn’t been early supporters, there’s a good chance Moon Studios would never have existed. So I think I can share a perspective here that many others probably can’t. I’ll once again say some controversial things that I’ll likely get in trouble for, but if you know me, you know I’d rather be radically honest and deal with the fallout afterward than play that strange corporate game that I've never really grown fond of. First off, I don’t envy Asha. She’s going to have an incredibly difficult few years ahead of her, and if she genuinely wants to do things right, she’s just signed up for a back-breaking, largely thankless job where the odds of success are ridiculously lower than the odds of failure. But let’s start with the business basics: From a purely cold-hearted shareholders perspective, it’s fair to ask at this point why Microsoft - as a public company - is even keeping Xbox on its books. As much as we gaming enthusiasts grew up loving what Xbox brought to the table, Microsoft is a giant corporation, and Xbox has historically never been a true needle-mover for Microsoft as a whole. If you look strictly at the numbers, their B2B business and services like Azure generate multiples of what Xbox does. So… why even bother? I’d argue that if you only follow the numbers without understanding how you arrived at those numbers, you don’t really understand business. Let me give a quick example: I’m pretty sure Windows wouldn’t have taken off the way it did back in 95 if it hadn’t been for gaming. Think of Bill Gates what you want, but he was a very smart guy who understood that. He pushed for Windows and IBM PCs to become the place where people wanted to spend their leisure time and not just do work. And he doubled down on that idea when he feared that Sony, with the PlayStation 2, could become a serious competitor in the living room. Hell, that’s how Xbox was born originally. Gates understood that gaming - as niche as it might have seemed - is clearly a force multiplier. Now let’s bring in another legendary tech CEO: Steve Jobs. Steve returned to Apple in 97 after the company had squandered much of its potential and was basically in the shitter. When he took over again, it seemed pretty much hopeless. BUT, against all odds, he managed to turn Apple into the most valuable company ever. I think Asha is in a similarly difficult position: Xbox has spent years following a strategy that just clearly hasn’t worked. 80 billion dollars were spent on acquisitions, and so far the acquired studios have had painfully little to show in terms of genre-defining hits. Game Pass was supposed to reach 100 million subscribers within the first few years. Instead, it’s stagnated around 30 million, with no clear path to the originally projected numbers. Putting Call of Duty into Game Pass was probably the last major Hail Mary - and even that didn’t fundamentally move the needle. So... the situation looks pretty dire. It looks like you've just been named the captain of a sinking ship. But even in that situation, there is a silver lining - and history shows what the strategy has to be: Steve Jobs already pulled off an even more difficult turnaround. So it clearly can be done. Here's what I think has to happen: 1) She needs to listen to gamers. Gamers are incredibly frustrated because they’ve been shouting from the rooftops what they want, and they feel like nobody is listening. So… listen. And actually give them what they want. 2) She needs to be willing to make radical moves, even if they make her unpopular in the short term. When internal studios fail to deliver, some heads will have to roll. Leadership has to come in, identify who can actually execute and who is standing in the way of change. Those who aren't willing to change have to get the boot. Uncomfortable, but necessary. Anyone who has ambitions beyond delivering incredible gaming experiences and pushing the medium forward really needs to go work somewhere else. You shouldn't try to win a culture war, you should try to make Xbox the #1 gaming platform. Competition is healthy and makes everyone give their best. 3) There are no shortcuts. She has to be able to identify and obsess over quality. Xbox will need truly exceptional, genre-defining games. Anything less than that and the ship continues to sink. That has to mean partnering with studios that are deeply connected to gaming culture. Studios that understand players. Studios that have proven they can deliver what gamers actually want. You can't afford to be left out of the conversation anymore. Because clearly, the answers haven’t been coming from the inside for quite some time. And gamers, let’s be realistic: Even if Asha turns out to be a force for good in the industry, she won’t hit a home run every single time. No one does. The iPhone itself could have been a massive failure if Steve hadn’t listened to people like John Carmack, who warned that shipping a completely closed platform without an App Store and third party devs getting proper access to the hardware would be a serious mistake. Leadership is never about perfection. It’s always about being clear about your vision and then being willing to listen and to ruthlessly ensure that your vision will be realized. So ultimately, change is good. Xbox now has a chance to flip the table. And they'll have to: If she wants to do things the right way, it's gonna be a pretty shitty job for quite some time. But it can be done - if the person at the top has the right instincts and can rally the right people around her. Whether she is that person remains to be seen. I hope she is - Whether you like Xbox or not, gaming is in a better place with a strong Xbox directly competing against everyone else.
