Sarah Bond’s departure from Xbox has been welcomed by some at Microsoft, according to a report that suggests she was behind the ‘This Is an Xbox’ ad campaign.
The management shake-up at Xbox may have put the spotlight on new CEO Asha Sharma, but the strangest aspect was the departure of former Xbox president Sarah Bond.
Bond, who was been promoted to the role of Xbox president in 2023, was seemingly being lined-up to become Phil Spencer’s successor, as CEO of Microsoft Gaming. However, as we know now, that hasn’t happened – with Sharma taking on the role instead.
While the awkward rollout of the announcement on Friday implied there was some behind-the-scene scuffles, a new report has now seemingly answered why, and given some context to Bond’s departure.
As reported by The Verge, it’s claimed several employees within Xbox saw ‘the writing on the wall’ for Bond’s exit. As of June 2024, it’s said the Xbox marketing team were reporting directly to her, and later that year, they delivered the confusing ‘This is an Xbox’ adverts which deemphasised the role of the Xbox Series X/S in favour of other hardware.
According to the report, this advertising campaign ‘offended many Xbox employees’. Additionally, it’s said several employees thought Bond was ‘tough to work with’ after she ‘built a team structure that meant if you didn’t follow the vision or questioned it, you were out’. However, her ability to strike up partnerships with companies was praised.
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It’s further claimed ‘most’ current and former Xbox employees cited in The Verge report were ‘relieved’ at Bond’s departure, after her strategy ‘had been failing internally and been questioned multiple times’.
As for Spencer, who oversaw this change in direction, away from the console, it’s said his retirement has ‘seemed inevitable’ over the past year. In the report, it’s claimed he took a long break in February 2025, which left some teams having to wait ‘weeks’ for a ‘sign-off on some key changes’.
Additionally, it’s said the announcement of Spencer’s retirement was planned for today (February 23), but it was rushed out on Friday after it started to leak to news websites – hence why Bond’s LinkedIn profile at the time had a post hours before about Xbox’s accessibility features.
Based on comments from new Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma, it seems Xbox is pivoting away from Bond and Spencer’s approach. Sharma has already promised a ‘return to the renegade spirit that built Xbox in the first place’, and has addressed fan questions around exclusive games, at a time when it has shifted to a multi-platform strategy.
It remains to be seen if this will result in a complete reversal from releasing multiplatform titles, or perhaps a middle ground where there are still some exclusives, but it certainly appears likely that there will be some major shifts in strategy with the next generation of Xbox.
As for when we’ll see Xbox’s next console, it might still be a few years away, after reports suggested Microsoft’s plans have been delayed by the ongoing memory shortage.
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