{"id":1784491,"date":"2026-02-21T15:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T12:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1784491"},"modified":"2026-02-21T15:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T12:00:17","slug":"former-xbox-president-sarah-bond-bids-farewell-to-xbox-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1784491","title":{"rendered":"Former Xbox president Sarah Bond bids farewell to Xbox staff"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">Former Xbox president Sarah Bond bids farewell to Xbox staff<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">&#8220;Xbox deserves this.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/Xbox-President-Bond-on-the-Gamer%E2%80%99s-Future-0-48-screenshot.png?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"Screenshot of Bloomberg Tech Summit showing close up of Xbox president Sarah Bond\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"Xbox-President-Bond-on-the-Gamer%E2%80%99s-Future-0-48-screenshot.png\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Bloomberg<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Vikki Blake avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/1533038852.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"179\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Vikki Blake avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"1533038852.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"179\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/vikki-blake\">Vikki Blake<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Contributor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-02-21T15:00:17+00:00\">Feb. 21, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Former Xbox president Sarah Bond thanked former CEO <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/personas\/phil-spencer\">Phil Spencer<\/a> and congratulated his successor, Asha Sharma, in a letter sent to all staff as news broke that she was leaving after eight years with the company.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/today-marks-an-exciting-new-chapter-xbox-boss-phil-spencer-retiring-amid-major-leadership-shakeup-that-sees-microsofts-coreai-president-taking-over-roll\">Xbox CEO Phil Spencer announced his retirement from Microsoft after nearly 40 years yesterday<\/a> (21st February), amid a major leadership shakeup for the gaming brand that&#8217;ll see Microsoft&#8217;s current president of CoreAI, Asha Sharma, take over the role, and Xbox president Bond depart the company.<\/p>\n<p>In a message shared via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/sarahrbond_sharing-with-gratitude-the-note-i-sent-to-activity-7430753683912531968-YEXj\/\">LinkedIn<\/a>, Bond said she will &#8220;remain on as a Special Advisor to Asha to help ensure a smooth transition,&#8221; but stressed, &#8220;this is the right time for me to take my next step, both personally and professionally&#8221;. She did not share what those next steps would be.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve had the privilege of spending time with [new CEO] Asha over the last few weeks as we&#8217;ve planned for this transition, and I&#8217;ve seen firsthand her deep commitment to our players, developers, and brand,&#8221; Bond said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She brings deep technology and commerce experience, along with a strong track record of building and scaling platforms that the world uses. Xbox deserves this. I&#8217;m excited to see her lead this next chapter for our team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bond added: &#8220;I&#8217;m incredibly proud of what we&#8217;ve built together over the past eight-plus years. PC and cloud gaming are growing faster than ever, our next console is well underway, and together we&#8217;ve helped lay the foundation for a more open gaming platform that spans devices and reaches players around the world.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She closed on thanking Spencer for his &#8220;mentorship and friendship over the years&#8221;, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella for &#8220;his sponsorship and support throughout my time at Microsoft&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>In her first email to staff as CEO of Microsoft Gaming, Sharma wrote, &#8220;I feel two things at once: humility and urgency. Humility because this team has built something extraordinary over decades. Urgency because gaming is in a period of rapid change, and we need to move with clarity and conviction.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Spencer said: &#8220;Today marks an exciting new chapter for Microsoft Gaming as Asha Sharma steps into the role of CEO, and I want to be the first to welcome her to this incredible team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Former Xbox president Sarah Bond thanked former CEO <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/personas\/phil-spencer\">Phil Spencer<\/a> and congratulated his successor, Asha Sharma, in a letter sent to all staff as news broke that she was leaving after eight years with the company.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/today-marks-an-exciting-new-chapter-xbox-boss-phil-spencer-retiring-amid-major-leadership-shakeup-that-sees-microsofts-coreai-president-taking-over-roll\">Xbox CEO Phil Spencer announced his retirement from Microsoft after nearly 40 years yesterday<\/a> (21st February), amid a major leadership shakeup for the gaming brand that&#8217;ll see Microsoft&#8217;s current president of CoreAI, Asha Sharma, take over the role, and Xbox president Bond depart the company.<\/p>\n<p>In a message shared via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/sarahrbond_sharing-with-gratitude-the-note-i-sent-to-activity-7430753683912531968-YEXj\/\">LinkedIn<\/a>, Bond said she will &#8220;remain on as a Special Advisor to Asha to help ensure a smooth transition,&#8221; but stressed, &#8220;this is the right time for me to take my next step, both personally and professionally&#8221;. She did not share what those next steps would be.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve had the privilege of spending time with [new CEO] Asha over the last few weeks as we&#8217;ve planned for this transition, and I&#8217;ve seen firsthand her deep commitment to our players, developers, and brand,&#8221; Bond said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She brings deep technology and commerce experience, along with a strong track record of building and scaling platforms that the world uses. Xbox deserves this. I&#8217;m excited to see her lead this next chapter for our team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bond added: &#8220;I&#8217;m incredibly proud of what we&#8217;ve built together over the past eight-plus years. PC and cloud gaming are growing faster than ever, our next console is well underway, and together we&#8217;ve helped lay the foundation for a more open gaming platform that spans devices and reaches players around the world.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She closed on thanking Spencer for his &#8220;mentorship and friendship over the years&#8221;, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella for &#8220;his sponsorship and support throughout my time at Microsoft&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>In her first email to staff as CEO of Microsoft Gaming, Sharma wrote, &#8220;I feel two things at once: humility and urgency. Humility because this team has built something extraordinary over decades. Urgency because gaming is in a period of rapid change, and we need to move with clarity and conviction.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Spencer said: &#8220;Today marks an exciting new chapter for Microsoft Gaming as Asha Sharma steps into the role of CEO, and I want to be the first to welcome her to this incredible team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News Former Xbox president Sarah Bond bids farewell to Xbox staff &#8220;Xbox deserves this.&#8221; Image credit: Bloomberg News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on Feb. 21, 2026 Former Xbox president Sarah Bond thanked former CEO Phil Spencer and congratulated his successor, Asha Sharma, in a letter sent to all staff as news broke that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-1784491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1784491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784491\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1784491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1784491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1784491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}