{"id":1946904,"date":"2026-05-21T11:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T08:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1946904"},"modified":"2026-05-21T11:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T08:28:11","slug":"xbox-hires-analyst-who-said-games-were-losing-the-attention-battle-with-gambling-crypto-and-porn-as-chief-strategy-officer-in-another-leadership-revamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1946904","title":{"rendered":"Xbox hires analyst who said games were losing the attention battle with gambling, crypto and porn as chief strategy officer in another leadership revamp"},"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\">Xbox hires analyst who said games were losing the attention battle with gambling, crypto and porn as chief strategy officer in another leadership revamp<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">&#8220;These changes are about strengthening our foundation.&#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\/asha-sharma-xbox_ETUJlFF.jpg?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"A woman in a thin green jacket and with long black hair an a very white smile leans against an Xbox Logo while smiling widely. It's Xbox boss Asha Sharma.\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"asha-sharma-xbox_ETUJlFF.jpg\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Eurogamer \/ Xbox<\/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=\"Robert Purchese avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/user-9946-originalxoriginal-14-03-23.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1017\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Robert Purchese avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"user-9946-originalxoriginal-14-03-23.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1017\">\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\/robert-purchese\">Robert Purchese<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Associate Editor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-05-21T11:28:11+00:00\">May 21, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"b99982ec-ce0c-4c4d-8150-6eb3628f1e8f\" data-name=\"Forza Horizon 6\" data-follow-text=\"Follow Forza Horizon 6\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following Forza Horizon 6\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow Forza Horizon 6\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following Forza Horizon 6\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow Forza Horizon 6\" title=\"Follow Forza Horizon 6\"><br \/>\n  Follow Forza Horizon 6<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/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>Microsoft&#8217;s newly appointed gaming boss Asha Sharma has made more leadership changes at Xbox, this time hiring a handful of executives to help lead the company that include an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/video-games-are-losing-the-attention-war-to-gambling-porn-and-crypto-according-to-industry-report\">industry analyst who said games were losing the attention war to gambling, porn and crypto<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That analyst is Matthew Ball, who joins Xbox as chief strategy officer, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegamebusiness.com\/p\/xbox-expands-leadership-team-with\">The Game Business reports<\/a>, and is reportedly tasked first and foremost with strengthening the console side of Xbox, especially in light of rising component costs.<\/p>\n<p>Ball worked previously as head of strategy at Amazon Studios and, more recently, as a venture capitalist and market advisor. He&#8217;s the author of the book The Metaverse, which explains what the concept is and why it&#8217;s important &#8211; not to be confused with Facebook owner Meta&#8217;s expensive technological flop &#8211; and of the annual <a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/ballmatthew\/docs\/gaming2025_vee10?fr=xIAEoAT3_MzMz\">State of Video Gaming report<\/a>. It was that report earlier this year that Ball referenced the &#8220;attention war&#8221; games are fighting with booming technologies like TikTok, crypto, AI apps and OnlyFans.<\/p>\n<p>Xbox is also hiring a new chief technology officer in Scott Van Vliet, who has an AI-focused background at Microsoft but has worked in games as well. He apparently worked at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/amazon-ai-game-project-trident-laid-off-anyway-report\">Amazon Game Studios &#8211; not a great look right now<\/a> &#8211; and helped lead the Digital Play team at toy manufacturer Mattel. Vliet&#8217;s job is reportedly to improve how Xbox builds products; I wonder if this includes its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/project-helix-dev-kits-not-going-out-until-2027-and-other-new-details-on-xboxs-next-gen-console\">new Xbox console Project Helix<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These changes are about strengthening our foundation by creating more clarity and improving execution,&#8221; Asha Sharma apparently said in an email to staff. &#8220;As we head toward Showcase and beyond, we&#8217;ll continue making the changes needed to position Xbox for the future.&#8221; The showcase Sharma is referring to is the Xbox Games Showcase 2026, which airs 7th June at 6pm UK time.<\/p>\n<p>These executive Xbox hires follow several from earlier in the month, which saw Sharma bring in more people with AI backgrounds to help run the division. This doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean Xbox is going full-throttle AI, though AI remains a big part of Microsoft&#8217;s overall strategy, but could be because Sharma has an AI background herself and knows these people from there. In fact, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/xbox-ends-copilot-asha-sharma\">Sharma ditched the AI-driven gaming sidekick idea Copilot recently<\/a> in an effort to get the division moving faster.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/xbox-ends-copilot-asha-sharma\">Sharma was appointed as boss of Xbox when Phil Spencer retired earlier this year<\/a>, and has since made numerous tweaks and changes to the Xbox business &#8211; ditching the &#8216;Xbox Play Anywhere&#8217; campaign most notably &#8211; as she promises to &#8220;reset&#8221; the console business and rejuvenate it. There have been encouraging noises, but the changes are only incremental and theoretical currently.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/microsoft-israel-xbox-boycotts-restructuring\">Microsoft continues to face political pressure<\/a> from movements calling to boycott its gaming business because of the company&#8217;s ties to Israel&#8217;s Ministry of Defense and the storage of personal Palestinian information on Microsoft server hosting facilities.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"poll_wrapper\" data-fixed=\"true\" data-hashid data-init=\"false\" data-poll-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/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>Microsoft&#8217;s newly appointed gaming boss Asha Sharma has made more leadership changes at Xbox, this time hiring a handful of executives to help lead the company that include an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/video-games-are-losing-the-attention-war-to-gambling-porn-and-crypto-according-to-industry-report\">industry analyst who said games were losing the attention war to gambling, porn and crypto<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That analyst is Matthew Ball, who joins Xbox as chief strategy officer, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegamebusiness.com\/p\/xbox-expands-leadership-team-with\">The Game Business reports<\/a>, and is reportedly tasked first and foremost with strengthening the console side of Xbox, especially in light of rising component costs.<\/p>\n<p>Ball worked previously as head of strategy at Amazon Studios and, more recently, as a venture capitalist and market advisor. He&#8217;s the author of the book The Metaverse, which explains what the concept is and why it&#8217;s important &#8211; not to be confused with Facebook owner Meta&#8217;s expensive technological flop &#8211; and of the annual <a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/ballmatthew\/docs\/gaming2025_vee10?fr=xIAEoAT3_MzMz\">State of Video Gaming report<\/a>. It was that report earlier this year that Ball referenced the &#8220;attention war&#8221; games are fighting with booming technologies like TikTok, crypto, AI apps and OnlyFans.<\/p>\n<p>Xbox is also hiring a new chief technology officer in Scott Van Vliet, who has an AI-focused background at Microsoft but has worked in games as well. He apparently worked at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/amazon-ai-game-project-trident-laid-off-anyway-report\">Amazon Game Studios &#8211; not a great look right now<\/a> &#8211; and helped lead the Digital Play team at toy manufacturer Mattel. Vliet&#8217;s job is reportedly to improve how Xbox builds products; I wonder if this includes its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/project-helix-dev-kits-not-going-out-until-2027-and-other-new-details-on-xboxs-next-gen-console\">new Xbox console Project Helix<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These changes are about strengthening our foundation by creating more clarity and improving execution,&#8221; Asha Sharma apparently said in an email to staff. &#8220;As we head toward Showcase and beyond, we&#8217;ll continue making the changes needed to position Xbox for the future.&#8221; The showcase Sharma is referring to is the Xbox Games Showcase 2026, which airs 7th June at 6pm UK time.<\/p>\n<p>These executive Xbox hires follow several from earlier in the month, which saw Sharma bring in more people with AI backgrounds to help run the division. This doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean Xbox is going full-throttle AI, though AI remains a big part of Microsoft&#8217;s overall strategy, but could be because Sharma has an AI background herself and knows these people from there. In fact, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/xbox-ends-copilot-asha-sharma\">Sharma ditched the AI-driven gaming sidekick idea Copilot recently<\/a> in an effort to get the division moving faster.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/xbox-ends-copilot-asha-sharma\">Sharma was appointed as boss of Xbox when Phil Spencer retired earlier this year<\/a>, and has since made numerous tweaks and changes to the Xbox business &#8211; ditching the &#8216;Xbox Play Anywhere&#8217; campaign most notably &#8211; as she promises to &#8220;reset&#8221; the console business and rejuvenate it. There have been encouraging noises, but the changes are only incremental and theoretical currently.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/microsoft-israel-xbox-boycotts-restructuring\">Microsoft continues to face political pressure<\/a> from movements calling to boycott its gaming business because of the company&#8217;s ties to Israel&#8217;s Ministry of Defense and the storage of personal Palestinian information on Microsoft server hosting facilities.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"poll_wrapper\" data-fixed=\"true\" data-hashid data-init=\"false\" data-poll-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News Xbox hires analyst who said games were losing the attention battle with gambling, crypto and porn as chief strategy officer in another leadership revamp &#8220;These changes are about strengthening our foundation.&#8221; Image credit: Eurogamer \/ Xbox News by Robert Purchese Associate Editor Published on May 21, 2026 Follow Forza Horizon 6 Microsoft&#8217;s newly [&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-1946904","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\/1946904","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=1946904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1946904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1946904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1946904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}