Microsoft’s new Xbox chief, Asha Sharma, has spent the past few months making her mark on the Xbox organization. After focusing on the most requested features of the Xbox console, lowering the price of Game Pass, and bringing Microsoft Gaming back to Xbox, Sharma is reorganizing the Xbox platform team at Microsoft today.
The changes will see veterans leave, promoted, and new faces with more technical experience to help the Xbox platform team. Jared Palmer, who worked with Sharma in Microsoft’s CoreAI division, is joining Xbox as VP of engineering and technical advisor to Sharma. In a memo to Xbox employees, it was seen by The VergeSharma says Palmer will work “directly with me on our most complex product and engineering issues, focusing on engineering, flavor, and infrastructure.”
Tim Allen, former Microsoft CoreAI VP of design and GitHub’s senior VP of design and research, is also joining Xbox to lead the design. Sharma says Allen’s appointment is “a first-of-its-kind integration of product design, design engineering, research, and fan-first creativity.”
Jonathan McKay, former head of growth for Microsoft’s CoreAI division, is also joining Xbox to lead its growth, data platform, and analytics. Evan Chaki, former general manager at CoreAI, is joining the new team at Xbox to “lead a forward-thinking distributed engineering team focused on eliminating repetitive work, simplifying development, and improving the way we work.”
Most of those people joining Xbox are from Microsoft’s CoreAI team, and it appears that Sharma is bringing in former colleagues to give the Xbox organization more technical knowledge of the platforms and experience with things like growth and data. There’s also a lot of AI information, which should ring alarm bells for some Xbox fans, but if you look at the appointments there’s no clear AI for Xbox here.
In fact, last week Sharma posted on X that Xbox is “refocusing our AI efforts on solving player problems such as improving real-time graphics, improving discovery, and deepening personalization.” That sounds like more of a focus on improving the core Xbox software platform instead.
These leadership changes at Xbox mainly affect the platform teams under former Xbox president Sarah Bond. Microsoft first announced Bond’s departure in February, and he remains on board as a “special advisor” to Sharma to help with the leadership transition. Many expected Bond to be named head of Xbox, but Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella decided to shake up the leadership of Xbox with an outsider.
As part of this new shake-up for Xbox, Roanne Sones, vice president of Xbox companies and ecosystem, “will take a leave of absence after this summer and will remain as a consultant.” Sones previously reported on Bond, and helped lead the launch of Xbox Ally devices.
Kevin Gammill, the company’s vice president of user experience for Xbox, is also stepping down after nearly 20 years at Microsoft. “He has dedicated more than 15 years to Xbox and will support this transition,” Sharma said. “I thank his leadership and everything he has built here.”
Jason Ronald, vice president of next generation, is also getting a promotion as part of these changes. “For hardware, we are promoting Jason Ronald, who will be responsible for Project Helix, and our platform,” Sharma said. It is not yet clear what Ronald’s new title is. Jason Beaumont will “lead the product and serve as interim head of engineering,” as part of these changes.
“This is an important time for Xbox,” Sharma said. “Our goal with this change is simple: to create an accessible, personal, and open platform by staying close to the work and the people we serve. We will continue to add the necessary skills to get there.”
