Asha Sharma says Xbox returns to center as Microsoft Gaming is dropped
asha sharma said Xbox is taking back its name as the company resets its gaming identity, speaking to employees in an internal town hall on Tuesday in Eastern Time. The move comes as the division refocuses on Game Pass, console features, and a broader push to make Xbox “affordable, personal, and open. ” The change is part of a wider “return of Xbox” message now being pushed inside the company.
Xbox name returns as the division resets
During the meeting, Asha Sharma announced that Microsoft is returning to using Xbox for its gaming division instead of Microsoft Gaming. “Xbox needs to be our identity, ” Sharma said, making clear that the newer corporate label was being set aside. The shift reverses the name change made in 2022, when Microsoft adopted Microsoft Gaming alongside its plan to acquire Activision Blizzard.
The message was reinforced in a memo to the video game team, where Sharma and Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty said the platform “will be built to be affordable, personal, and open. ” They also said the team would again be called “Xbox, ” and that the company would work to “fortify Game Pass” with “sustainable economics, ” strengthen the five-year slate of games, and stabilize Gen9 as a healthy console base.
Asha Sharma ties the reset to Game Pass and console priorities
The company is also moving on pricing and product changes that sit at the center of the reset. Sharma said fortifying Game Pass means getting more players who stay longer and remain satisfied. She pointed to the recent price reduction on Game Pass after the subscription service had been raised earlier, and linked that change to the decision to keep new Call of Duty games out of the service until they are out for a year.
Sharma said the team has been thinking about Game Pass in two steps: first making it affordable, and then deciding what value should look like years later as the market and the next generation of players change. She also said the company is “exploring a number of different things” as it looks at the service’s next phase.
What Asha Sharma and Matt Booty say comes next
Booty said the five-year slate depends on “predictable cadence, robust roadmap, aim for quality. ” He added that reaching those goals could create the conditions for “the lightning in a bottle of winning Game of the Year. ” On hardware, Sharma said the company has formed a team and is investing in console features to support performance and reliability.
Sharma also said the Xbox team will reevaluate its approach to exclusivity, windowing, and AI, and share more as decisions are made. A new Xbox logo has begun appearing on Microsoft’s campus, and the company has also been using the updated branding in internal materials ahead of the June showcase. For now, the direction is clear: Asha Sharma is putting Xbox back at the center of the story, and the next steps will show how far that reset goes.
