Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has reportedly told the company that Xbox has “started to return to growth” following wide-ranging restructuring that has reorganised the gaming division and resulted in more than 1,800 job losses.
“We’re making the right decisions to reinvest in the business,” Sharma reportedly said during an Xbox ‘town hall’ meeting, according to a transcript seen by Windows Central. “After an all-time low, we’ve started to return to growth, more than two to three times what we were, and we expect that continue.”
Sharma specifically named the games Gears of War: E-Day, Minecraft Dungeons 2 and World of Warcraft: Forever – all recent releases – as having had “strong” starts and contributing to this.
Sharma reportedly also said Xbox had seen a decline in hours played, player numbers and revenue at the start of the year. The situation has seemingly improved, with the decline in hours played apparently now stabilised.
On Game Pass, Sharma said Xbox’s previous strategy had sent the service’s profitability “into freefall”. She’s likely referring to Xbox’s decision to include Call of Duty titles in Game Pass on day one, which later pushed the company to raise Game Pass prices in 2025, before cutting prices in 2026 at the cost of losing day-one Call of Duty.
“Why do we exist?” Sharma reportedly asked. “We exist to be where the world plays, we will know when we have a billion daily active people, and we have a right to win because we’re now focused on our fans and franchises.”
As part of the same town hall meeting, Sharma touched on Xbox’s broader plans with Project Helix, its next-generation console. The executive reaffirmed earlier remarks for Helix to be “a family of devices”, and teased another foray into the handheld market – beyond the ROG Ally X – by referencing that people want to game “on the go”.
Xbox has had a turbulent year since Sharma took over as CEO in February. Shortly after her appointment, she announced a major shake-up and restructuring plan for the gaming division that would encompass wide-ranging layoffs, studio divestitures, a focus on its biggest franchises and the introduction of new business models for both Xbox hardware and services. That restructuring work is not expected to be completed until next summer.
