Xbox “Will Not Survive” Without New IP, CEO Asha Sharma Reportedly Tells Staff

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has reportedly told staff at an internal town hall that Xbox “will not survive” if it keeps leaning on the same franchises. The remarks, first surfaced through Windows Central and confirmed by GamesIndustry.biz, came as Microsoft continues to cut studios and reshuffle its gaming business.

“We have to find new ways, and courage, to have invention on new IP that reach new sets of audiences,” Sharma said, according to GamesIndustry.biz’s account of the meeting. She added that Xbox is “backing [its] strongest franchises” and wants to grow “great games into great global billion-dollar franchises.”

The warning lands about a week after Microsoft announced Xbox Labs, a new in-house team to test emerging projects, and Xbox XP, a division handling transmedia spinoffs of franchises like Fallout and Minecraft. Xbox has shed roughly 3,200 jobs across the ongoing reset, and proposed closing Ninja Theory last month as part of the same shake-up. Rare and the Halo franchise have been moved under Activision in recent restructuring moves.

Microsoft has not publicly addressed Sharma’s specific remarks.

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report