'Father of the Xbox' predicts the end following Phil Spencer's exit: The new CEO will be 'a palliative care doctor who slides Xbox gently into the night'

‘Father of the Xbox’ predicts the end following Phil Spencer’s exit: The new CEO will be ‘a palliative care doctor who slides Xbox gently into the night’ | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these Gaming Industry Xbox boss Phil Spencer is retiring, and his replacement is an AI executive who joined Microsoft in 2024 AI Unity boss who once called out the ‘idiocy’ of the metaverse now says his company’s new AI tech ‘will enable developers to prompt full casual games into existence with natural language only’ Gaming Industry If Xbox is ‘recommitting’ to its console, what does that mean for its recent ‘everything is an Xbox’ strategy? 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From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Phil Spencer’s surprise retirement announcement last week, coupled with the equally unexpected resignation of Xbox president Sarah Bond and elevation of former Instacart exec Asha Sharma to Microsoft Gaming CEO, left a lot of unanswered questions. Was Phil forced out? Why didn’t Bond, his presumed successor, get the job? Who’s this new boss, who only joined Microsoft in 2024 and was previously all about AI? And of course, the big one: What does it all mean?Frankly, I don’t know. I initially suspected shenanigans, due primarily to the very pronounced silence of Bond, the one person among everyone involved who didn’t have something nice to say about everyone else. (An absence emphasized by the fact that no one but Phil—not Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, nor incoming Xbox boss Asha Sharma or newly promoted chief content officer Matt Booty—even acknowledged Bond’s existence, much less thanked her for her work.) A later report by The Verge claimed that the retirement announcement was supposed to go out today but the cork popped early because of leaks, which is why it all seemed so messy.Another person who doesn’t know what it all means is Seamus Blackley, famed as a programmer on games including System Shock, Flight Unlimited, and Terra Nova, and more particularly for his work in leading the cre