Fans have already stormed social media to complain about the new Microsoft Gaming (Xbox also) CEO, Asha Sharma, and she has been replying without using AI.
It has been only four days since the executive shake-up at Microsoft, and fans have really let their feelings be known online. Asha Sharma revealed herself on X (formerly Twitter), announced her official Gamer Tag on the platform, wrote a few posts to start a conversation about “Top 3 greatest games ever? Why? GO,” and then went silent after those conversations (not before agreeing to play Borderlands 2).
Xbox fans took this opportunity to pile on the Microsoft hire, citing her prior status as a CoreAI CEO and her lack of experience with the platform as reasons she isn’t fit for the role. Today, the CEO returned to the platform to respond to IGN‘s Ryan McCaffrey.
On the notion of ‘faking it’ as a gamer, Sharma wrote, “I created it recently to learn and understand this world. I’ve played with my family, and it’s a shared home account across devices (which you can see in the range of games /achievements). Fixed that this weekend, and everyone is only playing on their own GTs. But I get where this is coming from. I don’t pretend to be the best gamer, and even though I’m playing, that’s still not my goal. My focus is to make Xbox the best place to play, return to our roots, ship great things, and become stronger for the future,” signing off with “yes, I’m writing my own posts :)”.
Previously, Sharma’s conversational replies were meant to test the waters and try to find common ground with Xbox gamers, even including her own Gamer Tag in one of them. Her original post asked what everyone’s favourite games were, and when someone replied that Crackdown 3 was a favourite, Sharma blasted the whole community with, “I’m listening!” Sharma also shared her own favourite titles, saying, “For me it’s Halo, Valheim, Goldeneye,” which fans responded to in kind. Fans in the replies are still very cautious due to Sharma’s previous work as CEO of CoreAI, a generative AI company focused on developing applications through generative AI.
While it appears the new Xbox CEO (or Microsoft Gaming CEO) has her work already cut out for her, she is trying to embrace the community fostered at Microsoft, for better or worse. Oh, and she’s also letting everyone know she’s writing her own replies, even if they read like “Beep Boop Beep Boop.”
