[STEAM] Phil Spencer’s replacement by an AI evangelist at Xbox has players fearing for the future of the company: ‘I don’t want to be a doomer, but this doesn’t look good’

[Steam 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Phil Spencer is officially exiting his role at Xbox after spending over a decade at the helm. He's been with

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

for nearly 40 years, having joined as an intern all the way back in 1988. His replacement is a former president of one of

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

's AI divisions, and though she staunchly denied AI's involvement in the future of

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Gaming, not everyone is convinced.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, the recent president of

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

's CoreAI division. She joined the company in 2024 and doesn't really have much gaming background to speak of. What she does have is experience in leadership positions, having been a COO at Intercart and the president of Meta's product and engineering department before eventually hopping into

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

's AI side.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Phil Spencer was part of Xbox for 25 years, leading the company for over a decade. Image via

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. Sharma is a firm supporter of artificial intelligence and its real-world applications. In fact, she thinks AI solutions in medicine and healthcare could potentially reverse the effects of declining global fertility rates, saying in

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

that AI solutions in the *** improved pregnancy rates while "cutting costs at the same time." She also praised GPT-5 for its role in improving healthcare, as well as how AI is being used at Stanford to amplify tumor reviews.

To put it simply: Sharma is quite supportive of artificial intelligence solutions, but, for whatever reason, wants us to believe it's out of the question at Xbox.

In an internal email shared with

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

staff amid her appointment as Xbox head, Sharma said the following: "As monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop. Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us."

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Sharma is a staunch supporter of AI solutions across the board, so it's safe to assume she'd want to see it in video games as well. This bit, while encouraging, could be taken as a string of recognizable buzzwords strung together for immediate effect, rather than to reflect long-term strategies. I'm not the only one smelling a rat: most of the people responding to Sharma's new position are having a hard time believing such a staunch AI supporter would declare the technology verboten at her new job.

"I don't want to be a doomer, but this doesn't look good,"

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

in response to Sharma's prior tenure as Core AI president. "Having an AI exec in charge does not breed confidence,"

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. "Something's really ******** terrifying to me about someone from AI taking over as head of the agency,"

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

The sentiments among gamers are very gloomy, with many thinking this could spell the end of Xbox as we know it.

Spencer's tenure as Xbox president wasn't the best, but his role in turning the tide for Xbox One, as well as in introducing the Game Pass service and multiplatformity as a default for publishers, will be remembered quite fondly. A lot of bad has happened in between, however, but I don't think we've seen the worst of it yet.

Sharma could have been quite sincere in her email, and she does seem to want to engage with gaming in a different way, but her career doesn't inspire hope that Xbox will once again become the beacon of the industry. AI, no matter what, is a fundamental stain on art.

The post

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

appeared first on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up