Xbox Is Not for Sale, Sharma Says Amid Reset and Layoffs
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said "Xbox is not for sale" in an interview with The New York Times, rejecting reports that Microsoft is weighing a sale of its gaming business. The comments were detailed in coverage published on Sept. 30, 2026. That denial is now the on-record position. The Verge
The report Sharma was addressing came from The Information. It said in June that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood had considered spinning out Xbox. The same reporting said Nadella and Hood more recently supported Sharma's plans to overhaul the division.
Sharma announced that overhaul in June as a reset for Xbox. Microsoft plans to lay off up to 3,200 Xbox employees during its 2027 financial year, which ends in June. Nadella has publicly backed the restructuring and streamlining effort in an appearance on the Sources podcast.
The org changes are already altering where key franchises sit. As part of the restructuring, Halo moved under Activision, along with the developers behind Sea of Thieves and Age of Empires. For teams accustomed to operating as platform-aligned studios, a shift to a publisher-led structure changes reporting lines, milestone review and live-ops ownership.
Sharma was named EVP and CEO of Microsoft Gaming on Feb. 20, 2026. As of April 23, 2026, Microsoft Gaming is known as XBOX, and Sharma's title is CEO, XBOX. Microsoft In her first memo as gaming chief, Sharma said she was committed to "the return of Xbox." Days later, she told Windows Central that almost nothing had been decided about the future of Xbox, saying "The plan's the plan until it's not the plan."
On product direction, Sharma has kept two threads consistent: cost and distribution. She has said she is looking at ways to navigate the RAM price crisis with a focus on affordability for current and next-generation Xbox consoles. She told the BBC that Xbox is focusing on efficiency and affordability alongside performance for its reset and next-generation console. Game Developer On mobile, she said the idea of an Xbox mobile store "is not dead," adding "While I am still learning, the idea of an Xbox mobile store is not dead."
The broader context here is familiar to anyone who has run a hardware and services business through a memory pricing spike. Console bill of materials leaves little room to absorb DRAM volatility, so affordability becomes a system architecture constraint, not a marketing choice. It touches die size, memory bus width, storage tiers and the performance targets developers can assume across the install base.
In my view, the more telling signal is the pairing of a sale denial with continued structural consolidation. A public "not for sale" closes one line of speculation. The layoff target, the move of Halo and other live franchises under Activision, and the emphasis on efficiency point to a different operating model for first-party content. I have watched my own children care far less about the box under the television than about where their saves, friends and subscriptions follow them. That behavior rewards predictable performance per dollar and persistent libraries over raw peak throughput.
Worth flagging for technical readers is what to watch next. Memory configuration and pricing for existing SKUs will show how far Microsoft will go to protect entry price points. Studio reporting structure will show whether centralization shortens update cadence for live games. And any mobile storefront work will show whether Xbox pursues alternative distribution through web, sideloading or carrier billing rather than waiting for platform policy shifts. None of those outcomes are decided by a single interview. They will be visible in org charts, SDKs and shelf prices.
