Xbox Is Not for Sale, but a Reset Is Still Underway
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma told The New York Times that "Xbox is not for sale," rejecting reports that Microsoft might sell its gaming business. Coverage of the interview was published on Sept. 30, 2026, and that denial is now the on-record position. The Verge
The report she was answering came from The Information. It said in June that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood had considered spinning out Xbox. The same report said Nadella and Hood had more recently backed Sharma's plan to overhaul the division.
Sharma announced that overhaul in June as a reset for Xbox. Microsoft plans to cut up to 3,200 Xbox jobs in its 2027 financial year, which ends in June. Nadella has publicly backed the restructuring and streamlining effort on the Sources podcast.
The changes are already moving key games to new homes. Halo has moved under Activision, along with the studios behind Sea of Thieves and Age of Empires. For teams used to working as platform-aligned studios, groups tied closely to the Xbox console itself, a shift to a publisher-led structure changes who they report to, how milestones are reviewed, and who runs daily live updates.
Sharma was named EVP and CEO of Microsoft Gaming on Feb. 20, 2026. On April 23, 2026, Microsoft Gaming became known as XBOX, and her title became CEO, XBOX. Microsoft In her first memo as gaming chief, she promised "the return of Xbox." Days later she told Windows Central that almost nothing had been decided about Xbox's future, saying "The plan's the plan until it's not the plan."
On products, Sharma has stressed two themes: cost and distribution. She said she is looking for ways to handle the RAM price crisis, a sharp rise in memory-chip prices, while keeping current and next-generation Xbox consoles affordable. She told the BBC that Xbox is focused on efficiency and affordability alongside performance for the reset and the next 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 will be familiar to hardware veterans. Console parts leave little margin to absorb sudden jumps in memory prices, so holding the price down becomes an engineering limit, not only a marketing choice. It touches chip size, how wide the memory connection is, storage options, and the baseline performance game makers can count on across consoles in homes.
In my view, the sale denial paired with continued consolidation is the detail to note. The public statement ends one rumor. The planned 3,200 job cuts, the move of Halo and other live games under Activision, and the focus on efficiency point to a different way of running Xbox's own studios. I have seen this shift with my own children, who care less about the box under the TV than about where their saves, friends and subscriptions go with them. That habit favors steady performance for the price and libraries that carry forward.
Worth flagging is what to watch next. Memory size and pricing for current models will show how far Microsoft will go to protect entry prices. Studio reporting lines will show whether central control speeds up updates for live games. Any work on a mobile store will show whether Xbox tries web sales, sideloading, or carrier billing instead of waiting for app-store rule changes. None of that will be settled by one interview. It will show up in org charts, developer tools, and store prices, and that is where players will feel what this reset makes possible.
