Key Takeaways

• Asha Sharma is the new Executive Vice President and CEO of Microsoft Gaming.
• Matt Booty moves into the role of Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer.
• The gaming division has reached a milestone of five hundred million monthly active users.
• The organization now manages nearly forty individual development studios.
• Asha Sharma reports directly to Satya Nadella.

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Delving right into it

The news hit my desk early this morning. Asha Sharma is the new boss at Microsoft Gaming. She takes the title of Executive Vice President and CEO. I noticed she reports directly to Satya Nadella. The move is a thunderclap.

She spent two years at Microsoft before this promotion. Her career includes time as the Chief Operating Officer at Instacart plus a vice presidency at Meta. She knows how to scale a business for a billion people. And she is now in charge of the whole gaming shop.

Matt Booty has a new mission. He is the Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer. He answers to Sharma. The strategy is a compass.

He oversees nearly forty studios. These include Bethesda and Activision Blizzard as well as King. The franchises are the treasury. I am talking about Halo and The Elder Scrolls plus Call of Duty and World of Warcraft besides Diablo. The genius of the creators is a power. The platform is ready.

The numbers are a mountain.

Five hundred million people play these games every month. The scale is undeniable. I saw the note about Flight Simulator shipping before Windows existed. Gaming is the foundation of this company. The twenty-fifth year of Xbox is a fresh page. Satya Nadella is long on gaming. The hardware and the content move together.

The creators are the focus. The players are the winners. The future is a bright light.

The information in this article was first published in “The Official Microsoft Blog”.

Asha Sharma Takes the Helm

I watched the internal memo surface this morning. Asha Sharma is the Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Gaming. She answers to Satya Nadella. Her history at Meta and Instacart provides the blueprint for scaling the ecosystem to reach the next five hundred million customers across the globe.

She manages the business. But the focus remains on the software. The reporting structure puts gaming at the center of the corporate strategy.

Matt Booty has a different desk now. He is the Chief Content Officer. He oversees the production of stories and code. His portfolio contains forty studios. These developers build worlds for Xbox and PC plus mobile devices.

I noticed the inclusion of Bethesda and Activision Blizzard along with King in his remit. This hierarchy separates the business operations from the creative process. The creators have room to breathe.

The numbers define the success. Five hundred million players use the services every month. This data point is a heavy weight.

Growth comes from the mobile sector and the cloud infrastructure. The hardware is a portal. But the games are the destination. The strategy involves the integration of massive franchises into the Game Pass library to ensure constant engagement. I think the scale is unprecedented for a software company.

The twenty-fifth year of Xbox begins with a transition.

The hardware team is working on the next generation of silicon. Reliability is the goal. I saw the notes on the upcoming flight of titles for 2026. The pipeline is full. The company is long on gaming because the data shows it is the primary form of entertainment for the youth. The future is a wide field.

Background: The Flight Simulator Legacy

Microsoft Gaming did not start with a console.

It started with a cockpit. Flight Simulator launched in 1982. This was years before the first version of Windows hit the market. The franchise is the longest-running series in the history of the company. It proves that Microsoft has been a gaming company from the start. The original Xbox arrived in 2001 to compete with Sony. It used a modified Pentium III processor.

Today the division is a giant that dwarfs the original vision of the founders.

Knowledge Check

1. Who is the current CEO of Microsoft Gaming as of February 2026?
Asha Sharma.

2. What is the title of Matt Booty in the new organization?
Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer.

3. How many monthly active users does Microsoft Gaming currently serve?
Five hundred million.

4. How many development studios are now under the Microsoft Gaming umbrella?
Nearly forty individual studios.

5. To whom does Asha Sharma report?
Satya Nadella.

Source: The Official Microsoft Blog.