One of the original team who pushed for the creation of the first Xbox, Seamus Blackley, has suggested that the new CEO, Asha Sharma, has been appointed to see the gradual wind down of the brand – because it’s nothing to do with AI.
“Xbox, like a lot of businesses that aren’t the core AI business, is being sunsetted,” Blackley told Gamesbeat. “They don’t say that, but that’s what’s happening. I expect that the new CEO, Asha Sharma, her job is going to be as a palliative care doctor who slides Xbox gently into the night.”
“It just seems really true. I imagine asking somebody if it made sense to put a major motion picture studio into the hands of somebody who didn’t like movies, or a major record label into the hands of somebody who’d never seen a live show. Why would you do that?” he adds.
“The job of all these people is to just gently usher all of these business units into the new world of AI,” he continues. “That’s what you’re seeing here. Whether or not you agree with it, whether you agree with AI having the potential to do that, whether AI will be successful, is a separate matter. But that’s what we’re seeing.”
He also had some views on how the gaming community would react to Sharma’s appointment, first stating the gamers are very tolerant of non-gamers telling them what to believe, but then make it’s clear he is joking, “No, they’re not tolerant of any of these things. That’s the wall she’s about to discover.”
Seamus Blackley is currently CEO of Pacific Light & Hologram, a “technology start-up working in stealth mode to realise fully immersive 3D experience.” He also taught the world how to make Sourdough bread using ancient yeast and historical baking methods during the COVID pandemic.
You can read the full interview over on Gamesbeat, it’s well worth a read. You can also read our thoughts about outgoing CEO. Phil Spencer’s legacy here.
Do you think Xbox will continue as a brand or get sidelined by Microsoft as the chase AI? Let us know in the comments.
Source: Gamesbeat
