The leadership of the gaming division was completely replaced with new faces over the winter and after that things have started to happen, quite a lot in fact.
First, in March, the first hints were announced about the upcoming next-generation Xbox, i.e. Project Helix.
Then in April, the leadership of the gaming division explained how players and games are being put back at the center of everything as the next steps for Xbox and Microsoft's entire gaming business are planned. In the same shake-up, the Microsoft Gaming unit was renamed back to simply Xbox - and Xbox Game Pass prices were lowered.
And now the rapid moves continue, as the head of the Xbox division, Asha Sharma, said this week (link goes to X/Twitter) that Microsoft's AI assistant Copilot will be completely removed from the Xbox platform and its development for Xbox will be discontinued immediately.
In her message, Sharma says that on the Xbox side they are also trimming away similar offshoots that do not belong to the core of Xbox - that is, gaming.
Written by: Petteri Pyyny @ 5 May 2026 17:34
