The departures of Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond from Xbox felt like a monumental change for many in the industry, yet Asha Sharma – the company's new CEO – hasn't let that stop her from making a number of key changes that are already reshaping the company.
There's no hiding the fact that Xbox has been losing the 'console war' for a considerable period of time, and where some can point towards the release of the PlayStation 4 as the moment things shifted, it can arguably be traced back even to the middle of the seventh console generation.
The gap between Microsoft and Sony has widened at an increasing rate over the last decade and a half and while it's largely down to a number of factors that might seem challenging to reverse, things could be on the up thanks to an unexpected leadership shakeup.
Who is the new Xbox CEO?
Phil Spencer dropped the bombshell that he was retiring back in February, departing from his role as CEO of Microsoft Gaming to make way for Asha Sharma alongside the resignation of Sarah Bond as President of Xbox.
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Many were skeptical of Sharma's ascent to one of the most powerful positions in the gaming industry considering the fact she had never worked in the field before, and her previous role as President of Microsoft's CoreAI division also rang alarm bells for some.
Sharma's impact, however, has surprised many so far, as in just over four months she has already made several notable decisions that could put Xbox back on the right track in the near future if things go to plan.
Everything Asha Sharma has done so far
By far the most consequential change made by Sharma so far is the price decrease for Xbox's Game Pass subscription service, which is certainly something to take notice of during a time when the cost of everything seems to only be going up.
Announced on Tuesday, April 21, the amount of money needed to spend each month for both Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass has decreased from $29.99 to $22.99 for the former and $16.49 to $13.99 for the latter.
This came after Sharma reportedly admitted that Game Pass had become 'too expensive', as per The Verge, giving players a cheaper way to access many of the industry's biggest games and most of the newest Xbox first-party titles.
We say most because the biggest caveat of this price drop is the removal of new Call of Duty games from day one access, which was one of the major selling points of the service.
Of course, a large number of CoD players might not necessarily be affected if that's one of the few titles they purchase every year, yet there's still plenty of people who wanted the best of both worlds by paying for Game Pass.
Alongside the Game Pass changes, Sharma was also in charge when Microsoft officially announced Project Helix – the next Xbox console – although that had been in the works for a number of years now and information was already revealed under Spencer and Bond's leadership.
Sharma also ditched the 'Microsoft Gaming' branding and returned to just 'Xbox', got rid of the 'This is an Xbox' marketing campaign, and issued a commitment to human-led development, declaring in her welcome message that "games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us."