'Xbox Not For Sale': CEO Asha Sharma Denies Divestment Reports

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has pushed back on the idea that Microsoft plans to sell its struggling gaming business. The denial lands at a tense moment for the division, which has just gone through another wave of job cuts, internal restructuring at its studios, and whispers of cancelled projects.

It also follows an earlier report this year claiming Microsoft, having poured years of money into gaming, was weighing a spinoff to stop the financial bleeding.

Speaking to The New York Times, Sharma made clear that isn't on the table. "Xbox is not for sale," she said. "We will do whatever it takes to set the company up for success, and we will look at the right partnerships, the right operating model and everything needed to achieve that."

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Her remarks appeared in a profile published Wednesday, which detailed the challenges Xbox is navigating and Sharma's approach to reviving the business.

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Years Of Turmoil Since Activision

The trouble at Xbox traces back to 2023, when Microsoft completed its costly purchase of Activision Blizzard. In the years since, the fallout has been significant: studios shuttered, projects cancelled outright, and thousands of jobs eliminated across the division. Most recently, last month's cuts removed another 268 positions and triggered a wider shake-up of how Xbox's studios are organised.

Despite the turmoil, Sharma said Xbox's long-term future still sits within Microsoft. "We've got a long way to go with Microsoft, and we're going to take the long-term view," she said.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has publicly backed Sharma's efforts to stabilise Xbox and return the division to growth by the end of fiscal year 2027. He recently praised her "streamlining" work as "great to see," though earlier in the year he had also stressed the need for Xbox to become financially sustainable on its own.

Spinoff Speculation Earlier This Year

In June, The Information reported that Microsoft was weighing several options for its gaming division, including spinning it off entirely, restructuring it as a wholly owned subsidiary, or bringing in outside partners to reset Xbox as a joint venture. That report surfaced just days after Sharma had laid out Xbox's financial struggles in stark terms, including a plan to overhaul hardware, content and services across the next 100 days. At the time, she revealed Xbox was operating at just a 3 percent "accountability margin," Microsoft's internal profitability metric, and confirmed that Xbox's revenue had dropped by nearly half a billion dollars over the previous five years.

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Studio Closures And Ongoing Negotiations

Things escalated further in July, when Sharma unveiled what she described as the most sweeping overhaul Xbox has ever undergone, including the elimination of 3,200 jobs by the close of the fiscal year. The division also cut ties entirely with three of its studios: Compulsion Games, Double Fine and Undead Labs, each of which has since continued on either independently or under a different owner.

No such resolution has been found yet for Hellblade developer Ninja Theory. Xbox is currently consulting with the studio's staff over a proposed shutdown, while still weighing whether other paths forward exist. Separately, Microsoft is in talks with French studio Arkane about what comes next, with options reportedly including a sale or a spinoff of its own. Those conversations are ongoing and expected to run through the rest of the year, according to Xbox's confirmation last month.

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