While XBOX CEO Asha Sharma already discussed the company’s position as the number two publisher in the gaming industry, in the same interview with Bloomberg Tech (via VGC), she has also spoken about her grander ambitions that involve making XBOX the “number one gaming and entertainment company” before 2030. She explained that, since becoming the CEO of the division, this goal has been her “mandate”.
When asked about whether this “mandate” would be possible to achieve considering the revenue numbers for XBOX being quite low, especially when compared to Microsoft’s other divisions, Sharma noted that the goal isn’t about the company’s 30 percent accountability margin. Rather, it is almost entirely about making sure that XBOX becomes a leader in the industry.
This also means that, despite the company’s recent investments already being quite expensive, XBOX is planning more to meet its goal.
“My mandate is not 30% accountability margin,” Sharma explained. “It’s not enterprise software margins. It’s to be the number one gaming and entertainment company, and that’s what we’re going to go do. If you think about it, Microsoft has invested more aggressively than nearly anybody in this category over the last six years. We’ve bought Activision and Zenimax. We’ve invested in our core platform. We’ve invested in hardware cycles. We invest in subsidies even when we’re losing money because of memory and storage.”
“So, we’re long on gaming. We’re long on XBOX. We’ll keep investing. But we’ve got work to do. You shared the numbers; we’re not in a healthy spot, and so the next 100 days is going to be about resetting the business.”
As for whether these investments have paid off for the company, Sharma spoke about the sheer value Microsoft got with its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, giving it ownership over major franchises like Call of Duty, Candy Crush, and World of Warcraft. She even brought up the fact that the Call of Duty franchise brings in more revenue than the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“I mean, I don’t know anybody in entertainment who wouldn’t want Call of Duty, which is now grossing in more revenue than the Marvel Cinematic Universe,” she said. “Who wouldn’t want one of the top three apps in the world with Candy Crush? Who wouldn’t want World of Warcraft? And who wouldn’t want a team that for 20 years has been able to create predictable hits every single year? So I love Activision Blizzard King.”
“Look, it was bought at a time before ChatGPT, was bought at a time when our strategy was predominantly on the core console, was at a time when we were right in the middle of Covid, so it’s hard to say how to think about those decisions, but I think these are incredible assets and we intend to continue to invest in them.”
Wrapping up the discussion, Sharma was asked about what success would look like to her after she had spent four years as CEO of XBOX. To this, she responded, “I’d love to see us be the number one gaming and entertainment company.”