Microsoft’s new Xbox shake-up is all about platform changes

A striking development has emerged in artificial intelligence. News Close News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All News Gaming Close Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Gaming Tech Close Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

Follow Follow See All Tech Microsoft’s new Xbox shake-up is all about platform changes Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is bringing more technical expertise into the Xbox platform team. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is bringing more technical expertise into the Xbox platform team. by Tom Warren Close Tom Warren Senior Correspondent Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

Technical Details

Follow Follow See All by Tom Warren May 5, 2026, 4:46 PM UTC Link Share Gift Image: The Verge Tom Warren Close Tom Warren Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Tom Warren is a senior correspondent and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Microsoft’s new Xbox chief, Asha Sharma, has spent the past couple of months making her mark on the Xbox organization.

After focusing on highly-requested Xbox console features, reducing the price of Game Pass , and moving Microsoft Gaming back to Xbox , Sharma is now reorganizing the Xbox platform team at Microsoft today. The changes will see some veterans depart, promotions, and new faces with more technical expertise to help the Xbox platform team. Jared Palmer, who used to work with Sharma in Microsoft’s CoreAI division, is joining Xbox as VP of engineering and a technical advisor to Sharma.

In a memo to Xbox employees, Sharma says that Palmer will work “directly with me on our most complex product and engineering problems, with a focus on developer tooling, taste, and infrastructure. ” Tim Allen, former Microsoft CoreAI VP of design and GitHub’s senior VP of design and research, is also joining Xbox to lead design. Sharma says Allen’s appointment is the “first time bringing together product design, design engineering, research, and creative with a fan-first focus.

” Jonathan McKay, former head of growth at Microsoft’s CoreAI division, is also joining Xbox to lead its growth, data platform, and analytics. Evan Chaki, a former general manager in CoreAI, is joining a new team in Xbox to “lead a forward-deployed engineering group focused on removing repetitive work, simplifying development, and improving how we operate.

This advance offers important signals about the future of the sector, and the tech world is watching closely.