Da den store omstrukturering af Xbox-ledelsen blev annonceret fredag aften, kom alle involverede undtagen Sarah Bond med en officiel erklæring. Nu, blot få dage senere, har Windows Central fået mulighed for at interviewe både den nye gaming-boss Asha Sharma og Matt Booty, som blev forfremmet til Chief Content Officer i forbindelse med rokaden.
Et af spørgsmålene i det lange og dybdegående interview var, hvad Sharma mente, da hun lovede både "Xbox' tilbagevenden" og "en fornyet forpligtelse til Xbox, startende med konsollen." Hun svarede:
"I think that our core Xbox fans and players have invested up to 25 years of themselves in these universes and our console. I want to make sure everybody knows I'm committed to Xbox, starting with the console. We're going to keep meeting players where they are — the world continues to evolve and change. We're going to make sure Xbox is a great place for developers and players."
Senere i interviewet vendte Sharma tilbage til Xbox-konsollerne og syntes at bekræfte, at Xbox-hardware er noget, der har en fremtid:
"Xbox players have thousands of dollars invested, in money and time too — it's incredibly important for me to understand that and protect that. I am committed to 'returning to Xbox,' and that starts with console, that starts with hardware. You will hear more about that soon, we'll have some announcements coming up. You will see us collectively investing here. We also know that there are a lot of players who aren't on console or our hardware, and I want to deliver great games to them too. I need to learn more about what that can look like, what decisions were made, what we need to do going forward, and I want a little bit of time and space to do that."
I samme interview havde Booty også noget at dele om Xbox, hvor han slog fast, at Microsoft ikke vil blive en tredjepartsudgiver:
"We're committed to being a first-party games publisher in partnership with our first-party platform team."
Booty berørte også brugen af AI blandt Microsofts mange Xbox-udviklere og forklarede, at der ikke er nogen krav på dette område. Det ses blot som et værktøj blandt mange andre:
"We've got no pressure from Microsoft, there are no directives on AI coming down. Our teams are free to use any technologies that might be beneficial, whether it's helping write code or check for bugs — things more in the production pipeline."
Sharma afslutter med at sige, at hun ved, at Xbox ikke har været uden problemer. Hun tilføjer, at hendes job nu er at vende udviklingen, og minder os om, at Xbox tidligere har stået over for kriser, som brandet har overlevet:
"We know that the business has gone through some challenges. I'm going to use my expertise and the leaders that have the deep gaming depth around the table to help us grow the business, and make sure that we have an incredible next 25 years. I will listen, I will learn, I will communicate what we're seeing, and what we're doing. I think from here, the work is proof over promise. Matt and I are in it, every hour of every day of every night, I am fully in this thing. This team has brought it back before, and I'm here to help us do it again."
Vi anbefaler at tjekke hele interviewet, som indeholder flere interessante detaljer for dem, der vil vide mere om, hvordan fremtiden for Xbox vil udfolde sig.