Xbox Boss Asha Sharma Outlines Multi-Year Recovery Plan for Microsoft Gaming

Microsoft is reshaping its Xbox plans after a bleak financial picture for the gaming division, and the company’s new Xbox leadership has now laid out a multi-year path meant to restore revenue growth, expand the player base, and improve profitability. In a letter to employees, Xbox head Asha Sharma described specific priorities for the next stretch of years and detailed how the organization intends to hit them.

Key takeaways

• Asha Sharma says the Xbox gaming division should return to revenue growth and reach industry-standard levels of profit by the end of the next fiscal year period, targeting 31 June 2027.
• Xbox’s near-term priorities are centered on strengthening Xbox as a gaming platform, developing Microsoft’s own brands, elevating Minecraft as a top creative hub, and extending major franchises into other media.
• The plan runs in three phases: restore revenue growth by 31 June 2027, accelerate growth and engagement during fiscal 2028–2029, and then double down in fiscal 2030 based on what worked best.
• By the end of the roadmap, Microsoft expects a double-digit yearly increase in the number of players and one of the best profit-to-revenue ratios in the industry.
• Sharma’s letter says the Xbox ecosystem totals 100 million daily players, 500 million monthly players, and nearly one billion yearly players, and that Xbox consoles drive most of the division’s revenue.
• Three Xbox brands each bring in over $1 billion in annual revenue, and the letter explicitly points to heavier investment in Minecraft and Candy Crush, with Forza likely to be the third.

Priorities and what Xbox wants to build next

Sharma’s message frames Xbox as being in the middle of a major internal transformation. Rather than keeping production decentralized—where individual studios largely managed their own priorities—Microsoft wants the teams to operate as one coordinated group focused on the most important franchises.

Within that reorganization, the Xbox gaming division will focus on four main goals: strengthening Xbox as a platform for games with an emphasis on Xbox consoles; pushing further development of Microsoft’s owned brands; making Minecraft the most important creative platform for players; and expanding popular Xbox brands into other forms of media.

The three-phase roadmap

The roadmap is structured around three distinct phases.

1. Phase one: restore revenue growth by 31 June 2027.
2. Phase two: during fiscal years 2028 and 2029 (from 1 July 2027 through 31 June 2029), accelerate revenue growth and increase the number of people playing across the Xbox ecosystem.
3. Phase three: in fiscal 2030, review what strategies performed best over the prior three years and place greater emphasis on those approaches.

By the time the plan reaches its end point, Microsoft says it expects a double-digit percentage increase in players every year, alongside achieving one of the strongest profit-to-revenue ratios in the industry.

Where revenue and players stand today

Sharma also provided a snapshot of the current Xbox ecosystem. She stated that Xbox’s total footprint—including Game Pass on PC, Microsoft-published games on personal computers, mobile devices, and other consoles—reaches 100 million daily players, 500 million monthly players, and nearly one billion players across a year.

She added that Xbox consoles are responsible for most of the gaming division’s revenue. At the brand level, Sharma said that three Xbox brands each generate more than $1 billion in annual revenue. While the letter does not list every title explicitly, it does call out Minecraft and Candy Crush as areas Microsoft intends to invest in even more heavily than before. The third brand is not named, but Forza is strongly implied as the remaining candidate.

Cloud growth versus gaming decline

Microsoft’s broader financial picture also highlights why Xbox’s turnaround matters. The company reported that, in the last fiscal year, revenue from cloud and related services increased by $31 billion, while revenue from the gaming division fell by $1.7 billion.

Together, those figures frame the urgency of Sharma’s plan: regain momentum in gaming revenue, grow engagement across the Xbox ecosystem, and align investments with the brands Microsoft believes can carry the platform forward.