Driven by new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, Microsoft's gaming department continues to promote organizational structure and leadership adjustments to strengthen business strategy and technology layout. According to an internal memo, Xbox recently added two key positions: Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Technology Officer, and the appointments have been completed.
In the latest appointment, industry analyst Matthew Ball serves as Xbox chief strategy officer and will work with Asha Sharma to plan the future development direction of Xbox. Ball is widely known in the industry for his long-running annual The State of Video Gaming report and is described by Sharma as "widely respected" in the gaming, media and technology sectors. Prior to joining Xbox, he held a variety of leadership roles at companies including Illumination, Amazon Studios, Otter Media, and Accenture Strategy, where he gained extensive content and strategy experience.
At the same time, Scott Van Vliet joined Xbox as chief technology officer, responsible for overall technical direction and execution. Van Vliet previously led the Azure OpenAI and Microsoft Teams engineering teams within Microsoft, and his career also includes work experience on teams such as Amazon Game Studios, Alexa, and Amazon Appstore. Sharma emphasized in the memo that Van Vliet has been a part of the Xbox community since the original Xbox Live beta in 2002, indicating a long-standing and strong connection with the brand.
In addition to external recruitment and internal deployment in parallel, Sharma also made promotion adjustments to the existing team. Chris Schnakenberg, formerly Vice President of Partners and Business Development, has been promoted to Corporate Vice President, Partnerships & Business Development. Prior to joining Microsoft, he spent 12 years leading partnerships and business strategy at Activision Blizzard, and will now be responsible for coordinating Xbox's efforts with third-party projects and partner companies.
Sharma explained in the memo that this series of changes is intended to strengthen the foundation of Xbox and prepare for future growth by "creating more clarity and improving execution." She said that as the Xbox annual showcase event (Showcase) approaches and follow-up plans advance, the team will continue to make necessary adjustments to ensure that Xbox can be in a good position to compete in the future.
This is the second large-scale high-level adjustment in Microsoft's gaming department this month. A few weeks ago, Sharma introduced many executives from the CoreAI team he was previously responsible for at Microsoft to Xbox leadership and created five new related positions to further strengthen the role of artificial intelligence and technical capabilities in the Xbox business.