Xbox chief executive officer Asha Sharma continues her run of ushering in a new era for the platform, and this latest move could prove to be the most influential one for her tenure. Following the installment of her own leadership team and the dismissal of some of the old guard left behind from Phil Spencer's time, Sharma has now brought in an industry-leading analyst, Matthew Ball, to be the platform's chief strategy officer, and Scott Van Vliet to be chief technology officer, a report from The Game Business reveals.
If you recognize Matthew Ball's name, it'll be because he's the analyst who is currently chief executive officer of Epyllion, and the one who publishes an annual State of Video Gaming Report that is consistently looked to for an understanding of how the industry is doing each year.
According to the report, Ball's first order of business will be to help Xbox navigate its console business, which is inarguably where the platform needs the most help. His strategy experience and his presence as a popular veteran analyst makes him appear to be exactly the person Xbox would want to have on its team, though of course only time will tell if his hiring is actually a game-changer for the platform.
After all, even the best strategist can't plan their way out of factors they can't control, like price increases for consoles and future generations, like Project Helix, due to things like the ongoing memory crisis. There's also the fact that Xbox consoles have consistently declined and lost market share over this entire console generation so far. But it's better to navigate those issues with someone like Ball on your side than without him.
Scott Van Vliet, for his part, is another former OpenAI executive at Microsoft making the jump over to Xbox, though this is also a bit of a return to the video game industry for him, as he previously worked on several popular mobile titles and a port for Minecraft on Amazon's Fire TV.
While Ball's first task is bulking up Xbox consoles, Van Vliet's first priority is getting the Xbox team to be more efficient in building products. The other leadership change noted in the report is another internal shift, with Chris Schnakenberg stepping into the role of corporate vice president of partnerships and business development, which means he'll be leading up third-party relationships with other publishers and developers.
"These changes are about strengthening our foundation by creating more clarity and improving execution," Sharma said when announcing the news to Xbox staff. "As we head toward Showcase and beyond, we'll continue making the changes needed to position Xbox for the future."
All of these changes Sharma has made, not just with these hires but killing the 'This is an Xbox' campaign, lowering the price of Game Pass Ultimate, being more transparent with players about the plan for the future, soliciting more direct feedback from players, changing the logo and the name of the division, and pulling the plug on Gaming Copilot all provide the same energy you get from your favourite professional sports team that just had a bad season, and is now having a very active off-season.
Change is very clearly happening, and even without statements that admit organizational fault, the change itself is an admittance that what was happening before wasn't working. It's exciting for Xbox players and fans of the platform to see all of this change, but we won't know if any of it worked until we get back into the regular season. Of course, there's no 'off' period for the video game industry, but the reality is we won't know if everything Sharma has done to set up her time at the head of Xbox so far works or not until we're at least a year into her tenure.
It'll be interesting to see where Xbox is in a year's time. Hopefully, it's in a better place, since the entire video game industry benefits when all of its platform makers are competitive and successful.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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