By Zhaan 
We’re doing a bit of catch-up on the news front this week, and there’s been some pretty major stuff happening lately. Specifically, there has been a big shake-up in the PlayStation and Microsoft camps. And it’s mostly depressing stuff, I’m sorry to say.
Phil Spencer Retires, New CEO Appointed
Ah, Phil Spencer. He’s always been one of the “good ones”, hasn’t he? As far as tech CEOs go, I mean. He’s got a relatable, down to earth vibe about him. While most tech CEOs tend to be out of touch or obnoxious, Spencer has been quite the opposite. I still remember those great interviews GiantBomb.com had with him at E3, just a very likeable guy.
Some of you may recall how Microsoft struggled during the 2010s with their lackluster Xbox One generation of consoles. The company made a ton of bad decisions and it felt like the brand was headed in the wrong direction. However, that changed when Spencer replaced Don Mattrick as head of the company. Under his leadership, Xbox made a big push for backwards compatability (with disc support!), and they launched their Game Pass subscription service, which would become one of the biggest selling points for Xbox going forward. They also released the most powerful console hardware ever at the time, with the Xbox One X.
These initiatives were mostly well received, and the public perception of the brand generally improved across the board. Now, I’m not actually a fan of Game Pass as I like to actually own my games, but it was certainly a huge deal at the time and something of a paradigm shift for Xbox. Then, in 2023, Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard in one of the biggest gaming/tech acquisitions ever. Whether you like him or not, Phil Spencer made a big splash.
However, it’s also true that under his leaderhip Xbox hardware sales have completely collapsed in recent years, and the company now feels more like a third-party publisher than a console platform. Heck, you can’t even find a Series X here in Scandinavia, and I don’t see the point in buying one either. There will be a next-gen Xbox console, no doubt, but if you were to ask me if Xbox as a console maker still exists in five-to-ten years from now, my answer would be.. maybe? I’m pretty sure Nintendo and PlayStation will be doing just fine.
Well, Phil Spencer is gone now. Officially retired, and leaving behind a somewhat muddled legacy. His successor, Asha Sharma, was revealed just a week ago and she’s already facing criticism for her past gaming history and background in AI.
For one, she’s been accused of basically making a new GamerTag (Xbox profile) and playing lots of games to make it seem like she’s one of the, erm, “real gamers”. She recently responded to these accusations, stating that she created it to “learn and understand” this world.
“I agree. Faking would be a terrible idea and wouldn’t work. I also didn’t expect my gamertag to blowup and the reality is more boring. I created it recently to learn and understand this world. I’ve played with my family, and it’s a shared home account across devices (which you can see in the range of games /achievements). Fixed that this weekend and everyone is only playing on their own GTs.” “But I get where this is coming from. I don’t pretend to be the best gamer and even though I’m playing, that’s still not my goal. My focus is to make Xbox the best place to play, return to our roots, ship great things, and become stronger for the future.” “And yes, I’m writing my own posts :)”
Another point of criticism for Sharma is that she’s coming from one of Microsoft’s AI divisions. She was the head of CoreAI, which is the team responsible for Azure AI and Copilot, among other things. This has led to concerns about the implementation of unnecessary AI in future Xbox consoles and game development. However, Sharma herself has stated plainly that there will be “no soulless AI slop”, so there’s that.
My takeway from all of this is that Phil Spencer’s tenure as CEO was a mixed bag at best, and that Asha Sharma is a very casual gamer with no background in the games industry. This doesn’t seem ideal for a person that is now in charge of a massive gaming company, but it wouldn’t be the first time a non-gamer led such an institution either. Regardless, I remain uncertain about the future of Xbox.
Sony Shutters Bluepoint Games
Now, this is probably the saddest gaming news of the year. PlayStation has shut down Bluepoint Games, arguably one of its most promising studios (at least to me). You may know them for their remakes of Shadow of the Colossus and Demon’s Souls, which were mostly excellent. The studio was originally acquired by Sony in 2021.
Now, 70 employees have lost their jobs. Bluepoint clearly had big plans for the future, as they wanted to make new games in addition to remakes and remasters. According to Polygon, the studio had been actively pitching ideas for original titles to Sony.
That fantasy hasn’t aligned with the reality of Bluepoint’s work since being acquired by Sony in 2021, however. The studio expressed a desire to transition away from restoring others’ work to become a team that worked on original games, according to Bluepoint co-founder and president Marco Thrush.
Instead, they were supposedly working on a God of War GAAS (Game’s As A Service) title before shutting down operations. Whether this was Bluepoint’s choice or Sony decision is unknown. To top it all off, Bluepoint had apparently shown interest in remaking Bloodborne in 2025, and while Sony said yes, From Software rejected the idea. It would appear that Bloodborne director Hidetaka Miyazaka wants to remake it himself at some point.
Bloomberg says its sources told it that Bluepoint “was told that the numbers made sense [to remake Bloodborne] but FromSoftware didn’t want it to happen.” As the report notes, former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida theorized during a Kinda Funny interview last year that FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki, who directed Bloodborne, was interested in remaking the 2015 action game himself but was too busy to do so; Yoshida said he “doesn’t want anyone else to touch it” and that if that’s true, he believes PlayStation would respect Miyazaki’s wishes, even though PlayStation owns the Bloodborne IP.
Ultimately, Bluepoint was a great way to honor PlayStation’s legacy with updated versions of old games, and considering their technical prowess, I firmly believe they could have created excellent original games as well. Personally, I would have expanded the studio and created two major teams within the studio – one for remasters and one for original games. But what do I know, I’m just an idiot with a blog.
Well, that’s a wrap for this post. It hasn’t been a great month for gaming news, but it is news. See you next month.