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[FalconPunch]

Piecing the story together so far, it's hard not to see how Sarah Bond was nothing more than a patsy. At this point, it's evident that she was ambushed with this news. We can arrive at this based on the following timeline:

Her last linked in post was a mere 3ish hours before she was let go:
Last Linked In Post

If you're coming with plans to resign, you're not posting these things to linkedin. Furthermore, neither Satya, Asha, or Matt mentioned Sarah in anyway as seen here:
Microsoft's Leadership Message

Now, if we look at things deeper, we can see her Xbox Gamertag was created just a month ago?
Gamertag Source

To many, the news of Phil's resignation came as a shock? However, should it have been? Just 3 weeks ago, Microsoft Blamed the Xbox division for plummeting revenue:
Source

If you tuned in to the financial call, you'd have heard that:

Xbox gaming hardware revenue has declined for the last three financial years, and isn't set to break that trend any time soon, with a 32% decline year-on-year. Microsoft expects this trend to continue into 2026, too.

Source:Yahoo finance

Now, Microsoft's earnings was on Jan 28 which means all departments reported their numbers in a few weeks earlier. Now, I speculate that Satya saw the numbers and decided that it was unjustifiable. As a result he determined to fire Phil Spencer. Microsoft stock has been under fire since Nov last year:

The reason it's been under fire is because Investors have been questioning Microsoft's CapEx spending on AI. More importantly, the lack of returns on the investment. Now seeing the bad numbers from Xbox, someone had to pay the "iron price" to distract questioning around AI and Xbox laid itself on a platter due to it's numbers.

As a result, Satya decided on Asha and got their PR team to begin prepping her for the role(poorly I might add). That's why we see that the xbox account was just created a month ago.

Phil Spencer is a Microsoft lifer and was unceremoniously shown the door. However, they can't lay the blame at Phil's feet. He's a Microsoft lifer and it's a bad look. So that's where the convenient patsy Sarah Bond steps in to save the day.

Regardless of what you think of Sarah, she answered to Phil. If her ideas were bad, Phil had the power to overrule them and ask her to seek a new direction. He didn't and the buck ultimately stops with him.

The way Microsoft handled this was sloppy AF. More importantly The Verge and Tom Warren need to be absolutely called out for their Corporate Slander. Some real fake news media shit with the "Sarah Bond wasn't liked internally" nonsense. In every work place, some people like the boss, some do not.

Unsurprisingly, we can see that Microsoft has not stopped it's AI push at all by appoint an ex AI executive as the CEO of gaming. It's like a cancer spreading itself all over the organization. I won't get into the qualifications of Asha and the accusations around ethnic nepotism/ cronyism.

I just think it's important that we call a spade a spade. This rubbish The Verge is churning out stinks.

 

[Pedro Motta]

 

[saintjules]

Spoiler

just messing

 

[EverydayBeast]

It's just speculation it is interesting if any of this big wigs are gamers and prephaps this was premeditated

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

The "grifters" and YouTubers are taking care of business. No one is buying "Dirty Tom" BS. The negativity and mockery directed at this new CEO, reflects how much Xbox has become a laughingstock. There's no way the brand "turns a corner." I'm so glad Phil didn't leave with a party and a standing ovation

 

[FalconPunch]

It's just speculation it is interesting if any of this big wigs are gamers and prephaps this was premeditated

It has to be premediated. If it was a spur of the moment thing, I don't think that Asha would have been selected. Instead, Matt Booty would have temporarily held the role while Microsoft made a decision about who would fill the position.

There's no question in my mind that Sarah was ambushed. The only thing I'm unsure of is if Phil was informed ahead of time. Like shortly after earnings. He had a nice PR speech ready to go and everything. If he knew and Sarah didn't, then he probably threw here under the bus.

 

[Ramiro_Rodriguez]

So Phil did nothing wrong and is just a fall guy, because of MS miserable AI bet.
Like the 100 billion invest in Bing and it is still a money sink.
So, we'll blame him, because he can take it?

On the other hand is he a multi-millionaire..

 

[The Cockatrice]

Holy fuck you guys are boring with these threads.

 

[pqueue]

so much speculative bullshit here, to go along with your "There's no question in my mind that Sarah was ambushed" and "The only thing I'm unsure of"

no cupcake. there is a LOT your are unsure of.

this is just throwing shit at a wall and then rubbing your fingers through the shit.

 

[FalconPunch]

So Phil did nothing wrong and is just a fall guy, because of MS miserable AI bet.
Like the 100 billion invest in Bing and it is still a money sink.
So, we'll blame him, because he can take it?

On the other hand is he a multi-millionaire..

Where did I say that Phil did nothing wrong?

I mean I made this thread in the past: The Problem With Phil Spencer

 

[Kacho]

Are New GamerTag Creations Now The Leading Indicator Of A Pending Firing At Xbox?

 

[FalconPunch]

so much speculative bullshit here, to go along with your "There's no question in my mind that Sarah was ambushed" and "The only thing I'm unsure of"

no cupcake. there is a LOT your are unsure of.

this is just throwing shit at a wall and then rubbing your fingers through the shit.

I'll allow you to rationally explain why an employee who got unceremoniously usurped would be carrying out their duties as usual if they knew they were about to be usurped?

 

[Rusty Shackelford]

They need Seamus Blackley and J Allard back at the helm. Give this chic 3 years, and when she fails, then find these guys and give them a blank check to write their salaries. Them give them 100% free reign.

 

[Idleyes]

Regardless of what you think of Sarah, she answered to Phil. If her ideas were bad, Phil had the power to overrule them and ask her to seek a new direction. He didn't and the buck ultimately stops with him.

Minor correction: if her execution of Phil's vision was flawed, he had every authority to step in and change it. She wasn't in that role to set the direction, she was there to implement the strategy he came up with and Nadella (the clown who's been sucking AI dick the whole time) signed off on. You can absolutely argue she executed it poorly if that's your position, but the overall direction was never hers to control.

Edit: And the real issue, then and now, is the overall direction. You can't execute your way out of a fundamentally bad idea. If the strategy itself is flawed, no amount of polish is going to turn it into a success. I think she did a good job at executing a dumb plan. That's just me.

 

[Moondoggy]

"The names Bond..........Sarah Bond", she says to the bewildered bartender as she walks away sipping her long island iced tea, she becomes distracted looking at the picture of John Masterchief on her phone thinking to herself, "Such a missed opportunity, just think of the heights I may have reached in further ruining the franchise". Perhaps too distracted, she trips on a chair pulled out too far, but, as she falls and all hope of an unspilled long island iced tea crumbles before her, she's caught. She slowly looks up, "I knew you'd never leave me Phil", but then she gasps in surprise as a voice answers back, "No, not Phil dear Sarah, it is I, Don Mattrick, and I never left."

*This has been a dramatic reading of chapter 1 of, Have I told you about Television: The Sarah Bond Story, coming to audible this March.

 

[Sticks]

Hear you

 

[Ramiro_Rodriguez]

Where did I say that Phil did nothing wrong?

Someone had to pay the "iron price" to distract questioning around AI and Xbox laid itself on a platter due to it's numbers
Sounds a bit like that.

 

[Hollowpoint5557]

She's not going to date you bro.

 

[MCH2024]

She's not a patsy.

Xbox was ran to the ground by Phil and Sarah. You can like both as much as you want.

But it's undeniable that they have utterly failed.
Xbox has to try a new strategy with new leadership.
Anything else is cowardice.

Bond/Spencer strategy for next gen is non- existent. Windows 11 Box with XFSE?

No Online Tax Revenue
No Game 30% Cut Revenue
=
No Console Hardware Subsidy

And releasing a 36GB VRAM High End 1,499$ PC will get Xbox laughed out of the room. Xbox brand is being diluted by Xbox into being meaningless. Why not be a surface?

 

[Moses85]

 

[Coconutt]

Nah if they going to do something like thay they would have hired a middle aged white guy, there'd be no backlash at all for making him the patsy while there is some for making an intelligent black women quit.

 

[mitch1971]

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Expecting the execs to be gamers is just cringe. No one was like, has Jim Ryan even played all the Uncharteds? Who gives a fuck.

 

[Zacfoldor]

I'll be the one. OP is sadly correct with most of the speculation. I do believe this was planned. I do believe this was sprung on Sarah but not Asha and probably not Phil, I do believe the buck stopped with Phil and so I do believe she is the fall guy for this. It is pretty obvious. I don't see it as simping for Sarah, I see it as the obvious truth. Poll is weird and answer is no. Verge article was also weird. Odd to throw current employee under the bus that wasn't the boss and clearly try to destroy her career. I have no further knowledge and I'm not accusing anyone of anything, especially the Verge article, but it does seem very brazen some of the things said in there.

Are New GamerTag Creations Now The Leading Indicator Of A Pending Firing At Xbox?

Edit: I want to say I don't agree with the OP about Tom Warren and the Verge article necessarily. I'm waiting and seeing.

 

[semiconscious]

yeah, sarah got played. you're initially given a place at the table, & then the day arrives that you discover you're now the main course...

 

[FalconPunch]

She's not going to date you bro.

You cringe af. Get outside and touch grass. Some of us are happily taken. Imagine framing everything in that context...

 

[MCH2024]

Her last linked in post was a mere 3ish hours before she was let go:
Last Linked In Post

This is called being forced to resign, not being a patsy.

Yes. She expected to be the next head of Xbox.
No. Satya had no interest in humoring her expectations.

To many, the news of Phil's resignation came as a shock? However, should it have been? Just 3 weeks ago, Microsoft Blamed the Xbox division for plummeting revenue:

They didn't blame it. It's a fact. This is the worst call of duty in years and Xbox hardware (& Thus software) sales are heading to 0.

Xbox had zero vision for how to gain even a millimeter of share on the PC platform. Even sony game releases have been more successful.

The reason it's been under fire is because Investors have been questioning Microsoft's CapEx spending on AI. More importantly, the lack of returns on the investment. Now seeing the bad numbers from Xbox, someone had to pay the "iron price" to distract questioning around AI and Xbox laid itself on a platter due to it's numbers.

Completely wrong analysis.

Xbox business is objectively a dumpster fire at this point. Microsoft doesn't care about Xbox as long as Xbox isn't becoming a problem.

Xbox is becoming a problem as the entire business is crashing and burning with revenue in a doom loop and a barely coherent strategy.

Investors are skeptical of Microsoft in AI because of how closely tied to the hip they are with Open AI. OpenAI bull case where they grow revenue by enough to pay Azure is for them to capture 10's of billions of enterprise dollars from Microsoft.

Satya maneuvered himself into a lose-lose deal with OpenAI. Altman ate his lunch.

It has nothing to do with Xbox.

Phil Spencer is a Microsoft lifer and was unceremoniously shown the door.

He was shown the door because he failed. Him being a Microsoft lifer is why he was allowed to burn it to the ground to this extent.

The way Microsoft handled this was sloppy AF. More importantly The Verge and Tom Warren need to be absolutely called out for their Corporate Slander. Some real fake news media shit with the "Sarah Bond wasn't liked internally" nonsense. In every work place, some people like the boss, some do not.

No one should care. Her co-leadership with Phil was an absolute disaster. Her vision for the future of xbox is bleak AF. She doesn't deserve to be promoted.

Asha is a corpo mercenary type who specializes in fixing corporate dumpster fires. Xbox is unfortunately a corporate dumpster fire at this point.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

Phil Spencer is perceived as a gamer, look what happened, he saw the likes of Halo Infinite have that terrible reveal and the likes of Crackdown 3 and RedFall deemed good enough to release.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Nah if they going to do something like thay they would have hired a middle aged white guy, there'd be no backlash at all for making him the patsy while there is some for making an intelligent black women quit.

You have a good point. Maybe she walked around high on her own supply like a girl boss behind closed doors.

 

[Idleyes]

You cringe af. Get outside and touch grass. Some of us are happily taken. Imagine framing everything in that context...

I thought it was hilarious because I don't think they actually believe anyone thinks they'd land a date.

 

[Idleyes]

You have a good point. Maybe she walked around high on her own supply like a girl boss behind closed doors.

It's more likely she realized Phil's direction was flawed and thought, 'If I execute this well, at least leadership will see I can deliver even under a bad strategy.' Oops.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Expecting the execs to be gamers is just cringe. No one was like, has Jim Ryan even played all the Uncharteds? Who gives a fuck.

Just look at the games Mr. Shu brought to Playstation and then look at Jim Ryan and the full clownery of SIE with billions wasted in GaaS cancellations and dumb studio acquisitions.

Of course it's mandatory than a top gaming exec has first hand knowledge of what a good videogame is.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Just look at the games Mr. Shu brought to Playstation and then look at Jim Ryan and the full clownery of SIE with billions wasted in GaaS cancellations and dumb studio acquisitions.

Of course it's mandatory than a top gaming exec has first hand knowledge of what a good videogame is.

Shu was never the top exec. It's important as an exec to have people like Shu below you.

 

[dgproject]

I don't mind being a patsy with her salary and bonus.
99.9% of people would happily become a patsy for her salary & bonus.

 

[nush]

She was Phils DEI side chick, one he was gone she had lost her status. The new boss doesn't need that validation as she is now queen bee.

 

[FalconPunch]

This is called being forced to resign, not being a patsy.

She's a patsy because Xbox has been failing for over a decade.

Patsy - a person who is easily taken advantage of, especially by being cheated or blamed for something.

By dictionary definition, she's a patsy. She was blamed for Xbox's failures despite the fact that the rot began in 2011. Even to this day, people still blame Don Mattrick when Phil has been at the helm for over a decade.

Somehow, Phil has walked away unscathed from a majority of the reporting and discussions despite he being both to blame for Mattrick's failures and the current failures.

They didn't blame it. It's a fact. This is the worst call of duty in years and Xbox hardware (& Thus software) sales are heading to 0.

Xbox had zero vision for how to gain even a millimeter of share on the PC platform. Even sony game releases have been more successful.

They did actually blame Xbox. It is a fact and reporting painted the blame on the Xbox team. The xbox team has been under performing for a decade. Satya was named CEO in 2014.

Under his watch, he's allowed Xbox to deteriorate to this state. At some point, attention needs to be placed on him for his terrible foresight.

Completely wrong analysis.

Xbox business is objectively a dumpster fire at this point. Microsoft doesn't care about Xbox as long as Xbox isn't becoming a problem.

Xbox is becoming a problem as the entire business is crashing and burning with revenue in a doom loop and a barely coherent strategy.

Investors are skeptical of Microsoft in AI because of how closely tied to the hip they are with Open AI. OpenAI bull case where they grow revenue by enough to pay Azure is for them to capture 10's of billions of enterprise dollars from Microsoft.

Satya maneuvered himself into a lose-lose deal with OpenAI. Altman ate his lunch.

It has nothing to do with Xbox.

I guess you have with reading comprehension because I said in reference to Microsoft's stock:

The reason it's been under fire is because Investors have been questioning Microsoft's CapEx spending on AI.

Where did I say their stock was struggling because of Xbox? Here your mouth is just running faster than your brain.

He was shown the door because he failed. Him being a Microsoft lifer is why he was allowed to burn it to the ground to this extent.

No one should care. Her co-leadership with Phil was an absolute disaster. Her vision for the future of xbox is bleak AF. She doesn't deserve to be promoted.

Asha is a corpo mercenary type who specializes in fixing corporate dumpster fires. Xbox is unfortunately a corporate dumpster fire at this point.

Maybe you don't care but, I do. I absolutely hate it when people get blamed for the actions of others. It's one of the most disgusting things to witness.

When people shirk accountability and throw others under the bus, it displays the lowest of low character.

 

[IDKFA]

Regardless of what you think of Sarah, she answered to Phil. If her ideas were bad, Phil had the power to overrule them and ask her to seek a new direction. He didn't and the buck ultimately stops with him.

Kinda of agree that Phil is responsible for the mess Xbox is in. He's the man who convinced Satya Nadella and the board to blow 70bn on Activision, thinking it would increase console sales and GP subs.

The man was so convinced of the success that he sucked himself off in an email implying that Xbox could waltz in and buy Nintendo or Valve next.

Satya should have been smart enough to see that 70bn deal wasn't going to save Xbox, but it wasn't his idea and shit rolls down hill.

What is Bond responsible for? Xbox Anywhere? Xbox was already dying at that point. The damage had already been done. A poor idea, but you can't blame her for the state Xbox is in.

 

[PeteBull]

She was Phils DEI side chick, one he was gone she had lost her status. The new boss doesn't need that validation as she is now queen bee.

Makes sense, that indian DEI CEO doesnt need another DEI like phil did, since she is DEI herself anyways
When she took the CEO job she looked at DEI Sarah and was like:

 

[reinking]

Sarah was not brought in to be a patsy. She did not stomp out in protest when Phil was fire. She did not stomp out in protest because she got picked over. Sarah Bond was brought in to carry out Phil's vision of Xbox. It did not work out and they were both retired. I believe it is that simple.

 

[March Climber]

F FalconPunch unfortunately this type of corporate move has been a thing for years, look up 'Glass cliff'.

 

[MCH2024]

By dictionary definition, she's a patsy. She was blamed for Xbox's failures despite the fact that the rot began in 2011. Even to this day, people still blame Don Mattrick when Phil has been at the helm for over a decade.

Yes and her job was to fix it. Which she utterly failed to do.

And Xbox didn't just lose the Xbox One Gen. PS5 handily kicked their ass. And Xbox Series Sales are heading to Zero.

She was fired and Spencer was forced to resign due to their own failures.

Under his watch, he's allowed Xbox to deteriorate to this state. At some point, attention needs to be placed on him for his terrible foresight.

Xbox is a side-gig with significant autonomy. Microsoft only intervened when Xbox dumpster fire became so big it started smelling on their earnings release.

Maybe you don't care but, I do. I absolutely hate it when people get blamed for the actions of others. It's one of the most disgusting things to witness.

She's a co-leader. She doesn't get a promotion for an F tier job.

I don't care much about the blame games. And it's irrelevant who did what. Xbox Higher level management should be fired.

 

[ReBurn]

I wouldn't be so quick to take away her agency. She had a hand on the reigns and she's partly responsible for the wagon being carried away on the river.

 

[FalconPunch]

I don't care much about the blame games. And it's irrelevant who did what. Xbox Higher level management should be fired.

This 100% a fair stance to hold however why are Matt Booty and Aaron Greenberg still there?

 

[MCH2024]

This 100% a fair stance to hold however why are Matt Booty and Aaron Greenberg still there?

Spencer has to go because he is CEO and failed.

Bond is would be CEO successor. Everyone understands that if she is being bypassed to install someone else that she has to go. It's the equivalent of a vote of no confidence.

As for why Stalin style purges haven't begun, those would be under the jurisdiction of the corpo mercenary (asha) once she figures out who's legit and who's a bottleneck. And whether or not they are operationally or strategically necessary.

Right now the priority is to ensure an orderly transition at Xbox while Asha puts together a strategy.

 

[hououinkyouma00]

Helena Bonham Carter gets me going. Goddamn. Even Bellatrix Lestrange can get it.

 

[Karim]

Piecing the story together so far, it's hard not to see how Sarah Bond was nothing more than a patsy. At this point, it's evident that she was ambushed with this news. We can arrive at this based on the following timeline:

Her last linked in post was a mere 3ish hours before she was let go:
Last Linked In Post

If you're coming with plans to resign, you're not posting these things to linkedin. Furthermore, neither Satya, Asha, or Matt mentioned Sarah in anyway as seen here:
Microsoft's Leadership Message

Now, if we look at things deeper, we can see her Xbox Gamertag was created just a month ago?
Gamertag Source

To many, the news of Phil's resignation came as a shock? However, should it have been? Just 3 weeks ago, Microsoft Blamed the Xbox division for plummeting revenue:
Source

If you tuned in to the financial call, you'd have heard that:


Source:Yahoo finance

Now, Microsoft's earnings was on Jan 28 which means all departments reported their numbers in a few weeks earlier. Now, I speculate that Satya saw the numbers and decided that it was unjustifiable. As a result he determined to fire Phil Spencer. Microsoft stock has been under fire since Nov last year:

The reason it's been under fire is because Investors have been questioning Microsoft's CapEx spending on AI. More importantly, the lack of returns on the investment. Now seeing the bad numbers from Xbox, someone had to pay the "iron price" to distract questioning around AI and Xbox laid itself on a platter due to it's numbers.

As a result, Satya decided on Asha and got their PR team to begin prepping her for the role(poorly I might add). That's why we see that the xbox account was just created a month ago.

Phil Spencer is a Microsoft lifer and was unceremoniously shown the door. However, they can't lay the blame at Phil's feet. He's a Microsoft lifer and it's a bad look. So that's where the convenient patsy Sarah Bond steps in to save the day.

Regardless of what you think of Sarah, she answered to Phil. If her ideas were bad, Phil had the power to overrule them and ask her to seek a new direction. He didn't and the buck ultimately stops with him.

The way Microsoft handled this was sloppy AF. More importantly The Verge and Tom Warren need to be absolutely called out for their Corporate Slander. Some real fake news media shit with the "Sarah Bond wasn't liked internally" nonsense. In every work place, some people like the boss, some do not.

Unsurprisingly, we can see that Microsoft has not stopped it's AI push at all by appoint an ex AI executive as the CEO of gaming. It's like a cancer spreading itself all over the organization. I won't get into the qualifications of Asha and the accusations around ethnic nepotism/ cronyism.

I just think it's important that we call a spade a spade. This rubbish The Verge is churning out stinks.

Now I see why you are so invested to despise the ps5 pro hardware and the pssr.

 

[ZehDon]

I don't think she was a "patsy" or a "fall guy/girl". I think the "Everything is an Xbox" campaign landed like a sack of shit and Xbox continued to plummet year after year after year. People were asking: "How does Spencer still have a job?". Well, turns out, Nadella was asking the same thing internally. Bond was obviously Spencer's protégé; why keep her around to continue Spencer's plan when that clearly wasn't working?

 

[Durin]

The output of these threads is getting to be as weak as Microsoft's games.

 

[Sohurmk833]

Phil Spencer is perceived as a gamer, look what happened, he saw the likes of Halo Infinite have that terrible reveal and the likes of Crackdown 3 and RedFall deemed good enough to release.

The only people perceiving Phil as a gamer were braindead Microsoft fanboys. Everyone else knew he was fake as fuck.