#269 | Phil Spencer & Sarah Bond LEAVE Xbox - What's Next?!

Defining Duke: An Xbox Podcast

Last Stand Media & Studio71

Hobbies, Video Games, Leisure

4.8 • 972 Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2026

⏱️ 221 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The winds of change are blowing through Xbox! Two of their three leaders that have guided the entire Series generation in Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond are out. Staying is Matt Booty, who was also promoted (!), and joining as the new CEO of Microsoft Gaming is Asha Sharma. Despite Sarah Bond seemingly being groomed as Phil's successor, Asha steps in with a background that touts her as President of Microsoft's CoreAI alongside time spent at Instacart and Meta as an executive leader. Similarly to when Phil inherited the mess from Don Mattrick, Asha has her work cut out for her. Joining the Dukes is none other than the man to blame for all this nonsense, Brad Ellis. Together, the trio comb through the initial Microsoft blog post that broke the news. From there, we dig into an article by Tom Warren of The Verge who lays the blame of many of Xbox's shortcomings at the feet of Sarah Bond. Like many in our audience asked, we discuss if this is a hit piece, the truth, or somewhere in between. Lastly, Asha Sharma and Matt Booty sat down to chat with Jez Corden about the new lay of the land for Xbox. There are some answers and many questionable non-answers that lead to conversations of their own. Together, let's unpack what is a seismic change for Xbox as the brand continues to feel like it's hanging on by a thread. Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/DEFININGDUKE and use code DEFININGDUKE and get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup! Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement. 0:00:00 - Intro 0:06:36 - What We’re Playing0:35:06 Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond depart from Xbox Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Defining Duke is sponsored by PrizePix, a unique way to make the sports you watch even more
0:04.9	interesting. It's a truly unique and interesting way for responsible players to enhance their sports viewing, and as PrizePix is the number one sports pick app in the United States, and as it's legal and available in all 50 states, it's fair to say that lots of people are catching on. Download the prize picks app today and use the code Defining Duke.
0:22.2	That's D-E-F-I-N-I-N-G-D-U-K-E to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5
0:28.1	lineup.
0:28.9	Again, that's code Defining Duke to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.
0:34.0	Price Picks, it's good to be right.
1:17.5	Thank you. up. Prize picks. It's good to be right. Salutations, everybody, it is Maddie here today today and welcome to episode 269 of Defining Duke and Xbox podcast.
1:20.2	This is the one you've been waiting for, ladies and gentlemen.
1:22.2	Slow Newsweek, am I right?
1:28.9	Today, as always, I'm joined by my lovely co-host who was skipped over for his position to lead Xbox to a new era, Lord Cognito. How are you doing today, good sir? Who let Bradden? I'm just going to go
1:39.1	straight to it, man. I got to go straight to it. This is not good. I love him, but I hate him, but I love him.
1:45.5	Yeah, we got to address this curse here a little bit because when you hopped on, it was me and you. Cog kind of set the wheel in motion, right? That was the first domino attempt. Cog's like, guys, I can't make it. My computer's on the fritz. I wonder what happens with Xbox leadership if that computer works sometimes.
2:02.6	That's what's been keeping me up at night this week.
2:04.4	But Brad comes in. And what we joked about, Brad, is I said, coast is clear. I said, we got a leaked 2026 schedule. We got some hardware news. I said, the worst we got right now is High Guard, which we already, I can't blame Brad for that. Yeah. But what people
2:18.3	were saying to me, Brad, is that you left a ticking time bomb in the defining Duke sphere. So on
2:23.1	your exit, you're like, this is my ultimate ploy, the nuke. And now we have Phil Spencer and
2:28.9	Sarah Bond out. So Brad, your comments on how you seem to just arrive when things are at their worst.
2:35.3	The bell tolls, I have a reputation to uphold in this company.
2:40.8	And for a certain company, Sony should be paying me,
2:44.3	but they don't.
2:45.3	Listen up, boys.
2:47.7	But yeah, I don't know.
	...

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