Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has been in charge of Xbox for over a decade and the company says he’s not leaving anytime soon, calling rumors that the longtime exec might be resigning when the next generation of Xbox hardware launches “completely made up.”
The forceful denial comes as the tech giant’s gaming division faces its latest round of mass cuts amid a larger bloodbath resulting in over 9,000 layoffs across the entirety of the company. As major shifts see Xbox go multiplatform and double down on PC gaming in an apparent retreat from the core console business, many have wondered how much longer Spencer would stick around.
In the midst of Wednesday’s chaotic cuts, a Call of Duty leaker account on X called TheGhostOfHope made a wild claim that Spencer was preparing to retire from Microsoft with current Xbox president Sarah Bond set to succeed him during the transition to the next hardware generation, which is expected to launch sometime between 2026 and 2028. Microsoft has called this flatly untrue.
Microsoft head of comms Frank Shaw pushed back directly on a report by Insider Gaming aggregating the rumor, posting on X in response to the site’s founder Tom Henderson, “so long as by ‘summed it up’ you mean ‘made it up.’” The company reiterated this to The Verge, writing in a statement that “Phil is not retiring anytime soon.” Whether “soon” means the next 12 months or the next few years, it’s clear Spencer’s run is likely to last a while yet.
He’s already outlasted multiple rivals from the other console manufacturers. Spencer appeared on stage at The Game Awards 2018 with Shawn Layden, then chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, and Reggie Fils-Aimé, then head of Nintendo of America. Both have since retired, with Sony speedrunning through a second PlayStation CEO, Jim Ryan, during the years since.
Despite representing a giant tech company responsible for a spree of hyper-consolidation within the gaming industry, Spencer has maintained a warm relationship with fans, thanks in part to the ungodly number of actual games he plays every year. But he’s also faced increasingly tough criticism from players due to the thousands of game developers laid off under his watch in the span of just 18 months.
He visited Sea of Thieves studio Rare just last fall and said in a podcast interview in February that he was pleased with the progress the studio was making on its new action-adventure Everwild. Five months later, it’s the latest project on the chopping block, even as Microsoft’s stock price hits record highs.
.
