The other day, I posted a quick story about Greg Miller who seemed to be suggesting that Phil Spencer’s retirement was not planned and was in fact a result of Microsoft pushing him out in favour of a new CEO. However, Tom Warren of The Verge is now bringing a different slant on the story.

Writing on The Verge (Paywalled), Warren reinforces the idea that Spencer did indeed make the decision to retire a year ago. However, what wasn’t the plan was when the announcement was made. According to Warren, “Microsoft was forced to announce early because it started to leak and IGN was planning to run a story, according to sources familiar with the situation.”

This allegedly began a day of chaos as teams within Xbox heard about Phil’s decision from journalists and news reports first, instead of via any internal memos. This might be where some of the confusion Greg Miller discussed stems from – it wasn’t Spencer’s retirement that as unplanned, it was the announcement itself.

Warren also goes into a little more depth about Sarah Bond, the President of Xbox who also announced that she’s leaving Xbox instead of taking over Spencer’s role, like most would have assumed.

“The decision to overlook Bond might have surprised many Xbox fans, but for the more than a dozen current and former Microsoft employees I’ve been speaking to, it’s felt inevitable in recent months,’ said Warren in his write-up.

It seems Bond wasn’t ready for tha announcement, either.

“Microsoft executives shared four memos with Xbox teams on Friday, but only Phil Spencer mentioned Bond. Satya Nadella, Microsoft Gaming EVP Matt Booty, and new Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma all had kind words for Spencer, but no mention of Bond. Even Bond’s own memo to her teams didn’t arrive until hours after the announcement and wasn’t part of Microsoft’s blog,” writes Warren,

Warren details that Bond was the driving force behind the campaign to turn everything into an Xbox. Ads ran that showed tablets and phones being an Xbox. Warren says the campaign “offended many Xbox employees internally.”

“Most of the current and former Xbox employees I’ve spoken to in recent days are relieved that Bond is leaving Microsoft,” says Warren. “I’ve heard from multiple sources that Bond has been tough to work with, and built a team structure that meant if you didn’t follow the vision or questioned it, you were out.”

Warren notes that the decision not to go with Bond and instead promote Asha Sharma indicates a reset on the Xbox strategy. Reading through her memo, though, it doesn’t seem like they plan on retreating from going multiplatform.

Unsurprising, Sharma’s promotion has many employees worried due to her background in running CoreAI Product for Microsoft and her lack of any gaming and entertainment experience.

Although, to her credit. Sharma isn’t even pretending to be a gamer, and has been taking suggestions for games to try out from people on X. Apparently Bond went to great lengths to cultivate an image of being a gamer like Phil Spencer, but really wasn’t one.

“Those who know Sharma better describe her as enthusiastic, willing to learn, and very capable of getting teams to execute on a clear vision rather than coming in as a product executioner,” says Warren in his article. “She also has a history at Instacart and Meta of overseeing platform launches and getting people to use products, the type of user acquisition that Xbox has failed at in recent years.”

Warren’s reporting suggests this wasn’t a sudden leadership collapse, but a carefully planned transition that unraveled once leaks forced Microsoft’s hand. In the process, long-standing internal tensions surfaced, key figures were quietly moved aside, and Xbox now finds itself entering a new era under leadership that many employees are still trying to understand.

I can’t say I’m wholly convinced Spencer’s departure was actually his decision, but I think we can say with certainty that Bond’s decision to leave was forced by Microsoft’s decision to hand the Xbox throne to someone else.