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Gaming26-Year Microsoft Veteran Steps Down Amid Xbox Leadership Shake-up
It has just been revealed that Kareem Choudhry, a 26-year veteran at Microsoft and the Corporate Vice President at Xbox, is stepping down today. Choudhry has been instrumental in the ongoing success of the Xbox brand, having pioneered or majorly contributed to backwards compatibility features, cloud gaming mechanics, and Microsoft’s AI capabilities. As a tried-and-tested innovator, Choudhry has been a pivotal part of the growth of Xbox, but after a quarter of a century at Microsoft, he’s stepping away.
This news was broken by Windows Central’s Jez Corden, who reported on a series of changes hitting Microsoft and Xbox today. In October 2023, a major reorganisation put in place a new Xbox President – as well as seeing some other sizeable changes take place – but the restructuring isn’t over yet.
Unexpected Departure
Image: IGN India
Kareem Choudhry’s departure from Microsoft is nothing short of shocking, given his tenure and impact on the evolution of Xbox as a brand. The nature of his leaving hasn’t been confirmed, nor was it outlined in the exclusive report published earlier today by Windows Central. In other areas, Microsoft is reportedly planning to relocate the ‘AI team’, moving it closer to the hardware ecosystem to ‘accelerate innovation’.
There’s a new department within Microsoft that has been formed called the ‘Xbox Experiences and Platforms’ team. This squad will reportedly be responsible for optimising the Xbox experience between both the Xbox Series X|S network of consoles and PC platforms. Several high-level changes were made to teams focused on strategy, regulatory processes, advertising, and analytics. It’s a fair sweep that will impact many key areas of the business, even if the end user won’t notice much of a difference.
It’s expected that more changes will take place as Microsoft pivots to focus on new and emerging technology. This news also comes mere weeks after Microsoft laid off almost 2,000 employees across Activision Blizzard, Xbox, and Microsoft itself.
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