Longtime Xbox Exec is Leaving The Company After 26 Years

06.04.2024 - 02:05 / gamerant.com / Lulu Cheng Meservey / Bobby Kotick / Matt Booty / Ediz Guner

Xbox corporate vice president (CVP) Kareem Choudhry is reportedly leaving Microsoft after spending more than two decades at the company. The departure of Choudhry comes during a period of change within the Xbox division and uncertainty among fans regarding the future of the console manufacturer.

Ever since the closure of the long-delayed Activision-Blizzard acquisition last year, Xbox has been undergoing some major restructurings as part of a leadership reorganization initiated by Microsoft. Several key figures from Activision, like Bobby Kotick, Lulu-Cheng Meservey, and Mike Ybarra left Microsoft in recent months. Meanwhile, a number of existing Xbox executives, like Sarah Bond and Matt Booty, were promoted into higher positions at the company. This changing of the guard is occurring at a time in which a sentiment of doubt and concern has enveloped the Xbox brand. Most of this stems from the moment when Microsoft officially announced earlier this year that four first-party Xbox exclusives were going multi-platform, bringing into question Microsoft's commitment to the console market and sparking discussions in regards to Xbox potentially becoming a third-party publisher.

According to a report from Windows Central's Jez Corden, after 26 years of working at Microsoft, April 5th, 2024 is Kareem Choudhry's last day at the company, making him the latest Xbox executive to make an exit. It appears, though, that his departure has nothing to do with the restructuring efforts going on at Microsoft, and that he is leaving on good terms. Nonetheless, the loss of his talents is sure to be unfortunate for the Xbox team. After all, Choudhry was involved in a number of Xbox's biggest initiatives over the last decade or so, such as xCloud and backwards compatibility on the Xbox Series X/S. Most recently, though, Choudhry contributed to Microsoft's as-of-yet unveiled gaming AI division, helmed by a group referred to as the Xbox Emerging Tech team, or XEmTech.

It was noted in an internal memo sent to Xbox employees that XEmTech would be folded into the wider Xbox hardware division. The decision to place the Xbox Emerging Tech Team under the console hardware organization was made in an effort to «accelerate innovation» in the field of artificial intelligence, with things like Microsoft's own AI upscaling solution and a rumored Xbox chatbot in development being key examples of these efforts.

With the constant corporate restructuring and the departure of an esteemed executive like Kareem Choudhry, Xbox appears to be undergoing some turbulent times at the moment. However, there are some bright spots, especially for Game Pass, which has only recently begun receiving Activision-Blizzard games, starting with Diablo 4. Rumors