Xbox CEO Asha Sharma reportedly spends hours answering player support tickets

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma reportedly spends several hours each month personally responding to player support tickets. The detail comes from a new Wall Street Journal profile examining how Sharma has approached the Xbox business since taking over earlier this year.

Working through support requests has given Sharma a closer look at the problems individual Xbox users encounter. The report says the process has also shown her how complicated resolving a single player's issue can become.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Sharma sets aside time each month to handle player support tickets herself. The profile does not specify how many tickets she has answered or what types of problems she has dealt with.

Her involvement goes beyond reviewing summaries of common complaints or receiving feedback through senior staff. By working through individual cases, Sharma can see the steps required to investigate and resolve problems from the player's side of the support system.

The report does not say whether players know they are speaking directly with the Xbox CEO when she responds. It also does not give an exact date for when Sharma began taking part in the support process.

One of the lessons Sharma has reportedly taken from the work is how difficult a single support case can become. Xbox now operates across consoles, PC, cloud gaming, subscriptions, accounts, storefronts, and a large catalogue of first-party games.

A problem that appears simple to a player can therefore involve several different parts of Microsoft's gaming ecosystem. Sharma's time handling tickets gives her a direct view of that process rather than relying only on broader customer-service data.

Microsoft appointed Sharma as executive vice president and CEO of Microsoft Gaming in February 2026 after Phil Spencer stepped down from the role. Microsoft later renamed the division XBOX in April, with Sharma becoming CEO XBOX.

She previously led Microsoft's CoreAI product organization and has also held senior positions at Meta and Instacart. When she took charge of gaming, Sharma said one of her priorities was understanding what players value and rebuilding Xbox around its core audience.

Her first months in the role have also included major changes across the business. Microsoft has announced thousands of job cuts and changes involving several Xbox-owned studios as part of a wider restructuring.

Xbox already gathers feedback through support systems, community channels, and other player programs. Sharma's reported involvement adds a more direct way for the company's top executive to see where users are struggling.

The Wall Street Journal has not reported how long she plans to continue answering tickets or whether other Xbox executives take part in the same process. For now, Sharma is reportedly continuing to spend part of each month dealing with individual player problems herself.