Xbox CEO Asha Sharma personally handles customer support tickets to understand players

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has been quietly doing something unusual for a tech executive: spending a few hours each month responding to real customer support tickets. A new profile in The Wall Street Journal revealed the habit, noting she picked it up to better understand players and the complexity of solving their problems.

The WSJ piece paints a picture of a CEO still actively learning the product from the ground up. In her first six months, Sharma has moved fast — scrapping the divisive This is Xbox marketing campaign, cutting the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription price, and signing Hideo Kojima to a multi-project deal that now includes not just the horror game OD but also Physint, a Metal Gear Solid spiritual successor that was originally a PlayStation exclusive before its cancellation plans earlier this summer. She also directed studios to focus on Xbox's underserved core franchises, which led to Obsidian Entertainment — the developer behind Fallout New Vegas — starting work on a new Fallout RPG directed by New Vegas creative lead Josh Sawyer.

Sharma's tenure hasn't been without controversy. The same period saw mass layoffs and development studio spin-outs, moves that drew significant criticism from the gaming community. Still, decisions like the Obsidian Fallout announcement and the Kojima deal have landed well with fans, suggesting a strategy aimed at rebuilding trust through high-profile creative bets on beloved franchises.

The customer support detail is a small but telling signal about how Sharma is approaching the role — less top-down executive, more hands-on operator. If you filed an Xbox support ticket in the last six months, there's a real chance the CEO read it.