Rumors have recently circulated indicating that Phil Spencer would retire from his position as the head of Xbox, which Microsoft has now issued an official response to. The claims regarding Spencer’s position at Xbox indicated that he could be stepping down as early as 2027.
Spencer has had quite a fruitful career at Microsoft, initially joining the company back in 1988 and moving to the Xbox team in 2001. Spencer is currently the Head of Microsoft Gaming, but rumors have claimed that would be changing with the release of the next generation Xbox console.
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A prominent Call of Duty leaker, GhostofHope, claimed that Phil Spencer would be stepping down from his role and handing the position to current Xbox president Sarah Bond. However, Xbox has now refuted the claim, with the head of Xbox communications, Kari Perez, denying them entirely. Perez stated “Phil is not retiring anytime soon,” in a comment to The Verge. Perez isn’t the first to comment on the claim, with Microsoft Chief Communications Officer Frank Shaw responding to a tweet regarding the allegation, stating that the rumor was “made up” and therefore inaccurate.
Retirement and Layoffs at Microsoft
Phil Spencer is 57 as of 2025, meaning that the exec might be eyeing the prospect of retiring or stepping down into a different position at some point in his future. Judging from these statements, though, there’s no concrete plan for that to happen anytime soon. At the minimum, it sounds as though Spencer will remain with Xbox at least into the next generation, meaning he could very well still be working at Microsoft by the 2030s.
Unfortunately, not everyone at Microsoft is lucky enough to say the same. Microsoft laid off 6,000 workers in May 2025, and a new report indicates that 4% of the company’s current workforce will be laid off, which could amount to up to 9,000 additional jobs. Spencer noted that “tough decisions” needed to be made for Xbox to continue succeeding. These layoffs also meant the cancellation of games and the closure of The Initiative, which was bringing the reboot of Perfect Dark to life. That game is now also scrapped, with the title never seeing the light of day beyond public trailers.
While this is an unfortunate time for Microsoft employees and much of the gaming industry as a whole, Phil Spencer won’t be going anywhere anytime soon, barring any major developments or changes. Impacted laid-off Microsoft employees are being encouraged to apply to positions elsewhere in Microsoft’s gaming department, where their applications will be “given priority review,” according Spencer, via Wired.
- Brand
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Microsoft
- Original Release Date
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November 10, 2020
- Original MSRP (USD)
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$499
- Operating System
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Proprietary (Windows-based)
- Processor
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Custom AMD 8-core Zen 2 3.8 GHz
- Resolution
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720p – 4K UHD