Asha Sharma Outlines a Minecraft Plan That Is Almost About Turning It into Roblox
A leaked memo reveals Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s plans for the future of Xbox. One of those plans concerns Minecraft: Xbox will increase its investment to turn it into a “global creator platform.”
In other words, Sharma appears to want Xbox to push Minecraft in the direction of Roblox, or at least invest more resources in competing with it. She believes Minecraft could develop into an economy that relies more heavily on user-generated content, and Xbox is willing to invest the money and effort needed to make that happen.
Asha Sharma’s Memo on the Xbox “Reset”
According to The Verge’s report, the memo outlines four priorities Sharma has set for Xbox:
- CORE: Make consoles the core of Xbox and strengthen the Xbox platform
- CONTENT: Turn great games into global franchises
- CREATION: Make Minecraft a global creator platform
- CONNECTION: Extend the worlds players love
The memo calls out Minecraft directly, which is particularly noteworthy. When Sharma mentions “global franchises,” it is reasonable to assume she is referring to titles such as Halo and Fallout. By contrast, Minecraft is listed separately under “creation.” Under this plan, it looks more like a platform than simply a game.
The reason is not difficult to understand. Minecraft occupies a unique position in Xbox’s business: players purchase the game at a relatively high price, but may then spend hundreds or even thousands of hours playing it without relying on the ongoing payments typically associated with live-service games to maintain its popularity.
In fact, Minecraft already has a substantial amount of user-generated content, including paid mods. The question now is whether Sharma intends to expand these capabilities further, potentially making them central to the game’s future development. If Xbox does move forward in this direction, how the community responds may be more worth watching than the business plan itself.
This also suggests that Sharma may believe Minecraft has potential similar to Roblox: it can host not only games, but also social experiences. More crossovers and collaborations may appear in the future, but there is currently not enough information to prove that any of these plans have been finalized.
However, while Xbox is preparing to invest more resources in Minecraft, employees at several of its studios are still waiting for another round of layoffs. According to Fortune’s report, Xbox plans to eliminate approximately 3,200 positions during fiscal year 2027 (FY27). Around 1,600 positions have already been affected, while another approximately 1,600 will be eliminated over the following year. The exact timing of the subsequent layoffs has not yet been fully determined, and some arrangements from the previous round of layoffs are still being handled through unions.
