Microsoft and Nexon Put Faith in New Creative Leads With Wildly Different Backgrounds

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Microsoft and Nexon Put Faith in New Creative Leads With Wildly Different Backgrounds

Published Feb 20, 2026, 9:53 PM EST

Eric Warner is a Journalist and Multimedia Producer based in New England with over seven years of experience producing stories for multiple print, online, radio, and video publications.

Eric has been a gaming fan ever since getting an original Xbox for Christmas in the early 2000's. From then on, he has become enthralled in the gaming world, spending thousands of hours in Halo multiplayer matches, climbing dozens of towers across the Assassin's Creed games, and 100% perfecting every single Horizon game to date.

When not writing for DualShockers Eric can typically be found playing games on his PS5, PC, and Xbox or reading sci-fi, horror, and fantasy books/comics.

The winter season is almost over and with it many changes are appearing both in the natural world and in the gaming industry as spring inches ever so closer.

Late February and early March will see many game milestones be reached, such as the 30th anniversary of Resident Evil and Pokemon as well as the launch of highly anticipated games such as Bungie's Marathon reboot.

However, much is developing behind the scenes for the game industry as founder and CEO of ARC Raiders' Embark Studios, Patrick Soderlund, was recently appointed as Nexon's executive chairman, while CEO of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer, recently announced his retirement and succession by Asha Sharma.

While both of these executives have a history with the gaming industry, their backgrounds are very different and could point toward potentially dramatic futures for Nexon, Embark Studios, and Xbox overall.

The Career of Patrick Soderlund and Asha Sharma

Patrick Soderlund may be well-known to modern gamers today for his work on the hit extraction shooter ARC Raiders, but he's actually played a major role in some of gaming's largest and most successful publishers and development studios throughout the past few decades.

In 2013, Soderlund was appointed as the executive vice president of Electronic Arts' Worldwide Studios, where he oversaw the PC and console developments of numerous titles, including Star Wars: The Old Republic, Need for Speed, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and many more.

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Long before this role, Soderlynd was a co-founder of DICE and later served as its CEO until the Swedish developer was purchased by EA in 2006, but he still went on to serve prominent roles in numerous Battlefield games, such as Battlefield: Bad Company, Battlefield 1, and Battlefield V, before leaving EA in 2018.

Founder and CEO of ARC Raiders' Embark Studios, Patrick Soderlund, was recently appointed as Nexon's executive chairman.

That same year, Soderlund and several other former DICE employees founded Embark Studios, but by 202,1 the young studio had been acquired by the South Korean game publisher Nexon with the goal of the publisher striving to gain a foothold in western gaming markets.

Since then, Soderlund and Embark released two highly successful multiplayer-focused games with 2023's The Finals and 2025's ARC Raiders, with the latter's success prompting Nexon to appoint Soderlund as their executive chairman to oversee the publisher's creative direction and strategies.

Sharma's Appointment as CEO of Microsoft Gaming

Comparatively, Asha Sharma's career is far less storied in terms of gaming expertise and development, having more experience with the logistical, marketing, and research side of business.

Sharma's history with Microsoft can be traced back to 2011, when she worked in marketing for the company before moving on in 2013 to serve as the Chief Creative Officer for the software and insurance platform Porch Group, as COO for Instacart, and as Vice President of Product and Engineering for Meta.

It was only in 2024 that Sharma returned to Microsoft as its President for the software company's CoreAI Product, where she oversaw the development of artificial intelligence technologies and services such as Azure AI before being recently appointed as CEO of Microsoft Gaming with Phil Spencer's blessing.

The Future of Nexon and Xbox

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Based on Soderlund's history overseeing the development of dozens of primarily multiplayer-oriented games and the details behind Nexon's acquisition of Embark, it seems likely that Nexon will pivot more towards western multiplayer game development.

ARC Raiders will probably see long-term support, while Embark itself may receive increased support and funding to develop more games to rival other shooter titles like Battlefield, Marathon, and Call of Duty, with Embark's two unannounced projects possibly being revealed or at least detailed a bit more during an upcoming Nexon Capital Markets Briefing.

In contrast, Xbox may face a bit of a struggle with this change of management as Sharma has little experience with game development and even game marketing, though she will be supported by veteran game developer, former Head of Xbox Game Studios, and newly appointed Microsoft Gaming COO Matt Booty.

Despite this lack of experience and controversial history with AI, Sharma did write that she is committed to developing great games, returning Xbox to its former glory, and inventing new ways to play in a rapidly changing gaming environment, even going on to state that, "... we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop."