New Strategy and Technology Heads Appointed at XBOX

XBOX is reshuffling staff again. The company has hired two high-profile specialists and moved people up internally as it braces for upcoming announcements and new hardware launches.

According to The Game Business, the new director of strategy at XBOX is Matthew Ball. Heading the technical side will be Scott Van Vliet. Ball — author of The Metaverse, a 2022 bestseller — comes from Amazon Studios and now runs Epyllion, which does investment and consulting in media, film, and games.

Scott Van Vliet has a background that reads like pandemic-era infrastructure: he led engineering for Microsoft Teams during COVID-19 and had a hand in Azure OpenAI. He’s also worked on Amazon services and was VP of the digital division at Mattel.

At the same time, Chris Schnakenberg earned a promotion to corporate vice president of partnerships and business development. He joined XBOX from Activision Blizzard and will now oversee external publisher and third-party studio relationships (i.e., dealmaking, coop. ops, etc.).

XBOX head Asha Sharma wrote to staff that the reshuffle aims to clarify structure and boost team effectiveness. The letter frames this as preparation for what’s next; Project Helix — the codename for the upcoming system — is explicitly on the horizon. One can read the timing as deliberate, though whether leadership changes will shift outcomes is another question.

Meanwhile, Microsoft recently revised the Xbox Game Pass approach: in April 2026 the subscription price dropped, but new Call of Duty titles were removed from the initial release lineup.