• by Colin Kirkland , June 18, 2024

After four-and-a-half years of serving as chief marketing officer at Xbox, Jerret West has announced he is leaving the Microsoft-owned video-gaming company to become the new CMO and head of market expansion of virtual gaming platform Roblox.

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer confirmed West's departure in an internal memo to Xbox employees on Monday, stating that West helped grow Xbox's social universe to 120 million followers, while also expanding products like Game Pass, which is now available in over 80 countries.

“[West] oversaw the creation and delivery of global marketing campaigns for numerous games, platforms (console, PC, cloud) and brand moments,” Spencer said, adding that Xbox looks forward to working with West in the future, as “Roblox is an important partner for Xbox.”

West spent a total of eight years in marketing at Xbox, dividing his time with a seven-year stint as head of marketing at Netflix between 2011 and 2019.

Microsoft will reorganize its marketing teams in West's absence, expanding its central gaming team under Kirsten Ward, the vice president of Xbox integrated marketing.

In the memo, Spencer also said that he and Microsoft's gaming leadership team have decided to “place marketing closer to the businesses they support,” meaning that games marketing will now sit inside the game content and studios division. Xbox marketing, led by Chris Lee, will move to the Xbox organization and report to Xbox president Sarah Bond.

The organizational changes are planned to take place by July 1.

West, whose last day at Xbox is slated for June 30th, will be the company's second executive to leave this year. Kareem Choudhry, Xbox's former head of emerging tech, left Microsoft in April, causing the formation of a new experiences and platforms team to help boost performance across Windows and Xbox consoles.

In 2023, Microsoft also reorganized its marketing leadership team, promoting Sarah Bond as Xbox president and making Matt Booty the president of game content and studios, including Bethesda and ZeniMax studios.

Roblox has yet to comment on the news.