There has been a lot of speculation that Microsoft may cave into investor wishes and sell off the Xbox division. Recently appointed Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, however, feels otherwise and stated as much in a recent letter to employees.
“I also want to share some additional thoughts on Xbox and its importance to Microsoft. As a large company, I think it’s critical to define the core, but it’s important to make smart choices on other businesses in which we can have fundamental impact and success. The single biggest digital life category, measured in both time and money spent, in a mobile-first world is gaming. We are fortunate to have Xbox in our family to go after this opportunity with unique and bold innovation. Microsoft will continue to vigorously innovate and delight gamers with Xbox. Xbox is one of the most-revered consumer brands, with a growing online community and service, and a raving fan base. We also benefit from many technologies flowing from our gaming efforts into our productivity efforts – core graphics and NUI in Windows, speech recognition in Skype, camera technology in Kinect for Windows, Azure cloud enhancements for GPU simulation and many more. Bottom line, we will continue to innovate and grow our fan base with Xbox while also creating additive business value for Microsoft.”
Nadella appears to have the vision to see beyond the bottom line and perceive the future value of Xbox as a brand with great value. Many naysayers would have Microsoft carry on with only its traditional line of products and services, thus riding itself of the seemingly childish video game arm.
Perhaps Nadella’s own words best sum up his thoughts about relying on the past.
“The day I took on my new role I said that our industry does not respect tradition – it only respects innovation. I also said that in order to accelerate our innovation, we must rediscover our soul – our unique core. We must all understand and embrace what only Microsoft can contribute to the world and how we can once again change the world. I consider the job before us to be bolder and more ambitious than anything we have ever done.”
Personally, I don’t see why Microsoft would sell off the Xbox line other than as a quick cash grab. It is still a money making division, despite the Xbox One’s struggle against the PS4.
(Source: Microsoft)
Paul Novak is a self described Polish ninja toiling away as an IT professional but more into gaming and writing. Physically existing in the west side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet existentially flowing with the ether of the Internet. Found here at What’s Your Tag? and on the Twitter @dudewantshisrug. Game on with Team XBRO!
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