Before current Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took the reins, there was talk that the Xbox division within the company should be sold off. Nadella said in May that he had no intention of doing anything differently with the Xbox brand and has now sent out an email to staff on the Microsoft website pledging his support for the brand.
“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.”
At last count, the Xbox One stands at 5 million units sold worldwide.