For all the talk about Microsoft selling off or even shutting down its Xbox division, things are going as strong as ever. Speaking at the UBS Global Technology Conference, CFO Amy hood spoke about the relevance of the Xbox brand to the company going forward.
“Xbox is financially relevant to Microsoft. People should not be confused about the journey of improvement we have been on in the past two years in the Xbox business.”
Microsoft has also been working to integrate Windows 10 with Xbox One, especially when it comes to the New Xbox One Experience. “I think about the importance of gaming. I would actually literally, very specifically talk about the importance of gaming to us; you’ve seen the investments we’ve made; you’ve seen us talk about gaming and its importance across all form factors for us, be it the PC, be it a phone, be it the console itself.
“I think we’ve done a very good job of taking something that sort of sat outside the Windows ecosystem and made it part of the Windows ecosystem. So that gaming value accrues back to the ecosystem and to the developers who work there.
“I would say gaming is fundamentally important. The Xbox brand is still an incredibly powerful brand; gaming PCs are amongst the most lucrative businesses to be in. Gaming as a category is quite profitable and I feel good about how we’ve changed the landscape of what that looks like as a company.”
With the Xbox One gaining momentum, even outselling the PS4 in October, fortune seems to be turning in favour of Microsoft. We’ll see if it can keep up this momentum heading into the new year.