11 years ago
Bill Gates would support an Xbox spinoff — if Satya Nadella wanted it
The whispers that Microsoft is interested in selling or spinning off its Xbox division have been swirling for some time. Perhaps the most concrete evidence of that move being a real possibility emerged from a February Washington Post report claiming a pair of “influential Microsoft shareholders” were putting the pressure the software giant to move on from what they believed to be a non-essential product line.
Now Bill Gates himself has weighed in on that prospect. When questioned by Fox Business Network if he would support Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella if he chose to go in that direction, Gates responded, “Absolutely.”
That does not, however, mean that the company’s founder thinks unloading the Xbox division is the right move. In fact, he noted that doing so was not an “obvious” choice and emphasized that Microsoft has future plans for Xbox and gaming at large.
“Well, we’re taking PC gaming — Windows gaming — and Xbox gaming and bringing those a lot closer together,” Gates told Fox. “The power of the PC graphics chips means you can do great games there. So I’m sure Satya and the team will look at that, and, you know, it’s up to them. But we’re going to have an overall gaming strategy, so it’s not as obvious as you might think.”