Xbox CEO Asha Sharma pushed back against speculation that Microsoft might spin off its gaming division, telling the New York Times: “Xbox is not for sale.”
“We will do whatever it takes to make the business successful, and we will look at the right partnerships, the right operating model and whatever is necessary to make that happen,” Sharma added.
The denial comes despite growing speculation that Xbox could eventually become its own company, remaining close to Microsoft through a partnership rather than remaining on its balance sheet.
According to the New York Times, Xbox now accounts for about 6% of Microsoft’s total profits.
Sharma took over Xbox in February without any prior experience in the video game industry, after serving as president of Microsoft’s CoreAI division and chief operating officer at Instacart.
His tenure has been defined by cuts: Xbox cut a fifth of its staff this summer alone and closed or sold five studios in the process, with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella having since welcomed the “streamlining” as part of a push towards what he called a “sustainable business model” for the division.
The restructuring has continued since, with Microsoft moving Rare and the Halo franchise to Activision, proposing the closure of Ninja Theory and cutting 268 additional positions last week.
Game Pass also fell short of its goals: Subscriber numbers peaked at 34 million before starting to decline, and Microsoft backed away from putting new Call of Duty games directly on the service, fearing it would eat into standalone sales. Sharma says Xbox retains 500 million monthly players and wants to expand into Africa, Latin America and South Asia via cloud gaming.
Gn tech
