Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella shed light on the company’s outlook on the industry, as well as his thoughts on owning both Xbox and PC.
He said that he is “very happy” about the gaming asset that they have, which was built on both Xbox and PC gaming.
“One of the things that most people have not recognized is that we’re the owners of both of those,” he said.
He believes that the Xbox Live and Xbox Game Pass subscription services are going to mark a transition into a period where the console and PC are very important. But at the end of the day, he says that the priority is about “people and their ability to game anywhere.”
“That’s where we’re going, whether it is with our subscription offerings with Game Pass, whether it’s with Mixer, which is growing very rapidly, in terms of streaming, or eSports franchises around our first-party games,” he said. “So I think we have many, many leverages there.
“But fundamentally, it comes from that heritage of having been in the gaming business for multiple decades at this point and built up that capability in a world where we now have the ability to take that and have it service a much broader marketplace than ever before.”
Nadella’s comments fit with Microsoft’s recent business model. In recent years, they have released three different version of the Xbox One, each geared toward different players.
“We’re mobilizing to pursue an expansive opportunity in the 100+ billion gaming market,” he said. “This means broadening our approach to how we think about gaming end-to-end. About starting with games and how they’re created and distributed, and how they’re played and viewed.”
This past holiday, the Xbox One X experienced incredible sales. Speaking on this success, Nadella said that it is the “most technically advanced and most powerful console ever built” and it is seeing “incredible response from fans this Holiday season.”