Well we know that but its odd hearing it from him. Its like they are ready to get rid of the division at any time.

The truth is just that the investors will want to know where the projected profits are from the xb1, and it's not going to look pretty. This is an attempt to distance that from harming Microsoft in a PR sense, while opening the door to further reductions in the division.

Iow : look at the timing here. Couldn't possibly be any more clear. "guys, Xbox is doing poorly, but that's okay, it's not part of our core, and we are wildly successful in our primary os/business lines."

Nadella really needs to shut up.
He can praise Microsoft without dissing Xbox.

lol, MS is a multi-billion dollar company.

As much as you guys love video games, they are still a rinky dink peanut business by comparison. Right now no one's really even making any great amount of money from video games.

He's just stating the obvious, it would be like McDonalds saying that sales of coffee is a secondary thing to their hamburger/fries business ... well no sh*t.

Its still a stupid thing to say, anyone with their PR shit together knows how to make the "core" look good without talking shit about a system struggling to to keep up in the US, and 3rd place overall.

Considering the investment MS has put into Xbox, Wasting it is foolish.

He's just firing a preemptive shot in the air to calm investors who are going to put 2+2 on the financial reports and know that 3 is not the ideal answer  Microsoft tucks android royalties into their p&ls and the numbers will still look off. The guy knows that Xbox is a drag on an otherwise mostly stellar but contracting portfolio of true core lines.

Him giving this statement right before Microsoft decides which portions of the company to lay-off could be a sign that there are going to be a lot of Xbox employees out of a job.

Wow people can sure make an issue out of anything.

Microsoft has always been about business and it's core office suite/operating system and now more recently cloud services.

They have always treated the Xbox as a brand, you don't find the Microsoft logo prominently all over the Xbox marketing, hardware and packaging.

It's been common knowledge that the higher-ups at Microsoft have never been too "keen" on the XBOX brand. If the XBOX One finishes last in this generation I would not at all be surprised to see this be the last console from Microsoft with the gaming division just focusing on PC rather than a console.

When you think about it, Microsoft could make a lot of money without losing money in hardware by just making software with their strong IPs on the PC and/or going 3rd party (which I don't think they would.) I'd personally rather play Microsoft IPs like Halo and Gears on the PC anyway. You know? If I had a choice I'd definitely chose the PC over console for Microsoft IPs.