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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has offered Xbox staff words of reassurance following the exit of previous gaming boss Phil Spencer.<\/p>\n
Last month, Microsoft announced a huge shakeup at its gaming business, with Spencer retiring, would-be successor Sarah Bond out, and Asha Sharma drafted in as new Xbox CEO.<\/p>\n
Following the news, Seamus Blackley, who co-created Xbox at Microsoft, said that because Xbox is not a core part of Microsoft\u2019s all-encompassing AI push, it was potentially \u201cbeing sunsetted.\u201d Blackley added that the fact Sharma came over from Microsoft\u2019s AI team with no gaming background was further evidence of the company\u2019s strategy. \u201cThey don\u2019t say that, but that\u2019s what\u2019s happening,\u201d Blackley said. \u201cI expect that the new CEO, Asha Sharma, her job is going to be as a palliative care doctor who slides Xbox gently into the night.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The 100 Best Xbox Games of All Time<\/h3>\n<\/span><\/output><\/p>\n
But Nadella has countered that concern by saying Microsoft is \u201clong on gaming.\u201d As reported by Windows Central, last week Sharma and Nadella held an internal Q&A to discuss Microsoft’s gaming strategy. And in it, Nadella said Microsoft will always invest in gaming.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhil, he’s always talked to me about how gaming is the largest entertainment category \u2014 what is gaming in its most expansive form going forward?\u201d Nadella said. \u201cThis doesn’t mean we walk away from people are doing today \u2014 when we think about a AAA game on a console. The question is about where else can we go to extend that. For me, we’re long on gaming. We’ll continue to invest, and we’ll always do so. It’s up to this team to show an excellence in execution, and creativity. Software always carries risk, but this is software with lots of creation risk. It’s way different. But yet, we have to be the best-in-class at it.”<\/p>\n
Nadella\u2019s comments emerged after Microsoft confirmed the codename for Xbox’s next-generation console \u2013 Project Helix \u2013 as well as rumors that the device will play Xbox and PC games.<\/p>\n
“Great start to the morning with Team Xbox, where we talked about our commitment to the return of Xbox including Project Helix, the code name for our next generation console,” Sharma posted on her Twitter \/ X account last week. “Project Helix will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games. Looking forward to chatting about this more with partners and studios at my first GDC next week!”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nSharma has already promised to deliver \u201cthe return of Xbox,\u201d and, as part of that, has vowed to reengage with core Xbox fans. There was even a promise to commit to console at a time when so many Xbox fans feel disenfranchised with Microsoft\u2019s shifting strategy. As for Nadella, he had previously said he was \u201clong on gaming and its role at the center of our consumer ambition,\u201d countering the doom and gloom.<\/p>\n
There is also a question mark over Microsoft\u2019s multiplatform strategy. In a previous interview with Windows Central, Sharma indicated that nothing is off the table when it comes to big decisions about recent controversial policies, one of which is Microsoft\u2019s decision to leave console exclusives behind. Some hardcore Xbox fans are hoping for a return to the policy of old, at a time when even Halo<\/u> is making the jump to PlayStation.<\/p>\n
“Right now, I need to learn, candidly,\u201d Sharma said. \u201cAbout the ‘why’ of these decisions, what we were optimizing for, and what the data says about the Xbox strategy today. That’s the honest answer. I’m looking at lifetime value, not just what happened in a previous moment, or in short term efficiencies and things like that. The plan’s the plan until it’s not the plan.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n\nXbox Games Series Tier List<\/h3>\nXbox Games Series Tier List<\/h3>\n <\/span><\/span>
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Of course, it\u2019s hard to see Microsoft all of a sudden pulling out of multiplatform game releases, especially when its studios have put so much effort into making Microsoft’s policy a reality, and in some cases seen great success on the likes of PlayStation. Halo is coming to PlayStation this year, and that\u2019s unlikely to change.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s worth noting that Sony has recently done just that. Last week, Bloomberg<\/u> reported that while Sony will continue to release online games on PC, single-player games will now remain console exclusive, marking a significant strategy shift and move away from PC. That means the likes of Saros, Ghost of Yotei, and the upcoming Marvel\u2019s Wolverine will remain PlayStation 5 exclusives and not release on PC.<\/p>\n
Bloomberg suggested poor recent sales of PlayStation games on PC and the risk to the PlayStation brand, as well as a potential impact on PS5 and maybe even PS6 sales, were to blame for the policy shift. Meanwhile, there\u2019s also the suggestion that the prospect of PlayStation games running on the next Xbox<\/u> via expected Steam integration may have also encouraged Sony\u2019s return to console exclusives.<\/p>\n
Photo by Sven Hoppe\/picture alliance via Getty Images.<\/em><\/p>\nWesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nRead Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has offered Xbox staff words of reassurance following the exit of previous gaming boss Phil Spencer. Last month, Microsoft announced a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[5668,6729,3610,11614,705,41,3576,3572,7342,6327,17669,7341,6328,339,162],"class_list":["post-34940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-ceo","tag-commitment","tag-continue","tag-exit","tag-gaming","tag-invest","tag-microsoft","tag-moves","tag-nadella","tag-phil","tag-reassure","tag-satya","tag-spencer","tag-staff","tag-xbox","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}