Akkurat nå avholdes UBS Global Technology Conference i San Francisco, og Microsoft er naturligvis på plass. Selskapets økonomisjef Amy Hood har blant annet snakket mye om Xbox. Ryktene om at Microsoft vurderer å selge ut Xbox-avdelingen har nå dødd, og med tanke på Hoods uttalelser blir det nok en stund til vi ser noen ny ryktestorm. Hood snakker nemlig varmt om Xbox, PC-spilling og hvordan Windows 10 har samlet de ulike plattformene i ett og samme økosystem.
Amy Hood sier blant annet:
"Xbox is financially relevant to Microsoft. People should not be confused about the journey of improvement we have been on in the past two years in the Xbox business."
"I think about the importance of gaming. I would actually literally, very specifically talk about the importance of gaming to us; you've seen the investments we've made; you've seen us talk about gaming and its importance across all form factors for us, be it the PC, be it a phone, be it the console itself. I think we've done a very good job of taking something that sort of sat outside the Windows ecosystem and made it part of the Windows ecosystem. So that gaming value accrues back to the ecosystem and to the developers who work there."
"I would say gaming is fundamentally important. The Xbox brand is still an incredibly powerful brand; gaming PCs are amongst the most lucrative businesses to be in. Gaming as a category is quite profitable and I feel good about how we've changed the landscape of what that looks like as a company."
Hun beskriver altså spilling som fundamentalt viktig for Microsoft, noe vi i Gamereactor naturligvis liker å høre.
Takk, Gamespot.