Satya Nadella, the American business executive best known for his current role as chairman and CEO of Microsoft, having replaced Steve Ballmer in 2014, is happy about how his company’s Xbox business is doing right now, according to a transcript of a recent annual shareholders meeting that has been published on Microsoft’s Investor Relations site. “I mean, I’m feeling very, very good about where we are in gaming,” Nadella said after being asked by Brett Iversen (Vice President, Investor Relations) about how Microsoft’s gaming business and strategy has been going, explaining that it’s a passion for the company and how there’s a new goal now of “redefining what it means to be an Xbox fan.” Nadella’s remarks come amid a claim from a reporter about how “Xbox won’t have exclusives going forward,” and that “everything” will be a timed exclusive.
BRETT IVERSEN: In addition to AI, shareholders are also interested in our gaming business and our acquisition of Activision Blizzard King. Satya, how are you feeling about the early return on that investment and just progress on our overall gaming strategy over the last year?
SATYA NADELLA: Yeah, I mean, I’m feeling very, very good about where we are in gaming. In fact, right now, this is like the peak season for gaming, obviously with Black Ops and the new Call of Duty, and it’s just been fantastic to see the launch and the marketing around it, the buzz around it and the love for gaming.
If I think about it, right, we chose the secular growth category in entertainment, which we think is gaming, and said, let’s double down on it, let’s – and it’s been a passion for Microsoft ever since.
In fact, I think Flight Simulator launched before Windows or Office even, and so it’s like one of the longest franchises in this company. And so we said, let’s take that joy of gaming everywhere. And that’s why even these ads with Xbox now, where we are redefining what it means to be an Xbox fan, it’s about being able to enjoy Xbox on all your devices.
So our strategy with Activision content now is in full force. We feel fantastic about the progress we’ve made. And more importantly, I think, long term, as a company, we can bring the best of AI innovation, cloud innovation, console innovation, PC innovation to build the best games that can be enjoyed by gamers everywhere.