Microsoft has spent years subsidizing Xbox rather than profiting from it, CEO Satya Nadella acknowledged this week, as he addressed the gaming division’s need for a new approach.
His comments came during a Wednesday evening taping of The New York Times’ “Hard Fork” podcast, released Friday. Hosts Kevin Roose and Casey Newton pressed Nadella on the future of Xbox a few hours after the division’s leadership signaled an upcoming reset.
“No one can accuse Microsoft of not having invested for the last 25 years,” Nadella said of the Xbox and games business. “And now we have to turn this into a sustainable business.”
They need to actually be really careful with that - Gamepass is I think one of the main things keeping gamers on Windows. Fuck up gamepass during the Gabecube’s release and people may start seriously wondering why they put up with Windows.
Eh, both the Steam Deck and the Gabecube are far too niche and unknown for that. I’ve used the Steam Deck on public transportation and pretty much everyone assumed that it was a Nintendo Switch at first - and I had to go to great length to explain what it was.
One notable exception (out of a small handful) was a mother who recognized it as something different and asked me a ton of questions about it, because she wanted to reward her studious son (who sat next to us wide-eyed, with increasing levels of giddiness) for his great marks with it.