Xbox Faces a Long Road as Microsoft Considers New Approaches – Gamereactor

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has denied that Microsoft plans to sell its gaming division, while saying the company is open to partnerships, a different operating model and other changes to make Xbox successful. Her comments, reported by GameSpot from an interview with The New York Times, arrive amid speculation that Microsoft could sell the division outright.

The sale talk reflects questions about Xbox’s returns compared with Microsoft’s profitable cloud-computing and artificial-intelligence businesses. The primary report says Xbox’s accountability margins amount to a 3% profit, despite Microsoft investing tens of billions of dollars in acquisitions of game publishers and studios. Sharma has previously told employees that the business was not in a healthy state; Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said it needs to pull its weight and praised recent cuts as a streamlining effort.

The potential changes are not an announcement of a sale or any specific partnership. Sharma’s message is that…