Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has denied reports that Microsoft is considering selling its Xbox business. The Information reported in June that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood had been considering spinning off Xbox entirely, and then reported earlier this month that both executives had “most recently supported Sharma’s plans to overhaul the unit.” “Xbox is not for sale,” Sharma says in an interview with The New York Times. “We will do whatever it takes to set the company up for success, and we will look for the right partnerships, the right operating model and whatever it takes to get there.” It appears that Nadella and Hood have favored the giant Xbox “reboot” as a plan for Microsoft’s gaming unit rather than making Xbox a joint venture or spinning off the gaming business entirely. Sharma announced his restructuring of Xbox in June, calling it a reboot of the division. Microsoft plans to lay off up to 3,200 Xbox employees over the course of its 2027 financial year, which ends in June. Nadella backed Sharma’s restructuring and layoffs in a recent appearance on the Sources podcast. “The team is making some improvements and Asha is making some improvements, which is great to see,” Nadella said last week. “And then we have to invent the right sustainable business model that allows us to offer games to more and more people.” The most recent restructuring has seen Halo come into the hands of Activision, as well as the developers behind Sea of Thieves and Age of Empires. In addition to a major restructuring of Xbox Game Studios, recent changes appear aimed at making Xbox a wholly owned subsidiary like Microsoft does with LinkedIn. Microsoft is reducing management levels at Xbox, shedding smaller studios and focusing on its biggest Xbox franchises. That could eventually end in an Xbox sale at some point in the future, but right now the plan seems to be to return growth to Xbox. “We have a long way to go with Microsoft,” Sharma says, “and we’re going to take a long-term view.” But, as Sharma said in February, “the plan is the plan until it’s not the plan.”
