Microsoft CEO commits to growing Xbox services

He had similar words for Windows Mobile right before cutting back.

Microsoft stock is up $24 a share YoY. Microsoft is committed to making money, not losing it to the diehard 1% who refuse to let a dream go and move on. Is there money for the emo crowd? I do wonder. Maybe Hot Topic can start selling Windows Phones.

hahahaha! Best of the week!!!I was just thinking about coloring my hair purple!!!

Windows Phone is not the only product Microsoft abandoned. And it wasn't 1% forever. It's understandable why people are reluctant to see Microsoft's commitment. Short term growth is fine; but lack of backing consumers who invest in their products may hurt them in the long term, especially in the consumer space. What's not understandable is your weird defensive response and calling people "emo." If anything, you're the one being dramatic.

Umm it doesn't matter that it wasn't 1% BEFORE. decisions are made around how things stand at that moment..not the past...dumb argument man

Dan is not a consumer like us, doesn't buy the things we do so doesn't feel what we feel. Probably a Microsoft evangelist and disciple cuz he gets free stuff from them, just don't argue with him.....he'll never understand and he will forever defend their stupid decisions.

Well said

Oh please MS stuck at their mobile strategy (such as it was) through numerous iterations of the OS and could never find a way to make it profitable. That's why it was cut. The industry wasn't going to wait for MS to catch up and shareholders couldn't see an end to the bleeding. Remember the whole deal with Nokia cost MS billions for what turned out to be very little in return. Getting all emotional about it is pretty pointless and attacking those that pass on the facts is absurd.

Whatever, you moron. Stuck to what? Not advertising? Not letting people know about the OS, the phones, Groove, Band etc? Go away.

What's your point? I didn't say they had a consumer friendly strategy. But as Dan pointed out MS is ticking all the shareholder and board boxes when it comes to managing revenue streams and investments to deliver profits. Also what company has ever flagged that they're going to pull the pin on a product or service prior to it being absolutely necessary.? Groove came out of the blue for consumers, but had a decent window prior to the service shutting and was announced along with Spotify transition instructions. Band was launched as a test product. Whether you or others got emotionally attached to them is neither here nor there. MS canned them quite simply as it didn't make financial or strategic sense to go toe to toe with Fitbit, who had just bought up a fair few of their competitors and committed to producing Win 10 apps. So yeah go ahead and scream and rage at the wind, its probably very cathartic for you.

Other companies do the exact same thing and abandon products all the time, this is not just a Microsoft thing. THey are obviously not just aiming for "short term growth." A company like Microsoft wouldn't be where it is today if that was the case. But your general point about being more in the consumer space I agree the more the better (because I'm a consumer). The ones being dramatic are the ones posting doom and gloom in EVERY SINGLE ARTICLE posted on this website REGARDLESS IF IT'S EVEN RELEVANT TO THE ARTICLE. This is just from my own observations and what personally frustrates me.

Do you have a list of things in which Microsoft has really done good? or you are just another pessimist? It's a cost-benefit theory, not need to invest in something that can't give you results. I guess all the investors are idiots who are trading in MS shares,hmmm. Windows, Office, Mixed reality, Cloud, gaming, surface, mobility are the preferences for MS, along with give a try to some new things in which MS can lead.

Abandon products happens all the time, even Sony or Google. I'm a main programmer in a major studio (many unannounced 1 or 2 years old titles get dumped. In Japan, not-so-successful service-in-title get closed all the time), here's my take.
UWP (cross pc, xbox, iot, ar/mr) + free unlimited cross-platform cloud sync that leads to BC/FC/XPA/GamePass business model. No more gen-break, you can share your game lib, save data and peripherals between xboxes.
Maintain C++, C# and other open source projects.
Biggest contributor to GitHub.
Cross Linux.
Visual Studio goes free, free project manager / SVN for small team.
Drop WinPhone for win10ARM.AR/MR, IOT, etc.
Those are good moves.

Curious, what can you do to make WinPhone work?
It's not running what win10pc/win10s runs, it's a niche market compare to Androis, iOS and Win10...
No user -> no devs/apps, no devs/apps -> no users, no?
Would you spend as much resources to code / QA / maintain a WinPhone app as Android/iOS app?

So too Android was a niche market, so too was iOS a niche market. Idiot.

You just answered your own question or insult. iPhone created its own premium niche in a new market which exploded. Google created Android to flood the budget to mid range in market Apple created. MS failed to carve out a space for itself in those established smartphone markets. They couldn't find a niche that would appeal to carriers, developers or consumers. Many of us thought they could bully their way in through acquisitions or leveraging their there products (office, Xbox, Skype etc). But most of their software is required to be platform agnostic to survive.

So did you think Cortana a loser? If she is, it isn't for lack of interest, bit lack of focus from Microsoft itself not being able stop putting all of its coals into the same fires: Windows & Office (A legacy OS); not saying they should abandon it or anything but they need to learn to give equal attention to at least some products consumers use on the go and in the home; the the Harmon Kardon speaker with Cortana could be one of those items but MS doesn't seem to care. I have one and would love to see it continue to evolve.

sometimes you're funny Daniel Rubino and sometimes you should just stay quiet :)

Agree, maybe too much gym work has stifled blood flow. Just sayin....

The 1% emo crowd that put food on your table for the past 7 years. Good luck trying to make a few bucks with a website about a company soon to become as irrelevant as IBM to the consumer market...

@diego3336 Ouch!  But so true.  The 1% still come here in hopes to get some new news on the direction of Windows Mobile.  I know I do.  I find it remarkable the answer is to forget about Windows Mobile because it's dead and move on to what many of us believe are inferior OSs.  I remember when Blackberry was going through this.  Its supporters came to websites still singing BB's praises.  Never to give up until it's totally dead.  I suspect that will be the same reaction to many of Windows Phone/Mobile followers.

Not just share prices but there are many areas in which MS has done good. MS launcher, Office, Edge, Cortana, outlook, skype, LinkedIn, OneNote, office lens, Bing. This is the mobility Nadella was talking about when he took over. They are trying their hand in new things like smart devices like Harman-kardon Cortana speakers. No company can stick to something for a long which is generating loss on a regular basis. Is this really hard to get?

RE: Rahul Sharma45, I hope Microsoft is "committed" to bringing many many more features to the Harman-Kardon Invoke and other similar devices.  Too often they have great ideas but do not follow through with proper development and MARKETING.

So no innovation for mobiles in this case from Microsoft. They will only rely on what Google and Apple decide for the mobiles and they will be just another app provider. My Lumia 950XL had many new innovations when was introduced like IRIS scanner now wee will just wait for Google or Apple if they are willing to come up with new innovations wich I doubt they will.

Man, what an ahole this Dan is. Not even bothering reading this piece of **** site anymore. I'm out. Good luck your Razer phone *********.

k bye

Thing is, if they had implemented a proper mobile strategy the stock would be $150s instead of in the $80s...

Not emo crowd, we invested on their product and trusted to their commitment, We deserve to be treated and inform in better way not in random twitter message to a random user. Its microsoft failure to not capitalize the marketshare when it was above 3%. Illogical whining 

Wow, Daniel you have really gone over to the Dark Side. Can't believe you just dissed your main audience. Are you over it? Are you taking money from MS? Have you lost your objectivity? Pretty disappointed, and thinking hard about ditching WC 🚽 right now (that wasn't me, it was automatic fir Wash Closet. 🤓😀💩

Shocked and disappointed Dan. Are you now competing with Trump for your post likes?

Um i like your way of things but you are pushing my buttons so i'd rather you let the emo diehard Windows Phone loving hippy people who may or may not have a home while being beaten around 24/7 for prefering a certain platforms optimization and price tag beyond other devices that scream performance and battery life including quality that seem to be lackluster in comparison when it comes to all of that vs their prefered device with all due respect,... apple runs off sheep so there's your answer to why apple rakes in so much of profites off its consumers who spend 1/3 just for the sake of branding tags and some more for accessories that aren't even worth it in addition to the other costs that totals at 3/3 of whichever value for a device that has no headset jack? including that they have to buy the whole set of products just to make one device work cause we all know an iphone is just as much as brand'ist as any other regressive human being in this universe, it believes itself to be superior to others and so amazingly productive yet the most disgusting existance on this earth and and hates its own species due to slight differences ..oops i might have been describing racism nevertheless i believe everyone got what i was trying to say. 

You've said it best bro....I can't believe people are excited over this!

Nothing? Yeah... So Where is your billion dollar company? Your comment means nothing to them or someone with a good sense. Come back when u have something useful to say.

I don't understand where you're coming from. Microsoft shares continue to rise so whatever Nadella is doing is working.

RE: Asher Madan, Research "corporate raider".  I think Nadella is using corporate raider technique to enrich himself (and admittedly, investors) in the short run.  Long term vision sometimes requires investing in things that will pay off in the future.  I think many of us that read and comment at Windows Central know that the world is moveing toward moble and that computers have, and will continue to get smaller.  Google and Apple know this and are becoming ubiquitous, even in enterprise.  I think Microsoft should invest in the moble future.  Just my thoughts.

What are you? A bean counter? Wake up.

Truth. What is the point, anyway?
Without Kinect, it’s just a stripped-down computer.

"Microsoft CEO commits to growing Xbox services" holy sh*t another sc*w up coming around the corner ..run for the hills! D :

I remember committed to mobile too

Nadella never said that, He was clearly against going after iPhones and Android by competing directly.  He wants to compete with them by being different. if you think about it. WP did not have anything that was worth it to make people ditch their iPhones.

He did, he said it no other oems will build phones then Microsoft will. Also they would target three sectors, budget, business and enthusiasts.

they are still committed to it in the way you asked but not for the consumers.

Huh? It was something to effect of 'if no one builds phones, we will', if that isn't saying it, what is??

So far, the only difference I see is not bring able to focus on anything but windows and office which to consumers is the, "same old same old", therefore Microsoft is seen as old and outdated!

Correct, good point Microsoft has the software, look they put out a browser late in the game and people downloaded it out the gate.

@Ingiomar Martina Yes he said that.  And it was published on this site: https://www.windowscentral.com/satya-nadellas-email-about-layoffs-says-he-still-committed-first-party-phones  

He did, more than once.

I thought Nadella was going to sell xbox according to Windows Phone Crybabies.

He still might as he has only committed to growing the services not the hardware.

Oh good. I'm sure they can find space on the Xbox UI to cram in a couple more ads still.

Oh get over it. Steam is the same. The system is there to run games, and offer you more content. Its a content delivery box. Its not like they are ads for washing up powder or car tyres. Its very small game related offers, mostly for Xbox Live Gold people - telling you to grab your benefits. This really isn't anything to get frothy about. But here you are.

Comparing it to Steam is just ridiculous. Steam, at best, is the equivalent to the Store tab. You buy the game, you download the game unto your desktop and you never see the ads again. Windows doesn't have ads on its UI and the ones it has - on the start menu and the lockscreen - you can disable.   So stop making idiotic analogies and live with the fact that not everyone likes to see f*cking ads on the UI of a console we already paid for. And we also don't care if YOU aren't bothered by them. To some of us, the ads bother. And I for one will continue to point out the sh*t UX that that represents until I see them go away. Whether you like it or not.

Waa. Waa.

> Oh good. I'm sure they can find space on the
> Xbox UI to cram in a couple more ads still.
PS4 and Steam has more ads you know? And like hwangeruk's said... "mostly for Xbox Live Gold people - telling you to grab your benefits"

Xbox has one ad, that's it, if you can't handle one ad I suggest never leaving your house because ads are everywhere.

I find it very hard to trust Nadella after ditching Groove Music Pass!!!!!

So we're going to prtend that Groove Music Pass had 53 million users? XBOX is a sucessful brand, it's not going anywhere. Is it so hard to understand that Nafella is only killing off failed products? Amazon killed off the Fire Phone. Because surprise....because almost no one wanted it.

They killed it off because NO one was using it.  probably had a million or two people thats it.   Where as Spotify, apple music and others have hundreds of millions of people using them.

No advertising. Nobody knew about it.

Just remember that Microsoft CEO committed to building Windows 10 Mobile handsets going forward if no other OEMs would.

If you ask me, they should let Xbox become an independently run entity...just let them loose ...just let them go and innovate to their hearts content...  even outside gaming ... nimble independent Xbox would have more success in smart home than Microsoft ever can...IMO...

Why? XBox is way better off with the deep pockets of Microsoft backing them. Should Playstation split from Sony?

I'm not talking about spinning them off in to separate company...just let them do their own things...leave them out of Microsoft's grand strategy... i think wearables is another area  they can excel... just let them be an independent platform on the platform of platforms :)  

Yet Microsoft ditched their only wearable so they can't excel in an area where they have no presence!!!

Without integration and co-op with other department... UWP (cross pc, xbox, iot, ar/mr) + free unlimited cross-platform cloud sync that leads to BC/FC/XPA/GamePass business model... prob not gonna happen. How about these?
Maintain C++, C# and other open source projects.
Biggest contributor to GitHub.
Visual Studio goes free, free project manager / SVN for small team.
enterprise / programmer / indie friendly moves? We build game servers with java, but now consider to switch to C#.
* We've over 4k employees.

He sold people a lie; he admitted it before mentioning it in "hit refresh". As soon as he took over he said windows would be there focus with mobile to follow later knowing he had no intention of progressing mobile at all

i don't think it's entirely the CEO's decision...a new CEO always gets pushed around by the board and may be even by "activist shareholders"...also when you have the founder and the demi god Gates actively involved in the company..i don;t think the decision making is just based on what the CEO thinks... 

It's based on what shareholders want as well, not just the board.

What is it with these below level sour folks in the comments always. Gaming to Microsoft means gaming but also education for the younger crowd. And that is worth investing not to only grow future success but also expanding availability to everyone.

It's off the charts this week for some reason. Comments are full of the remaining crazies who think Microsoft's business is solely defined by the one that was badly mismanaged since 2007 and was a complete failure. Eventually, they will move on, hopefully, sooner than later. I usually come to the comments for insight, to learn from our readers, have some fun debate, etc. Now, just tempted to turn them off as there's little value.

What comments? I remember the days when there would be 500 comments to most articles. Now with mobile gone we are down to 25 comments per article, so your wish has come true already Daniel. Wait until the last windows mobile phones die and you will have zero comments left, cause apparently that's the only people bothering to make comments.

Even if they release foldable surface mobile device...it would mostly appeal to enterprise customers....so If they don't win Mixed Reality ...they're toast as far as consumer space is concerned, I think...

> it would mostly appeal to enterprise customers.
and gamers. some indie XPA (sync with xboxes) or *.exe games should run fine (wz xbox one gamepad support of course)

Good point. The numbers have gone way down. Unfortunate really, but even I come here a lot less after having to upgrade to my Note 8 😓

Seriously, the negativity over the phone thing is really getting old. Even though I'm one of the last hold outs with my 950xl, I understand the business decisions of pulling out of money losing endeavors. Whether it is phone, Groove, or whatever, leaving areas that are already commoditized by other entities just makes sense. One of the basics at Business School was to avoid commoditized areas, the cost of entry is so high its hard to achieve a decent ROI.

Instead of just writing off Lumia business, could they have not spun it off to survive on their own?  

You just miss the entire point.

I've moved on but Satya did lie knowing he never intended to focus on mobile at all. The last 4 phones released were Nokia carry overs rebranded which I have. I'm not angry, I just hope he knows what he's doing

He does know what he is doing, he is focusing on two things - what he knows (hence risk aversion) and b)short term growth. Because as long he shows share price growth YoY, he won't have many difficult questions to answer. By focusing on what he knows, there is greater degree of control. It'e simple pyschology to be honest and for me, that is not a CEO. A CEO has to be bold, ambitious, patient, willing to take risks and can see the bigger picture as well as focusing on short term growth (foresight). In short balance. I haven't any of these things, all I have seen is risk aversion, reduction of wage bills, and leveraging competitors user base for fast, short term gain. As result UWP has been pushed to the way side, he has paved way for Apple and Google a firmer foothold in the enterprise sector. In short, he has nulified any chance of a successful transition to Windows on ARM by his utter disregard for Microsoft's own Ecosystem. Say what you want about Stephen Elop, he saw the value of ecosystems and which is why I don't believe he was ever going to sell the xbox division. It's easy to spread rumours. Because Gaming encompasses VR and AR, without which there is no complete ecosystem.

That is all the reasons why Ballmer was a great CEO, bold, ambitious, willing to take risks and he could see the bigger picture.

@neo158, totally agree, sure he made mistakes but everyone makes mistakes. The difference is he was willing to take risks suchas spending over a billion dollars to see customers with the RROD issue where taken care off without a batting an eye. If he had not done that, then it is highly likely Xbox One X wouldn't even exist and we may have not have gotten to play games like Halo, Fable, Forza, Gotham Racing just to name a few.

* UWP (cross pc, xbox, iot, ar/mr) + free unlimited cross-platform cloud sync that leads to BC/FC/XPA/GamePass business model.
* Maintain C++, C# and other open source projects.
* Biggest contributor to GitHub.
* Cross Linux.
* Visual Studio goes free, free project manager / SVN for small team.
* Drop WinPhone for win10ARM.AR/MR, IOT, etc.
Short term? I'm in a major game studio (over 4k employees), we use java to build our game servers, now switching over to C#.
Console games still use C++ but Unity projects... use C#. And… not just *.exe or UWP (xbox, iot, arm/mr, pc, win10s, win10arm) apps, you can even use C# for Android/iOS apps nowadays (I'm a C++ guy but objective-c is just freaking ugly... C# is better looking than objective-C).
Sharing some source code / logic between client-side and server-side… why not,? There's no down-side.
C++ is my root, Havok took me 3 months to get a hand of it (I had 0 3d programming knowledge was one reason, then I wrote a game engine and a game demo with tech such as active-ragdoll, dynamic-keyframe-animation-system, IK, etc because I'm not a book-following typpa guy). java, php, MySQL, javascript, html5, C#... unity, unreal... you name it, I can start fumbling around day1. I hack apps, websites, work tools too. To do my automation, to do repeating-task, to help me work without pointing-device (most of the time, key to navigate UI is faster than moving cursor here and there with clicking).

No Daniel.  Keep coming here.  I enjoy talking to you,  picking your brain regarding different things.   I do love how the crazies think im an apple fanboy because i decided to ditch windows phone when they decided to ditch me and my 1020.   Such is life,  I moved on....still us MS services whereever I can,  and ONLY use windows computers.   I am always interested in new technology no matter what platform.   I don't see much innovation at Apple and the macbooks.  but their evolution of the phone ecosystem is great.   NOT the iphone x but IOS as a whole.   I love reading the "crazies" comments....great entertainment with my morning coffee..

ooo fanbaby downvotes...LOVE EM!

Yep...I do...look at the crybabies pileing up!!! woo hoo!

Re: Steve Adams, Please don't have your feeling hurt.  The tally of thumbs up and thumbs down is only sum up of people saying they agree/disagree or like/dislike your comment.  Just opinions.  No need for name calling. Just my opinion.

Kevin.  Anyone who downvotes the truth here is a crybaby.   simple.  besides...it's fun seeing the faboys here twist in the wind thinking that mobile will still be a thing MS is pursuing....THEY ARE NOT.   It's over JIM.  

Then stop reading them. Do you really believe it is a good strategy on your part to call your readers "crazy'?

Well, since he's mostly trolling, I'd say it's a perfectly valid strategy

I think it's a great strategy...considering HE'S RIGHT!!!!

Ha! Now you're calling us crazies. WTF! Your ego is writing cheques you can't cash. Wake the **** up Daniel. I think you have some other gig lined up and are just biding time, because you clearly hate your audience. **** you. This app mow deleted from all my devices.

I'm with ya. Deleting this app too. Every other article is sucking android dick. Head over to Mspoweruser or Allaboutwindows phone. That's where I am now. Peace out, Rubino you *****.

BYE....don't let the door hit you...I am giving you 2 days from now and you will be posting again here WM4EVA.   Ha ha..crybaby  

It's because he's from India. These people are just racists. Let's stop pretending. It has to be that, or they're just idiots, I guess they kind of go hand in hand. I mean who with half a brain somhow equates Xbox with Windows Phone or Groove??? I don't get it. Windows Phone failed people, get over it. Windows phone had no market share, Xbox has a large market share and is profitable. Stop being racist morons.

"Gaming to Microsoft means gaming but also education for the younger crowd." What? HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA Yeah, educating them to buy microtransactions and loot box... https://youtu.be/eN_tD5y6k6s?t=21

Good. Let's hope he keeps true to his word.

He's word? He failed last. I don't believe in his word. Just enjoy what you have today before its gone. Life changes all the time.

Or,  move to something new,  and see what you have been missing ghost.

Sounds good i see ms moving the Xbox or a service and have 2 consoles like now for pickup and play people but in the long run I see the Xbox home console getting windows 10 games on it to just like it's been the other way round.

They need the PC and phones and Windows and iPhones and services and Google. They should push the service. MS Everywhere

MS Everywhere = UWP. But focus is not on UWP is it?

NO...thats the fanboy version...the true version is the one you are seeing...apps for ios/android/chrome/windows.  This is MS EVERYWHERE.   There is a big difference in fanboy reality compared to TRUE REALITY!

If I was CEO I would have a party every night, big screens with Xboxes, and hoes for days!!!!! And if you all want some wp10 I'd have those too!! I almost forgot....I would remove all the ads from the xbox...... LOL Make Money is the name of the game, that's why I'm not CEO!

👍😂

👍🏾👍🏾

I want Xbox to be officially available in my country. Please come to Thailand Xbox team.

I can't imagine a CEO less excited when talking about its company products than Nadella. Even that guy from Skype, Tony Bates, was more enthusiastic when talking about MS products than this jerk. And if money is the issue, IIRC, MS under Ballmer management posted YOY increases almost every quarter too...

Exactly, say what you want about Ballmer but he was committed to growing Microsoft as a whole not just certain divisions. I have always felt that tech companies run by techies are never profitable because they don't have experience running a business, that's the difference between Ballmer and Nadella.

I love the X1X!! Great device. Streaming to every device is right up cloud centric Nadella's core. It seems right down his ally.

Breaking news: CEO focuses on a profitable area of business.

Yes and a CEO also has foresight anyone can reflect. Xbox, Bing, Surface to name a few didn't become profitable over night. It takes foresight to nurture growth and for that you need to take risks. Some will pay off and some wont. But Satya Nadella has proved to be utterly risk averse and totally focused on short term growth. Because as long share prices go up YoY, he won't be heavily criticised and mistakes can be swept under the rug.

That means he's going his job TechFreak.  If the share went up one year...then dropped again...NOPE...but you keep stating shares going up Year after Year.   Thats success. 

Losing the loyal fanbase and their trust counts as success?

Ok....losing 50 people who are their "LOYAL FANBASE"  as you claim....is no big deal.  MOST of the people who used windows phone moved on,  and are using microsoft services on other platforms.    Ahhhh the fanboy mind can twist anything up to show devistaion in MS land...Unfortunately,  In the REAL WORLD...MS is doing great,  my windows laptops work amazing,  my MS services all play great with my iphone and Ipad...everything is great.   But whiny little fanbitches who are to ridgid to try something new or different would never understand what it's like to be on a supported system. 

> Losing the loyal fanbase and their trust counts as success?
You keep seeing people say this...
Curious, how many people are there?

@Steve Adams. Success is a subjective entity, it is derived from short term and long term vision. A CEO's job is not to pander to the shareholders but to be steward of a company and ensure it continues to grow in terms of profibility and portfolio. What is currently happening is the inflation of a baloon, every single move that has been made by Satya Nadella has been for Short term growth in terms of profibility. Yet, the portfolio is actually decreasing not increasing. Everything plateaus sooner or later and Microsoft at this rate will hit that point. For example to grow office subscriptions he went for Chromebook, android, ios and beyond that how do you grow office profibility? You either increase the price by a few cents YoY or you create a larger user base or you do both. The only way they can create a larger user base is to expand on UWP but they aren't doing that. Linkedin and Mixer don't even have UWP apps. You could argue as long ios and android grows, office increases in profits - yes but what happens Google docs and pages becomes good enough? Secondly what happens to Hololens, Mixed Reality, Windows on Arm, Windows 10 S without any Universal Windows Apps to create a compelling ecosystem that they actually retain customers? As for any sector of a platform to grow, it must first retain customers and then after an inflection point it will grow. Business is similiar to a tree, it needs to be appropriately nurtured to grow. So no, nothing indicates long term vision just short term penny raiding. Microsoft is at a precarious point, everything converged with Windows 10 and UWP, they cannot restart over there is no going back. If he continues to disparage his own ecosystem in the favour of short term profits, he is going to have very, very harsh questions to answer in the future.

Hololens will still grow without UWP...S is going to go to crap like RT did...because it's a dumb idea.   Arm uses the windows core which can run x86 so that is fine too.      If you take off the fanboy blinders you would see microsoft in an entirely new way....I did.   Unfortunately....most people who comment here have the blinders pulled right across their face.  

Fanboy blinders? If you actually read my post history, You'll find I've been heavily critical of Microsoft across the board. Actually Hololens is not growing it's existing, growth is measured by completed apps not tangible assets (projects in progress). Hololens requires UWP apps to bolster adoption, secondly Hololens is not widely available yet as it was only released additional markets this month (29). There are approximately 257 countries in the entire world (196 undisputed)  

Why are people comparing Xbox brand to Windows phone. Apples and Oranges people

It's because alot of fan boys seem to think the Xbox devision is struggling. Ok sales of the Xbox one were slow compared to the PS4 but Microsoft are still making alot from the Xbox service side and with the new x out I expect sales to also pickup to. I think Xbox is a big brand for Microsoft where Windows phone/Mobile was not.

I seriously doubt very many people here see Xbox division as struggling. It's more the fact that Nadella completely screwed up and mismanaged Microsoft's business in regards to Windows Phone, Nokia, Win10 mobile, etc. and no one wants to see him put his hands anywhere near Xbox for fear he'll screw that up too.

How'd you do otherwise? How do you mahke WinPhone work?
It's not running what win10pc/win10s runs, it's a niche OS and market compare to Android, iOS and Win10...
No user -> no devs/apps, no devs/apps -> no users, no?
As dev, would you spend as much resources to code / QA / maintain a WinPhone app as Android/iOS app?
Forget about Android and iOS, just between WinPhone and win10, How do you convince dev to spend resources on WinPhone instead of win10? I'd do the same, to drop WinPhone and go for win10arm...

Who needs a 3rd gaming ecosystem ??? haha

Yeah.Like who need a 3rd OS.Sure,the CEO doesn't.Haha.

No matter how hard wC try to make a Windows phone fan love Android,It will not succeed.We may buy an Android phone for necessity,but the passion will not be there.

who cares about passion...just use your goddamned phone.

Lol!

Problem is Amazon is moving with the speed of light in terms of stock price and Market Cap, melting the distance between the 3rd in the race - Microsoft. How it goes, soon Amazon will surpass MS by Market Cap, then it's Facebook's turn, then BABA, Tencent and others. Microsoft may be rising its stock price, but others do it with at a faster pace and Microsoft will become #4, #5, #6... and then die in irrelevance. New generation of developers and business people that are going to become CTOs, CEOs and so on are not in Microsoft's ecosystem by any means. They are using iPads, iPhones, Google Docs, Drive and barely even know about Microsoft's existence. (Who uses Skype at all?!?!?!) Poor Microsoft and its supporters like Daniel Rubino. The argument with the rising stock prices is so so irrelevant

Surely the long term aim, based on the overarching strategy of the last few years will be 'xbox as a service'. Much like Surface, they'll have one premium MS branded model, but the profit will be in the subscriptions, not the hardware, with all the issues that come with manufacturing. 

Actually xbox and surface are places where they can make profit off hardware. Just not as much with current infrastructure. With the Nokia d & s acquisition Microsoft acquired alot of factories. They could have used those to manufacture their own hardware, enabling proper direct level integration. But after Satya Nadella took charge, all growth opportunity in regards to said factories went out the window.

While Xbox was not getting attention from Nadella it was doing fine. Now I'm scared this jerk will again only focus on short term profit and try to turn it into host of pay-to-win online-first games with no soul. I want games like the Witcher was, not games like SW battlefront 2.

Is... Halo, Gear, Forza, Cuphead, Quantum Break, Sea of Thieves, Ashen, Sunset, Ori... SW-ish or Witcher-ish?
Can you list some of the short-term-profit products / projects? * UWP (cross pc, xbox, iot, ar/mr) + free unlimited cross-platform cloud sync that leads to BC/FC/XPA/GamePass business model.
* Maintain C++, C# and other open source projects.
* Biggest contributor to GitHub.
* Cross Linux.
* Visual Studio goes free, free project manager / SVN for small team.
* Drop WinPhone for win10ARM.AR/MR, IOT, etc.
Are these short-term investments? Is GamePass short term investment? Do you think they will cease support GamePass on consoles after xb1x? Can Apple, Google, Sony or Netflix cook up such service? How about XPA that can run on win10arm, win10s, win10pc, on my Alienware NBs or Surface Pro? I'm in a major game studio (over 4k employees). We use JAVA to build our game servers, now switching over to C#.
Console games still use C++ but Unity projects... use C#. And… not just *.exe or UWP (xbox, iot, arm/mr, pc, win10s, win10arm) apps, you can even use C# for Android/iOS apps nowadays (I'm a C++ guy but objective-c is just freaking ugly... C# is better looking than objective-C).
Sharing some source code / logic between client-side and server-side… why not,? There's no down-side.
Is this short-term investment?

Looks like you didn't understand his point. You just posted your usual copy-paste bs...

I'll believe what he says in regards to gaming when I see significant investments in studios and first party + second party franchises. Not shutting down of studios and removal of talent.

I think he is saying the focus is one games as a service. Making games where they'll ask gamers to keep paying up cash...

Don't trust anything this guy says.

Ms first re-entry to mobile with window 7 was a great start. Did some innovative things. Then 7.5 won't upgrade to my HTC 7 and it only a year old I had to side load it, that MS fault. It reminds me of Android in the past where she you wanted an upgrade you bought a new phone unless you had the g1, that update a couple of times. Okay so now we have a stable os but people because of Microsoft pasted didn't attempt to make anything for them. It had the os but no app. People are app crazy they couldn't win with out apps that are not productive and people couldn't live without. Hell Google wouldn't even let them build their there own YouTube app. It was sabatage by new millennium's that thought Microsoft was the devil of the industry that sided with Google and apple. So they could spent a **** load of more money continuing to spend their wheels doing nothing. Thanks for reading kind of long!

Nadella Thx for Kinect, groove music, w10m....
I hope you not reelected.

He won't last. What he's doing is making MS less innovative and less irrelevant. Remember when Steve Jobs was fired and they had to rehire him because Apple was going down hill. I see this happening with MS. 

Reading into this a little more he's actually committing to growing Xbox "services" not consoles but the services they run on which is no surprise as they use the cloud. Fits right into his Cloud First, Enterprise First strategy then!!!!!

Committed means they are going to leave xbox next year or so... 😂😂😂

Xbox C-ubical edition.  Great grey color!

'Mobile first, Cloud First' lol

I get people are upset about WP but no one was buying the product. Developers were not making apps. What was he supposed to do keep sinking money into a failing platform with Android and iOS killing. In regards to Groove again MS was probably losing alot of money due to licensing of all the music and lack of subscriptions. Sprinkle in app up keep and it's not worth it. MSFT should focus on its strengths and put more effort in innovation like VR and AR.

This is a common bias, but not true at all. Developers made more than hundred thousand apps, many are still supported. When Satella started killing off the Windows mobile business, the Lumias sold better than iPhones in several european markets, for example in Italy or Spain. With enough care, the market share would grow and bring reveues. But Nadella wanted the business to fail just for his own pride - to prove that Ballmer was wrong.

May I ask... why people are screaming "WinPhone has no apps" "Niche OS / market" all the time. We have iOS, Android and win10 (PC and the S)... why WinPhone? Why another OS (that has niche market share)?
And now we have upcoming ARM... 3 OSes vs 4 OSes, as a dev, isn't this a better option?

Caterpillar did better than microsoft on the dow today. Do they make nice phones, have cool streaming services?   WTH is this for an argument.

Late to the party again. Microsoft should have done this before Amazon released Alexa.  Now Alexa and the Amazon Fire stick is already entrenched in many people's homes.  

Under nodulla's leadership, Xbox will be the only thing innovative going forward. Xbox will also be the only that'll keep MS in the spotlight as Google and Apple will overshadow the company. Nadulla, you have  made  MS irrelevant.

He said the exact same thing about the Mobile before and during their 950XL release.

MS have a great console and love some of the features but in a time where people's time is limited and people are becoming more and more mobile I would have expect d Microsoft to have matched remote play on PlayStation soy you can play from different devices anywhere in the world. 4G is as fast or fast than most people's home BB now so no reason to not do it over data especially with increased data plans. This is even before we me too shareplay. Four years on and it feels like MS lagging a bit in this area.

Satya has started to take an interest in XBOX?  I think I may hear the Fat Lady singing and XBOX will be cancelled soon. It has to gaul the Massively Screwed-up dys-Functional Team that they still have a consumer product that they haven't wrecked yet!

Commit then refresh -- Nutella way I dont understand those who are with the decision to kill WP and refering to the increase of MS shares as a result. As if WP was the reason for all MS problems and once it was killed everything became good. MS shares would increase even if WP was not killed because of the cloud and office gains. Microsoft didnt invest on WP to say they were losing billions, nobody said to MS to buy Nokia with billions of dollars and then releas all employees. This is bad management by Nutella dont blame WP for that.  

The acquistion also had to be approved by the board. So, there had to be a strategy. The focus off that strategy, though, was Nadella's strategy.

Is it like the "vote of confidence" in football just before the manager is sacked...i.e. just before they kill Xbox!

Interestingly, Nadella's comments are carefully enough worded, that if Microsoft decide to spin off the console business or sell it off to an OEM, their previous comments wouldn't be seen as misleading or embarrassing and it wouldn't be a total shocker. One can be 'committed to growing the Xbox services business' and also be quietly prepping the division for a possible sale to interested suitors, at the same time.

This is a pump and dump. He's going to make Xbox as attractive as possible and then sell it off within a couple years. Not 1 thing he has done is aimed at consumers and
having a consumer focused Xbox division doesn't fit in with the new MS and the direction they are heading.

Completely agree.   Xbox is an odd duck fit inside today's Microsoft, and eventually, it'll be sold off (with Microsoft keeping a minority interest) to a Lenovo/Samsung/LG/Huawei.

Stay away from xbox please. Otherwise we'll have another dead platform.

Bla bla bla. "We are dedicated....committed...continue to support..." Heard it all before.

Why would they be commited to a product that loses money and has only a few fanboys hanging on to it?  what's the purpose.   The number one rule of business.  MAX. PROFIT.  business 101.   If it's not...then you should not be leading the company....Therefore,  Mr Nadella is doing just fine.   For the short term and long term.   

MS confirms their commitment and probably prioritize "games-as-a-service," post-launch content streams and monetization within titles.  Gaming, gamers or making games is not the priority. It's about making gamers payers. Making them pay more and more money even after buying the game.  The reaction by MS/XB "fans" here is hilarious. Defending and celebrating this like true company "fans".

You understand this is a shareholder meeting yeah? Shareholders don’t care about the gaming experience they care about money and returns. As they should. Microsoft basically said we are keeping Xbox and we will grow it further to capitalize on a strong gaming market. That means they have to keep customers happy with their services, experience, etc etc. There is nothing wrong with saying we will make more money by providing great services our customers want. Also, Sony is the exact same way. As they should be for their shareholders. So there is a lot of reasons to be happy about this news. However, the news you are looking for will probably come out at gaming conventions and whatnot.  Also game companies like EA ripping off customers with added dlc and grind mechanics designed to make customers pay more has nothing to do with Microsoft or Xbox. Those two issues are separate and not related here. 

"That means they have to keep customers happy with their services, experience, etc etc." No. It doesn't necessarily mean that. It could mean milking their customers even more with games-as-a-service. Games as a service is NOT great for gaming. It's only meant to get more money from gamers and into investors. Converting gamers into payers... "There is nothing wrong with saying we will make more money by providing great services our customers want. " I really don't think most customers want "games as a service", Microtransations, lootbox pay2win bs... And "great" is subjective. It may be great to ivestors but not for gamers... "Also game companies like EA ripping off customers with added dlc and grind mechanics designed to make customers pay more has nothing to do with Microsoft or Xbox. Those two issues are separate and not related here. " I think you're new to gaming so I won't take that comment seriously. I mean games as a service is a MAJOR strategy for MS and XB. It's already been said in the past. All* recent MS games are packed with microtransactions, DLC, Loot boxes and pay2win elements (*excpect for Forza7 that should get it eventually). MS/XB is as much part of the problem as the other companies doing this BS....

Can they fix it Flixster works in Australia. I can't get Unltaviolet movies to play on Xbox or MS phone?

Xbox is actually a very good product. One of the really solid services and entertainment products Microsoft really does well in.

Thank you Daniel.
Now I'm committed to delete the WC app and use those extra MBytes to something more productive.