Microsoft considers SELLING Xbox — and the CEO had to deny it the same day it leaked

Twenty-five years ago, Microsoft entered the console war to kill Sony. Now the company that won is reportedly weighing the one move that would mean admitting it lost: selling Xbox. On September 30, The Information reported that Microsoft has considered spinning off its gaming business into a separate subsidiary — or even a joint venture with another company — as the division's revenue keeps sliding. Hours later, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma had to say the quiet part out loud: no, it isn't happening. At least not yet.

That denial is itself the story. Executives don't usually preemptively deny spin-off rumors unless the internal conversations got loud enough to leak.

What The Information actually reported

The report wasn't vague. Microsoft has explored multiple structural options for the gaming division: a full spin-off into its own subsidiary, a joint venture, or a potential sale. The stated motivation is straightforward: Xbox revenue has fallen roughly $500 million, and investors have stopped pretending the division is a growth asset. As of the reporting, Microsoft had already closed Xbox Studios' financial books to weigh the options, with layoffs previously flagged for July.

Simultaneously, Microsoft is reportedly accelerating release cadence on its biggest franchises — new Halo, Elder Scrolls and Fallout titles — the classic move of a company trying to make a division valuable right before it becomes separable. You don't rush three franchises if you're planning to keep them forever inside a stable org chart.

"Xbox is not for sale"

Sharma's response was firm and slightly wounded. "Xbox is not for sale," she said, adding that the company will "do whatever it takes to set the company up for success." She also acknowledged direct competition with Sony — while insisting "competition and collaboration can coexist," a pointed line days after Microsoft poached Hideo Kojima's Physint from PlayStation.

The bigger context makes the denial harder to believe. Microsoft has already cut 3,200 jobs at Xbox and sold five studios. Halo's studio suffered fresh layoffs this month amid mixed sales for Campaign Evolved. Third-party Game Pass deals are reportedly frozen on pause, gutting the exact subscription strategy that was supposed to make the hardware irrelevant. And Nadella himself said back in June that Xbox must finally become a sustainable business after 25 years of investment. Nobody says that about a division they intend to keep forever.

The bit everyone noticed

Windows Central pointed out the awkward part: nobody was really asking whether Xbox was for sale. The speculation started years ago with the 2024 Activision deal, when analysts openly modeled a future where Microsoft walks away from consoles entirely. Asha Sharma just inherited a company whose console division has been treated as a candidate for divestiture since before she took the job.

Her denial, in other words, is not news. The absence of a spin-off would be news.

Why this matters if you own a console

For players in Latin America and everywhere else, a spin-off wouldn't mean the consoles disappear tomorrow. It would mean something subtler and more dangerous: Xbox stops being a strategic priority for Microsoft. That is what kills games — not the corporate structure, but the moment a division stops getting funded first when the company decides where to spend a hundred billion dollars on AI data centers.

Sharma's play is obvious: prove Xbox can be a business on its own terms before anyone gets to make the call for them. Faster franchises, frozen third-party deals, no sale. Whether that works or whether Xbox gets carved up in a year is genuinely anyone's guess.

Comparte esto si crees que Microsoft ya tomó la decisión y el comunicado solo fue para evitar un AMSI. Y dime en los comentarios: ¿comprarías una consola de una compañía que solo tiene un dueño? Because that's the question Xbox will have to answer soon.