Could we go back to when you first got involved in the Xbox business? How was that business perceived within Microsoft? Not necessarily in terms of reputation, but strategically. Why did they venture into that business? What were their ambitions at that time?

Internally, Xbox was seen as something quite special. The business was then tasked with figuring out how to monetize that, how to align the business model with the company's direction of generating lifetime customer value.

Could we go back to when you first got involved in the Xbox business? How was that business perceived within Microsoft? Not necessarily in terms of reputation, but strategically. Why did they venture into that business? What were their ambitions at that time?

When Amy Hood joined, she emphasized the need to make Xbox a profitable business. At that time, it was very hardware-focused. The primary goal was to sell game consoles and accessories, but everyone knows that hardware doesn't generate much profit. The strategic position of Xbox needed to be rethought to generate a more sustained income for the business, while retaining the brand love that Xbox had, which Microsoft could learn from.

How did this positioning manifest in specific decisions? Did it influence the types of exclusives released for the consoles, the genres, or the types of partners you collaborated with?

It was mainly about partnerships. For instance, when Xbox One was launched, we heavily relied on our relationship with the NFL. Users could start, pause, and rewind NFL clips. They could even connect their Xbox to their cable, and manage their entire cable entertainment system through the Xbox interface. It was a groundbreaking piece of technology. However, as it turned out, people didn't want that as much as we thought. It was a novel concept, and the devices were designed to support it. That was the whole proposition with Xbox One, and it helped differentiate us from PlayStation.