Power Players: Does Xbox have a future?

Will Bain (0:00)

Microsoft, Xbox, even if you've never owned one, I bet you know someone who does. 200 million plus of the various versions have been sold around the world since it launched. And yet, AI and the demand on the many chips that parrot it is fast turning games consoles into something of a luxury product. And as such, let's help put firms like Microsoft and Xbox at a crossroads. Asha Sharma is the woman who's been thrown the proverbial controller to try and navigate that for Microsoft. And today, on Power Players from Business Daily, chip wars, content wars, and the cost of a console. How does Asha Sharma get Xbox out of a jam?

Yes, welcome back to Power Players on Business Daily. Will with you today. No Rahul and Michelle this week. We've got a great panel for you though. Couple of people who really know this story inside out. And I think even if you're not a big gamer, you're going to really be able to explain to you what's going on, why this matters, why things around the world that are shaping economics and business are having an impact on this story. Peter Moore is joining us from California. Peter, a former Xbox executive, also was at Sega and Laura Cress, BBC technology reporter, who I think, Laura, is certainly looking at some of your previous interviews, has spent as much time in broadcast land as anybody with Asha Sharma, the new-ish boss at Xbox. How did you find her when you met her? Because you met her quite recently, right?

Laura Cress (1:26)

That's right. I met her at Gamescom, this big expo for the games industry in Germany, just at the end of August. I found her to be really pleasant, really friendly. She wanted to know what I thought about Xbox and where I thought it was going and what people were saying. So I think as a new exec, you can see she really is trying to fit into the company and work out what to do with it.

Will Bain (1:50)

Peter, you've had a long career across, as I mentioned, a lot of companies and Liverpool Football Club as well. Where in your heart does Xbox sit?

Peter Moore (1:57)

Very much right in the centre. I joined Microsoft in early 2003 as the original Xbox was kind of winding down and we were starting to build what became the Xbox 360 We needed to literally take on PlayStation in those days. Nintendo was a little bit of an afterthought and it was very much in its early days when I got there. But our focus was bringing gamers together all throughout the world, building a real community.

Will Bain (2:22)

Well, to that point, should we wallow in a little bit more nostalgia as well? This actually just predates Peter's time, but lovely montage the team have put together. This is Bill Gates, obviously the boss of Microsoft, alongside naturally Dwayne The Rock Johnson at a Toys R Us in Times Square in New York as gamers queued around the block to get their hands on the very first Xbox in November 2001

Bill Gates (2:44)

You may have been wondering what this great device was here.

This is the Xbox. And so, for the first time, let me now unveil Xbox.

Dwayne Johnson (2:57)

The Xbox is everything The Rock is. Cutting edge, powerful, exhilarating. And like The Rock, it will be the most electrifying thing coming out this year.

Bill Gates (3:06)

I don't care what people say. Xbox is the game to play.

Dwayne Johnson (3:10)

Yeah!

Laura Cress (3:11)

Xbox!

Will Bain (3:14)

There we go. Some very early 2000s. Razzmatazz, Laura. How important was it to have a kind of, Peter's mentioned Nintendo and Sony, a third player in there from a gamer's perspective, from a consumer's perspective, because that was what was driving some of the excitement, right?

Laura Cress (3:28)

Oh, absolutely. And I think it was perhaps for a bit more of a hardcore gamer. I don't know if that was maybe the perception a little bit. Obviously, Nintendo very much a family brand. And then you have PlayStation, which had maybe slightly more cinematic single player games, but I do think that online element was so crucial because you were playing against your friends. Something like Halo comes along, and suddenly there's this wide community that you're playing against. And it just meant that everyone wanted to get involved.

Peter Moore (3:59)

Well, you bring up Halo, and Halo is a great example. Halo started as what was called land parties.

Will Bain (4:03)

So just explain to people a bit of Halo, by the way, either of you. Just explain to people who don't know it, listening.