Microsoft promotes Xbox chief in sign games are big deal again


Microsoft Corp’s head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, got a promotion and a spot on chief executive officer Satya Nadella’s senior leadership team in a nod to the renewed importance of gaming at the software giant.

Spencer, now an executive vice president, previously reported to Windows division head Terry Myerson, who has a seat on Nadella’s council of chiefs. The group meets weekly and is comprised of the tier of executives directly below the CEO.

It’s a change in focus from earlier in Nadella’s tenure. In 2014, in his first big companywide strategy memo, Nadella defined gaming as outside Microsoft’s core businesses, but still a very important “other business in which we can have fundamental impact.” 

At the time, the business had just gone through a lacklustre release of the overpriced Xbox One and some investors were calling for Nadella to get out of gaming entirely. 

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