Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella comments on next-gen Xbox PC console hybrid

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirms that the next-gen Xbox will innovate in both the PC and console space.

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Just yesterday, Windows Central's Jez Corden reported that the next Xbox would be a Windows PC that mimics an Xbox console experience, reiterating reports from The Verge's Tom Warren. Now Microsoft's leader comments on the new Xbox PC while clarifying and reiterating the company's gaming strategy.

In a recent interview with TBPN, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella discussed how Xbox will make innovations in the synergies between Windows PCs and Xbox consoles. He also says that Microsoft considers Windows "the biggest gaming business," a nod towards all of the different stores available on the platform--Steam, Xbox Store, Epic Games Store, GOG, Battle.net, etc.

• Read more: Microsoft CEO hints at an Xbox that's also a PC for the next generation

Q. On the topic of changing business models, shifting your business model, it seems like the console wars are over? You're a peacetime CEO, the war is over! But take me through the evolution of the business model shift on the gaming side of the business.

A. Nadella:

"Remember, the biggest gaming business is the Windows business--to us, gaming on Windows. Steam has built a massive marketplace on top of it and has done a very successful job of it.

"To us, the way we are thinking about gaming...first of all, we're the largest publisher after [we acquired] Activision. Therefore, we want to be a fantastic publisher, a similar approach to what we did with Office.

"We're going to be everywhere, in every platform, so we want to make sure, whether it's PC or mobile or cloud, or the TV, we just want to make sure games are being enjoyed by gamers everywhere."

"Second, we also want to do innovative work on the system side, on the console and on the PC. It's kind of funny that people think about the console and the PC as two different things. We built the console because we wanted to build a better PC, which could then perform for gaming.

"So I kind of want to revisit some of that conventional wisdom, but at the end of the day, console has an experience that is unparalleled, it delivers performance that's unparalleled, that I think pushes the system forward. I'm very much looking forward to the next console, the next PC gaming, but most importantly, the game business model has to be where we have to invent some new interactive media as well.

"Because, after all, gaming's competition is not gaming; gaming's competition is short-form video. So if we as an industry don't continue to innovate, both how we produce and what we produce, how we think about distribution...the economic model, right--the best way to innovative is to have good margins, because that's the way you can fund."