XBOX CEO Asha Sharma recently discussed the company’s PC plans at a town hall meeting, noting that Battle.net’s retention is nearly as strong as Steam’s, the wish to serve a billion Windows PCs and more.
Players were informed about some information related to the town hall meeting yesterday, with Asha Sharma stating Project Helix is a family of devices, mentioning that Xbox has begun a “return to growth” in regards to first-party titles and more. It looks like Sharma discussed even more topics (thanks Windows Central), with plans for PC being one of the main focuses.
XBOX CEO Says Battle.net’s Retention is ‘Nearly as Good as Steam’s
A report from Windows Central provides additional insights from the Xbox CEO during a recent town hall meeting. Asha Sharma first discussed the company’s previously limited strategy, emphasizing that they had a “one-shot approach” with only a single app for the platform and minimal efforts on PC.
She also highlighted the audience that Battle.net supports, which they can’t reach “outside of it”. Sharma mentioned that Battle.net’s retention is nearly as strong as Steam’s, despite not investing significant resources in the platform. Hence, the team has decided to put some work behind it in “the right way” for the community, with the platform being a “great” choice for first-party and select third-party games.
XBOX CEO Says Windows App is China’s Number One Store and the Wish to Serve a Billion Windows PCs
Asha Sharma stated the company plans to continue investing in other PC applications if they can reach “distinct audiences.” The Xbox CEO also mentioned a statistic about the Windows App (Microsoft Store), stating that it is the “number one store” in China.
Sharma pointed out that the company has collaborated “across the board,” with an offer going out to 14 million OEMs. Additionally, the company will make more offers through OEMs this fall, and the CEO has also observed “great pre-install work” for World of Warcraft and “great conversion numbers.” Sharma stated, “We will continue to succeed on Windows. There are a billion Windows PCs. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be serving our audiences there.”
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“It Is Simply Very Hard to Work with XBOX”
XBOX CEO Asha Sharma discussed how it is “very hard” for others to work with XBOX right now and the work they are doing to change that. The CEO talks about simplifying targets, moving to a headless partner center, taking the cruft out of our APIs, and making them machine-readable as some of the measures to achieve that.
Moreover, Sharma said the company needs developers to work with them, has to understand their performance, and create tools that can actually help grow their business. She concluded, “There’s a lot we can do here. I’m encouraged by the work happening.”
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