Microsoft has responded to comments made by company founder Bill Gates in which he suggested he'd support the decision to spin-off the Xbox business, explaining he was just voicing his support for new CEO Satya Nadella.

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In an interview with Fox Business , Gates disputed the notion that spinning off the Xbox business would be "obvious", explaining Microsoft follows a unified gaming strategy."We're taking PC gaming and Xbox gaming and bringing those a lot closer together," he said. "The power of the graphics chips means you can do great games there."So I'm sure Satya and the team will look at that. It's up to them. We're going to have an overall gaming strategy so it's not as obvious as you might think."Gates was then asked if he'd support new CEO Satya Nadella if the decision was made to spin-off Xbox, to which he replied "absolutely". While some have taken the quote as evidence Gates believes Microsoft should indeed spin the console gaming division out, the company has now responded to explain Gates was simply voicing his support for the new CEO.The comments "were reflective of [Gates'] support of Satya as CEO," according to communications chief Frank Shaw, who told Eurogamer that "Microsoft is committed to gaming across multiple platforms with Xbox as the centerpiece of our gaming strategy. We remain committed to Xbox and the millions of Xbox fans around the world."When Nadella took over as CEO in February , there was significant speculation he'd spin the Xbox business out as he'd previously made comments to that effect. Given the reorganisation of the division under the leadership of Phil Spencer , however, it seems Microsoft is planning to hang onto it, for now at least.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK News Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on Twitter