billgatesBill Gates may have voiced support for selling off Microsoft’s Xbox business, but the Redmond giant is making sure customers understand its commitment to the gaming platform.

When asked in an interview with FOX News if he would support a decision to spin off the Xbox arm, Gates replied “absolutely.”

But Microsoft quickly put any PR fires out on Tuesday by noting that Gates was simply voicing support for Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Here are a few tweets from Microsoft’s communications chief Frank Shaw:

Gates, who is now a part-time technology advisor at Microsoft, noted that “we’re taking PC gaming, Windows gaming and Xbox gaming, and bringing those a lot closer together.” He also touched on Bing, saying that he sees it as a “pretty fundamental technology for the company,” and doesn’t see Microsoft spinning off the search engine business.

xboxone2121“The Bing technology has been the key to us learning how to do large scale data centers,” he said. “Bing lets us see what’s going on in the Internet.”

Despite its popularity with millions of gamers, much has been made about Microsoft potentially spinning off its Xbox business. An exec from Vulcan Capital, the investment arm of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, supports the idea. Even Stephen Elop — the Nokia executive who is rejoining Microsoft to head up the devices and services business — has even considered selling off Xbox.

But as we noted earlier this month, Ed Fries, who was the head of Microsoft’s games business during the development and rollout of the original Xbox and beyond, thinks that would be a “foolish” idea to sell off Microsoft’s Xbox arm.

“It’s the biggest, most successful new brand they have created in the last 15 years,” he wrote on a Yabbly AMA. “They should learn from the success of Xbox and create more things like it, not sell it off.”

For now, it appears Microsoft doesn’t have serious plans to let go of Xbox. New Xbox head Phil Spencer said last month on Twitter that Microsoft is “very committed” to Xbox for the long haul, and that Nadella has been a “good supporter” of Microsoft’s Game Studios and Xbox team.

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.