Microsoft had to shoot down rumors about selling Xbox after The Information reported that several private equity firms had spent recent months exploring a purchase of the company's gaming division for between $100 and $150 billion. The brands included in those discussions were Minecraft, along with Call of Duty, Diablo and The Elder Scrolls. A Microsoft spokesperson, quoted by The Information, replied briefly: "Xbox is not for sale."

What The Information's report actually revealed

According to the report, the talks were purely preliminary and never turned into formal negotiations with Microsoft. The interested parties, whose identities haven't been disclosed, considered a buyout of the Redmond giant's gaming division, valuing it at $100 to $150 billion. That range would put a potential deal among the largest in the history of the entertainment industry.

For comparison, the top end of that valuation is almost three times the $55 billion Microsoft paid for Electronic Arts in August 2026. It shows how much value analysts and investors now attach to the Xbox brand, even though console hardware itself hasn't been the main profit driver of this segment for years.

Minecraft as one of the crown jewels

The reports on the potential buyout explicitly name the brands Microsoft controls within the Xbox ecosystem: Call of Duty, Minecraft, Diablo and The Elder Scrolls. It's a reminder of how much value the game created by Mojang still brings to Microsoft's entire gaming portfolio. Microsoft bought Mojang and the rights to Minecraft in 2014 for $2.5 billion, and a decade later that looks like one of the most profitable investments in the history of the games industry.

To put the scale in perspective: the Activision Blizzard acquisition, announced in 2022 and closed in October 2023, cost Microsoft $68.7 billion. The hypothetical $100-150 billion valuation of Xbox alone shows how much brands like Minecraft and Call of Duty weigh in the eyes of potential investors, even without counting future revenue from Game Pass or hardware sales.

How Microsoft responded to the rumors

The company's reaction was unambiguous. When The Information contacted Microsoft about the reports, a company spokesperson answered plainly: "Xbox is not for sale." That position was also confirmed earlier by the head of the division, Asha Sharma, who assured that there are no plans to sell the brand.

It's worth separating two things: investor interest in a potential purchase doesn't mean Microsoft was looking for a buyer, accepted any offer or agreed to talks. According to the reports, formal negotiations never happened, and the discussions fizzled out without turning into a concrete deal proposal. No changes have been announced regarding Game Pass, console support or upcoming game releases either.

The financial context of the gaming division

The buyout rumors come at a time when Xbox's financial results aren't clearly positive. Revenue from Microsoft's gaming segment in fiscal year 2026 came to $21.79 billion, a 7% drop from the previous year, while sales of console hardware alone fell by 29%. Those numbers explain why some investors see the gaming division as an asset that could be better managed or restructured outside the structure of a huge tech conglomerate.

At the same time, the value of the brands in the portfolio, including Minecraft, which regularly sits at the top of lists of the world's most popular games, offsets those declines in the eyes of market analysts. The game, developed for years by Mojang in Sweden, still generates steady revenue from the Marketplace, Realms and sales of the base game on Java and Bedrock.

What this means for Polish players

For players in Poland who play Minecraft on either Java Edition or Bedrock Edition, the reports of a potential Xbox buyout remain purely speculative for now and don't affect how the game runs day to day, its servers, or the ongoing development of future updates. Microsoft has firmly denied any plans to sell, and the lack of formal negotiations means the topic could fade at any moment with no consequences for the Minecraft ecosystem.

History shows, however, that big gaming brands are regularly the subject of similar speculation, especially when valuations reach levels comparable to the industry's biggest deals, like the $55 billion EA purchase or the $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition. Whether the topic returns in the coming months depends on whether any of the anonymous firms decides to move from preliminary talks to a concrete offer.

Sources