Can Microsoft become the Netflix of gaming?

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Editor's note: Before I start this edition of Oversize, let me jog your memory a bit. It was the spring of 2014 and everyone was wondering if Microsoft would sell off its Xbox division, which had been losing money and seemed out of place for a company selling software to businesses. When Satya Nadella took charge of the company in February that year, The Washington Post had reported that the new CEO faced tough choices on the company’s path forward as two influential shareholders wanted Microsoft to abandon its “non-essential product lines” to focus on selling enterprise software to businesses, something Nadella was doing before taking over as the chief executive. At the time, Microsoft’s Windows division was facing shrinking profits, including a $900 million loss on unsold Surface tablets. The online services division, which oversaw Bing, was still in the red. And Nadella did pull the plug on Windows phones. However, at the inaugural CODE Conference later that year, Nadella indicated that he had no intention of divesting the Xbox division. Still, some rumblings among investors and analysts continued because even …