Bill Gates says he would "absolutely" support the firm's CEO if he wanted to sell Xbox, but the company plays down speculation.

Microsoft has played down comments by Bill Gates in which he said he would "absolutely" support the firm's CEO if he wanted to spin off the Xbox division.

In an interview with Fox Business the company's co-founder initially said selling off the Xbox arm would not be an "obvious" move.

He said: "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."

But when pressed on whether he would support CEO Satya Nadella if he decided to do so he replied "absolutely".

That prompted a statement from the company in which it said Gates' comments were simply "reflective" of his support for Mr Nadella.

Communications chief Frank Shaw told Eurogamer: "As Mr Gates noted, Microsoft is committed to gaming across multiple platforms with Xbox as the centrepiece of our gaming strategy.

"We remain committed to Xbox and the millions of Xbox fans around the world."

Questions have lingered over Xbox's future since November last year when CEO candidate Stephen Elop was reported to be considering selling the Xbox division.

In the latest round of the console wars, Sony's PlayStation 4 has surged ahead of the Xbox One - with figures in late April showing a gap of at least two million sales.

However Xbox recently announced a planned launch in China after a 14-year-old ban on consoles was lifted.

It becomes the first foreign firm to announce the sale of a console since the ban was rescinded in January, and could give it a temporary sales edge.