This could be good news or bad news depending on how you look at it, not sure if spinning Xbox off would leave it better off financially since apparently MS are constantly flushing millions on the brand. Its always nice to have a larger company behind to spread costs.
Advertising campaigns would likely diminish, buying 3rd party exclusives would likely go down the tube. Moneyhatting EA would hopefully back-off.
The benefits though could be a well directed enthusiastic platform for gamers, without corporate pollution and the 'gimped' hardware. if they can open some more studios and run them as a business, it might not be so bad. Perhaps the brand is worse off than we think since this story keeps coming back, now with the Don commenting on it.
I have fallen completely out of favor with xbox since their direction as a jack of all trades, master of none, E3 and Don Mattrick's implosion (albeit it has improved with Phil Spencer) - Would like to see an honest Xbox return with a better gaming vision, perhaps funded by Amazon or the like.