The Xbox results of the Redmond-based technology giant are not entirely positive, Microsoft said in its second quarterly report.
Yes, the second, because their fiscal year does not start on April 1st, but on July 1st. Anyway, it turns out that Microsoft became the largest games publisher in December, but despite this, their games segment is not exactly in a steely position. Although Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was optimistic, there is one serious negative point that we will come to after his comments:
“We are focused on improving the profitability of the business to position it for long-term growth, driven by higher-margin content and platform services. And we are executing on that plan. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was the best-selling game on Xbox and PlayStation this quarter – and saw more players in its launch quarter than any other paid release in the franchise’s history. And we saw rave reviews for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which has already been played by more than 4 million people. We also continue to see strong momentum for Xbox Cloud Gaming, with a record 140 million hours streamed this quarter. Overall, Game Pass set a new quarterly revenue record and grew its PC subscriber base by more than 30% as we focus on driving fully-paid subscribers across all devices,” Nadella said.
The problem is that Xbox’s overall growth is up 2%, but that’s also due to Activision Blizzard King bringing them the new Call of Duty. Their revenue from games is down 7%, and Xbox hardware sales are to blame, down 29%! No wonder Microsoft has started multiplatform releases. Forza Horizon 5 is already in the news today: it’s coming to PlayStation 5!
It’s no wonder that Microsoft is trying to increase the number of Xbox Game Pass subscribers, as this will generate a steady stream of revenue for the company.
