Microsoft’s earnings report for Q3 2023 provided some pretty interesting insights into the state of the Xbox brand. Sad to say, the news was not good for Xbox, with hardware sales down a whopping 30% compared to Q3 last year.
Microsoft claimed that the dip was attributable to last year benefiting from “increased console supply.”
Meanwhile, gaming revenue on the whole was down 4% over last year’s third quarter. Although, interestingly, Xbox content and services revenue was up 3%, with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealing that game subscription revenue reached nearly $1 billion in the quarter. The number is partly attributable to the fact that Game Pass was recently expanded to a total of 40 countries.
Overall Microsoft say 7% growth company-wide with a total revenue of $52.9 billion, largely due to Microsoft Cloud accounting for around half of that. As Nadella stated in the Q3 earnings press release,
Across the Microsoft Cloud, we are the platform of choice to help customers get the most value out of their digital spend and innovate for this next generation of AI.”
Though not reflected in the Q3 earnings report, as the quarter ended on March 31st, Microsoft’s stock climbed 7% in the wake of the CMA’s decision to block the Activision Blizzard deal, with many feeling that shareholders have actually dodged a bullet.
