Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer recently told a reporter that he considers PlayStation 5 and Switch users as part of the Xbox community. He made this remark in reference to Activision Blizzard games on non-Microsoft platforms.
25.10.2023 - 13:43 / gamespot.com / Phil Spencer / Satya Nadella
Hardware sales might be down, but Starfield, cloud services, and other software divisions drove huge growth for Microsoft.
By Darryn Bonthuys on
Business is booming at Microsoft, as the company has just posted the first quarter (July to September 2023) of its 2024 fiscal financial results. While there have been a few misses, overall, revenue is up 13% and net income has seen a 27% increase thanks in part to Microsoft's cloud services, OEM revenue, and the Xbox division that recorded its highest-ever Q1 and biggest non-holiday quarter overall.
On the gaming side, Xbox hardware revenue declined 7% even with the launch of a new Xbox Series S console that increased the available storage capacity on that device from 512GB to 1TB. The good news here is that Xbox content and services revenue rose by 13% and overall gaming revenue is also up 9%. While Game Pass numbers still aren't being shared by Microsoft, it looks like the subscription service is still on the rise.
The last big update from Microsoft about Game Pass was back in January 2022 when the company announced that it had grown to 25 million subscribers, and with 2023 seeing the launch of games like Starfield, those numbers have contributed to the Game Pass gains.
«On launch, we set a record for the most Game Pass subscriptions added on a single day ever,» Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said (via The Verge) about Starfield's arrival on that platform. More than 11 million people have played the game so far, and the PC version accounts for around half the hours spent in Bethesda's sci-fi adventure.
With the acquisition of Activision Blizzard now finalized, Microsoft can also focus on growing the PC Game Pass subscription base as back in October Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer admitted that the console subscriptions have begun to slow down.
Overall, Microsoft made $56.5 billion in revenue and recorded a net income of $22.3 billion during Q1. Other highlights--and a few lowlights--from the financial results include:
The next couple of months will be interesting for Microsoft in the wake of its Activision Blizzard acquisition. Gaming revenue is expected to increase dramatically according to CFO Amy Hood, now that Microsoft owns the Call of Duty franchise and the lucrative mobile games developed by King as part of this deal that took almost two years to be completed.
Microsoft expects to see a mid to high 40% growth in overall gaming revenue and a mid to high 50% increase in Xbox content and services in the second quarter of the 2024 financial year.
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Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer recently told a reporter that he considers PlayStation 5 and Switch users as part of the Xbox community. He made this remark in reference to Activision Blizzard games on non-Microsoft platforms.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer has revealed in an interview with Japanese publication Famitsu that he believes PS5 and Nintendo Switch players to also be part of the Xbox family, alongside Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC players.
This is a multi-year partnership.
Xbox head Phil Spencer considers PS5 and Nintendo Switch users part of the overarching Xbox community.
Phil Spencer may have shown up at the BlizzCon 2023 opening ceremony to proclaim that "the future of Blizzard is brighter than ever", but the CEO of Microsoft Gaming isn't quite ready to get into the details. The ink has barely dried on the Xbox acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and there's no doubt plenty to be worked out behind the scenes. But that isn't to say that key developers at Blizzard aren't excited about the possibilities.
Serious question here: With all of the games that came out in October (seriously, it felt like we had at least a dozen major games releases), was it actually possible for anyone to have played all of them? That’s a question that can easily apply to the whole year, as well — could anyone actually play all (or even most) of the amazing games that came out this year? I mean, the obvious answer is no, unless they’re paid to, but that’s my point. With so many games that came out this year, even a gamer that is excited for and would like to play all of them will have to prioritize certain titles over others, as a form of triage. The reason that’s important is because I fear that some great or even good games haven’t received the fair shake that they should have this year.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer wasn't aware of the changes and is now looking into it.
Most Microsoft employees will soon lose access to a perk of the job that offers them a free Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription.
The shape of Microsoft’s gaming efforts is obviously going to change in significant ways in the coming months and years courtesy of its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and part of that is already being put in motion, starting with the company having reorganized its Xbox leadership team, as reported by The Verge.
Stop for a second and picture your favorite video game developer or publisher. It doesn’t matter their “scale” as long as they’re prominent. More than likely, you can name-drop at least one or two people who are the “faces” of that company. For example, Nintendo has Eiji Aonuma, Shigeru Miyamoto, Doug Bowser, etc. Microsoft has Phil Spencer, Sony has/had Jim Ryan, and on it goes. For Bethesda, they have/had many people who have helped define them over the years for one reason or another. Easily, the one that most people know is Todd Howard. He’s the guy who honestly makes the biggest announcements for the company and helps crank out their best games.
Just a couple of weeks after finishing its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft is making some changes to its Xbox studio structure. In an internal memo acquired by The Verge, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty is being promoted to president of game content and studios, a role that will put him in charge of ZeniMax and its subsidiary studios, including Bethesda Softworks.
Microsoft has announced some pretty significant leadership and organizational changes in the gaming segment today, as reported by The Verge.