Today Microsoft announced its financial results for the second quarter of the fiscal year 2019, related to the period between Oct. 1, 2018, and Dec. 31, which includes the all-important Holiday season for Xbox.
First of all, we get a renewed look at the performance the More Personal Computing business, that includes the gaming division.
Xbox Live monthly active users were 64 million, up from 57 million quarter-on-qaurter. The whole revenue of the gaming business was $4,232 million.
Gaming revenue increased by 8% year-on-year, Xbox software and services revenue grew by a whopping 31%, primarily driven by a third-party game.
Xbox hardware revenue declined by 19% year-on-year, but we have to keep in mind that last year’s comparable quarter included the Xbox One X launch, so a decline is natural.
Despite the drop in hardware revenue, the overall result is quite positive, which is certainly remarkable.
We also get a general glimpse at the health of the company as a whole. All numbers are firmly in the positive, showing increasing values across the board.
The More Personal Computing business, which includes gaming, was actually the top contributor to revenue for the quarter.
Recently, we heard from Xbox division boss Phil Spencer, which mentioned that the company is sticking with E3, and is injecting PC DNA into Microsoft’s own game studios.
