During Microsoft’s quarterly financial conference call for investors and analysts, Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella and Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood talked about the company’s gaming business.
Nadella started with an overview of the gaming segment, mentioning that Microsofts aw record Xbox Live Monthly Active users on all platforms.
He also added that Minecraft is “stronger than ever” with record revenue and usage.
“In Gaming, we’re investing in content, community, and cloud services to expand our opportunity with two billion gamers worldwide.
We saw record Xbox Live Monthly Active Users with strength on and off consoles with mobile and PC and continued growth for game pass subscription.
Gears 5 saw more than three million players in its first weekend alone. Ten years in Minecraft is stronger than ever with record revenue and usage, and we’re bringing the franchise to new audiences with Minecraft Earth.
Finally, just last week we started trials of Project xCloud so that players can play games wherever and whenever they want, on any device.”
During her results report, Hood added that monetization of third-party games was lower than expected this quarter.
He also explained that while revenue of the Xbox Content and Services segment of the business was relatively unchanged compared to last year, it was held up by growth from Minecraft, Gears 5, and Game Pass subscriptions.
She then provided the guidance for the gaming business in the current quarter (which will end on December 31).
“And in gaming, we expect revenue to decline in the mid 20% range driven by lower console sales as we near the end of this generation, as well as the most challenging quarterly comparable in third-party titles from last year.”
If you want to hear more about Microsoft’s latest financial results and the performance of its gaming business, you can check out our dedicated article from earlier today.
