Today Microsoft hosted its quarterly financial conference call for investors and analysts: Chief executive officer Satya Nadella and chief financial officer Amy Hood talked about the Xbox business.
Nadella talked about Xbox Game Pass, the acquisition of Bethesda, the success of Minecraft, and even the “vibrant” third-party market in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
“We’re growing our opportunity as we help both gamers and creators play, connect, and create among communities on any device.
People are turning to Xbox more than ever to play and chat with friends and we saw record engagement this quarter led by the strength on and off consoles.
With Game Pass we’re redefining how games are played, distributed and viewed. Just last week we added cloud gaming via the browser expanding our reach across PC and mobile.
Content is the flywheel behind the service’s growth and upon the closing of our acquisition of Zenimax Media this quarter, we made 20 of the world’s most iconic and beloved games accessible via Game Pass with more to come.
As games evolve into metaverse economies, to help anyone sell creations on our platforms. Minecraft is nearly 140 million monthly active users up 30% year-over-year, making one of the leading platforms in the creators’ economy.
Creators have generated over 350 million for more than one billion downloads of mods, addons, and other experiences in Minecraft. This is not counting and including activity outside of our marketplace.
We’re also seeing a vibrant marketplace emerge in Flight Simulator, with partners now able to sell content directly within the game.”
Later in the call, Hood mentioned that demand “significantly exceeded supply” for Xbox Series X and S in the past quarter. She also added that the quarterly performance of the gaming business was “better than expected.”
Speaking of the prediction for the next quarter, Hood explained that Microsoft expects gaming revenue growth year-on-year in the mid-to-high single digits (5-9%), and “significant demand for the Xbox Series X and S will continue to be constrained by supply.”
That being said, the company expects Xbox Content and Services revenue to decline in the mid-to-high single digits (5-9%) due to the comparison with the strong performance in the same quarter last year.
If you’re interested in Microsoft’s financial performance (especially in regard to the Xbox business) you can check out our dedicated article from earlier today.
Published: Apr 27, 2021 06:16 pm