Microsoft is currently hosting its quarterly financial conference call for investors and analysts, and chief executive officer Satya Nadella and chief financial officer Amy Hood discussed the Xbox business.
Nadella mentioned that subscribers of PC Game Pass increased 159% year-on-year, while 20 million users have enjoyed Xbox Cloud Gaming to date.
“We are adding new gamers to our ecosystem as we execute our ambition to reach players wherever and whenever they want on any device.
We saw usage growth across all platforms driven by the strength of consoles. PC Game pass subscribers increased 159% year-over-year, and with cloud gaming we’re transforming how games are distributed, played, and viewed. More than 20 million people have used the service to stream games to date and we’re adding support for new devices like handhelds from Logitech and Razer, as well as Meta Quest.
As we look toward the Holidays, we offer the best value in gaming with Game Pass and Xbox Series S. Nearly half of the Series S buyers are new to our ecosystem.”
Hood then mentioned that during the past quarter (between July and September 2022) Xbox console sales performed “better than expected.”
Speaking of the outlook for the current quarter (between October and December 2022). Hood explained that Microsoft predicts that Gaming revenue will decline in the low-to-mid single teens (10-15%) due to a strong prior year comparable that saw the release of several first-party games, partly offset by the growth of Game Pass subscribers.
Xbox Content and services revenue is also expected to decline in the low-to-mid teens.
Incidentally, Hood mentioned that the company still expects the Activision acquisition to close by the end of the fiscal year (June 2023).
If you’re interested in Microsoft’s recent financial performance (especially in regard to the Xbox business) you can check out our dedicated article from earlier today.
