Microsoft
recently
released
its
quarterly
earnings,
revealing
that
its
gaming
revenue
is
soaring
and
that
Xbox
games
are
doing
fantastic
on
PlayStation.
According
to
Microsoft,
gaming
revenue
was
up
a
staggering
51%
year-over-year
to
a
record
setting
$5.45
billion.
Unsurprisingly,
its
the
new
addition
of
Activision-Blizzard
that
Microsoft
attributes
this
success
too,
saying
that
the
company,
which
Microsoft
finally
acquired
in
October
last
year,
made
55
points
of
net
impact.
Advertisements
That’s
not
all
because
Xbox
content
and
services
also
saw
a
massive
boost
of
62%
thanks
to
a
61
point
net
boost
from
Activision-Blizzard.
While
these
dramatic
boosts
in
numbers
look
amazing,
they
aren’t
actually
very
surprising.
These
statistics
are
all
being
compared
to
the
same
time
last
when
Activision-Blizzard
did
not
fall
under
Microsoft’s
umbrella,
and
thus
all
of
that
Call
of
Duty,
World
of
Warcraft,
Diablo
and
Overwatch
money
wasn’t
counted.
Activision-Blizzard
is
a
huge
company
that
sells
millions
and
millions
of
games
every
game,
so
Microsoft’s
acquisition
of
it
was
always
going
to
result
in
a
revenue
spike.
The
only
question
was
by
exactly
how
much.
Microsoft
CEO
Satya
Nadella
highlighted
the
success
of
Diablo
4
coming
to
Game
Pass,
stating
that
people
played
over
10
million
hours
within
the
first
ten
days
“making
it
one
of
our
biggest
first
party
Game
Pass
launches
ever”.
We
previously
learned
that
Xbox
does
intend
on
also
releasing
the
Call
of
Duty
games
on
Game
Pass.
That
includes
new
Call
of
Duty
games
launching
straight
onto
the
service
as
well.
This
will
undoubtedly
be
a
large
part
of
why
Microsoft
expects
growth
in
the
mid-40s
for
Q4.
It
was
also
confirmed
that
Q3
set
records
for
game
streaming
hours,
console
usage
and
monthly
active
devices.
However,
Microsoft
did
not
release
any
hard
numbers,
nor
has
it
given
any
update
on
Game
Pass
subscribers
numbers,
a
fact
which
continues
to
be
very
suspicious
given
how
much
Xbox
has
based
its
business
plan
on
the
service.
Overall,
Activision-Blizzard’s
impact
was
reported
to
amount
to
$1.97
billion.
Microsoft
bought
the
company
for
just
under
a
mind-melting
$69
billion.
Nice.
During
the
earnings
call,
CEO
Satya
Nadella
also
took
a
moment
to
discuss
the
success
Xbox
games
are
having
on
PlayStation,
pointing
out
that
earlier
this
month
Microsoft
had
7
of
its
games
on
PlayStation’s
top
25
games
list.
“Finally,
we
are
expanding
our
games
to
new
platforms,
bringing
four
of
our
fan-favorite
titles
to
Nintendo
Switch
and
Sony
PlayStation
for
the
first
time.
In
fact,
earlier
this
month,
we
had
seven
games
among
the
top
25
on
the
PlayStation
store
more
than
any
other
publisher.”
“We
are
committed
to
meeting
players
where
they
are
by
bringing
great
games
to
more
people
on
more
devices”,
Nadella
also
said,
continuing
Microsoft’s
slightly
muddled
messaging
about
their
future
plans
in
regards
to
more
games
going
multiplatform.
It
wasn’t
all
good
news
for
Xbox
though,
as
Microsoft
also
reported
a
significant
31%
decline
in
hardware
revenue.
That’s
the
largest
drop
since
the
Series
S
launched.
Typically
the
company
has
seen
drops
in
the
7-13%
range,
although
there
was
a
30%
drop
in
January
to
March
in
2023.
Of
course,
hardware
sales
do
decrease
as
the
console
gets
older,
but
31%
is
an
unusually
high
dip.
