Microsoft’s gaming revenue was up 5% year over year for the January-March quarter.
The tech company’s gaming-specific sales reached $5.7 billion for the three-month period, up $270 million from the comparable year-ago figures.
Content and services sales increased 8%, which Microsoft attributes to performance across Xbox‘s Game Pass offering (which the company has been promoting more over the past year with Day 1 availability for many of its biggest games) and its “Call of Duty” and “Minecraft” franchises. Hardware revenue, which is made up of sales for Xbox devices, including the Xbox Series X and S consoles, was down 6% total.
“Call of Duty” released its most recent installment, “Black Ops 6,” last fall and “Minecraft” likely benefited somewhat from anticipation for the Jack Black-led “A Minecraft Movie,” which debuted April 4 to big box office numbers. During a call with investors later Wednesday, Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella said that “Minecraft” is seeing 75% increase in weekly active users since the movie released.
The decrease in Xbox’s console sales comes as competitor Nintendo is set to debut its highly anticipated Switch 2 device in June. Similar to PlayStation, Xbox has yet to reveal its own plans for a next-gen console.
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Last year, Xbox committed to releasing some of its exclusive titles, which are usually reserved for Xbox’s own consoles and PCs, on Nintendo and PlayStation devices. The most notable game to be included in that business strategy is the Bethesda Studios-developed “Indiana Jones and the Great Circle,” which debuted on PS5 earlier this month.
Overall, Microsoft posted $70.1 billion revenue for the quarter (up 13%) and a net income of $25.8 billion (up 18%) or earnings per share (EPS) of $3.46. Analysts had predicted $68.4 billion in revenue and EPS of $3.22.
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