The latest financials from Microsoft are out with some interesting insight into how the company’s games business is performing.
In the subsequent earnings call, the firm’s CEO Satya Nadella says that monthly active users across its entire games ecosystem - Windows 10, Xbox One and mobile - reached has reached 53m. That’s a 13 per cent increase from last year’s 47m. The exec boasts that the likes of unified subscription service Game Pass and streaming service Mixer will help boost this figure in the future.
Revenue from games grew one per cent - but was flat in constant currency - while money generated from software and services rose 21 per cent.
Meanwhile, Windows 10 commercial monthly active devices grew 90 per cent year-on-year.
“We are mobilising to pursue our expansive opportunity in the $100 billion plus gaming industry, broadening our approach to how we think about gaming end-to-end – from the way games are created and distributed to how they are played and viewed,” Nadella said.
“We will continue to connect our gaming assets across PC, console and mobile, and work to grow and engage the more than 53 million Xbox Live member network more deeply and frequently with new services like Game Pass and Mixer. And we’re a few days away from launching the Xbox One X, the most technically advanced and powerful console ever built.
“Moreover, we have high expectations for our gaming business to bring more people to more Microsoft experiences and broaden our engagement and usage scenarios. This means fundamentally rethinking how we measure progress in gaming. While we continue to innovate across console, PC and Xbox Live services, we see substantial additional opportunities across eSports and streaming. At 20 percent this quarter, our software and services revenue growth reflects the early stage potential of this larger opportunity.
“We also see opportunity to empower developers who work on console, PC and mobile games to use our cloud infrastructure and services to enhance their game-play and community. Gaming pushes the boundaries of hardware and software innovation with some of the most CPU and GPU-intensive applications and content, giving us a huge opportunity in the cloud. As one example, Pub-G Corp with the hit game Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, is not only partnering to make Xbox the exclusive console at launch but is also running on Azure.”
