Games revenue at software giant Microsoft has dipped for the three months between July 1st and September 30th, 2019.

That's according to the company's financial report for the first quarter of the 2019/20 fiscal year, during which the Xbox firm saw a seven per cent decline in revenue from its games department year-on-year. The company says this is driven by lower console sales due to the end of the console cycle with new hardware set to launch next year.

Revenue from is content and services business in games - Xbox Live, Game Pass, Games in Gold and so on - were flat year-on-year, meaning that Microsoft 's business is actually more healthy than it appears.

During Q2, Microsoft says that games revenue is set to decline between mid-20 per cent year-on-year as console demand for Xbox hardware dries up ahead of the next generation.

Speaking to investors - as reported by Seeking Alpha - CEO Satya Nadella (pictured) said that Microsoft had seen "record" Xbox Live monthly active users for Xbox Live, which is curious given that the Big M has opted to not report its user figures now as it has in previous quarters. At last count, Microsoft boasted 65m monthly users - that was during the last quarter.