Microsoft has released their third quarter earning report today and many things are coming up positive as far as Xbox is concerned.
Overall gaming revenue is up 5%, in large part thanks to Call Of Duty Black Ops 6 and growth jn Game Pass. Their content and services division was up 8% year-over-year. The one decline, as expected, was with hardware. Hardware saw a decline of 6% year-over-year, which may be smaller than many had expected. As this generation runs its course, and Xbox's play anywhere campaign I'd expect hardware to continue to decline.
What this all means is a record third quarter for the Xbox division. We will likely hear more information when the investor's call takes place shortly, but no matter how you look at it this is solid news for the brand overall.
The quarter saw the release of Avowed, the latest from Obsidian games. While it came out to a fairly positive reception we haven't heard much in terms of performance since. Perhaps we will shortly.
Looking ahead the 4th quarter will be a busy one for the company with South Of Midnight, Oblivion Remastered and the upcoming Doom: The Dark Ages. Additionally the PlayStation releases of Forza Horizon 5, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Age Of Mythology: Untold.
PC Game Pass Sees Huge Growth
During the investors call Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella offered more insight into how the Xbox side of the business was doing including major growth from PC Game Pass, up a whopping 45% year-over-year as well as another interesting tidbit.
"We ended the quarter as the top publisher by preorders and preinstalls on both Xbox and PlayStation Store," Nadella said on the company's earnings call. Additionally he revealed "cloud gaming set a new record, surpassing 150 million hours played for the first time this quarter."
The fact that Microsoft is the biggest publisher for preorders and preinstalls on both Xbox and PlayStation is interesting and likely means they are happy with the direction to put games on PlayStation.
