The wave of layoffs that was recently announced at Microsoft suggested results at half mast for the manufacturer for this second quarter of the current fiscal year. The latest financial statement of the company was published overnight and it is mainly on the side of the division Xbox that our eyes were cast, to find that the gaming branch of Microsoft also shows, and unsurprisingly, declining figures.
The lack of big releases is felt
This is not the time for champagne at Phil Spencer and his teams, but the results posted today should surprise no one, even less the first concerned. Revenue from console sales fell 13%, while services fell 12%which is justified by Microsoft by a particularly strong previous year which had made it possible to record a net increase (in particular with the releases of Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5). The Verge reports that in total, the Xbox division is down 13% in revenue recorded from year to year. This is also explained by the lack of big releases during the year 2022, and Microsoft expects the numbers to continue to decline for the next quarter.
However, Microsoft argues that Xbox Game Pass continues to be popular and on the rise. If the company does not give new figures (which were around 25 million last year), it claims that registrations for the service continue to climb, while it claims to have recorded a record with nearly 120 million players. and active players taking into account its entire ecosystem.
The Xbox and Bethesda Softworks Developer_Direct will therefore be keen to show that Xbox can count on strong titles later this year, with a view to reversing these results.