Overall Microsoft managed to achieve good numbers in the last quarter of 2021/2022. However, a decline can be observed on the games side.
On the one hand, Sony has revealed the figures of its activity that took part from April to June 2022, that is, from the first quarter of this fiscal year. Microsoft did the same, a few days before, for a similar period. However, unlike its competitor, this was the last part of its fiscal year. 2021/2022.
So in the fourth quarter, which ended in June 2022, the U.S. company saw its sales increase by 12 percent. However, the result is a little less than the 18% expected. And, in this finding, we observe a downward movement for everything related to video games, just like what the Japanese firm has achieved.
Games on the decline?
Indeed, as far as the sale of games is concernedXbox suffered a 7% drop. This corresponds to a drop of more than 259 million dollars. On the services side, the situation is not much better: the revenues generated by the brand were 6% lower than before. This was explained by “a decrease in engagement and monetization in first and third party titles”. However, as stated, the number of Xbox Game Pass subscriptions has increased. By how much? The figures have not been communicated…
However, what is known is that the partnership with Epic, has allowed to welcome a certain audience. More than 4 million players were able to use its Cloud Gaming to access Fortniteincluding 1 million newcomers to the Xbox ecosystem.
Console sales quite favorable?
Hardware-wise, we won’t expect to see things improve. Sales have indeed been 11% lower than the previous quarter. However, CEO Satya Nadella claims that the Xbox Series X/S has seen far better sales than its main competitor, the PS5. So this would not be unrelated to the shortage that affects the industry. The Xbox Series, and especially the S, would have a certain advantage over Sony’s machine, whose accessibility is much less.
Anyway, from what Nadella said, the Xbox Series is selling much better than the previous Xbox machines did in the same period. For example, in North America, it seems that it is the best-selling machine on the market, and this for at least three quarters. And, as we noted a few weeks ago, it also enjoys a rather lenient view on Japanese soil where the number of sales has already exceeded those of the Xbox One. But here again, in both cases, let’s not forget the context.
Mixed results then. But if the last quarter is a bit slow, the fiscal year as a whole is rather favorable for Xbox. The American firm is indeed with a record turnover of 16 billion dollars. Previously, in the year 2021, it was about 15 billion.
However, for the new quarter that has just begun, losses are still expected. And, this is expected to be the case for the rest of the year, the fault in particular for the lack of first-party licenses, Starfield, for example, is pushed back to the year 2023. On the Game Pass side, forecasts estimate a further increase in subscriptions.
