Yesterday the company published its financial figures for its first quarter up to 30th September. Gaming revenue has overall grown “slightly”, while Xbox content and services revenue dropped by 3 percent due to declines in first and third-party content. However, that decline was “partially offset” by growth in Game Pass subscriptions - Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated that “more than 20 million people have used the service to stream games to date”.
On PC specifically, Game Pass subscriptions have increased 159 percent year over year. Nadella added: “As we look towards the holidays, we offer the best value in gaming, with Game Pass, and Xbox Series S. Nearly half of the Series S buyers are new to our ecosystem”. As independent analyst DomsPlaying noted on Twitter (thanks VGC), Xbox revenue has increased by 0.47 percent year on year for a total of $3.61bn in Q1. That makes this Microsoft’s best Q1 to date for gaming.
Earlier this month, Microsoft laid off hundreds of staff due to “structural adjustments”. That’s despite its proposed $68bn buyout of Activision Blizzard that’s under scrutiny.
