As always, do not look for the slightest indication of profitability in these few statistics, Microsoft does not reveal anything about the profits (or losses) associated with video games. Everything therefore rests on the turnover, which reached 3.6 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2024. Although down 4%, this turnover remains the second best result in the history of Xbox for a quarter January – March. Over the first nine months of its fiscal year (Microsoft ends its fiscal year at the end of June), Xbox’s turnover reached 11.97 billion dollars (against 12.77 billion at the same stage a year earlier).
Main reason for the drop in turnover, the collapse of the hardware segment which fell by 30% due to a lower number of consoles sold. Over the quarter, the hardware segment came out at $500 million, making it its worst performance at this time of year since the launch of the Xbox Series. Management is pointing the finger at a drop in inventory, so the question is why Sony has been solving theirs for months and not Microsoft.
Le Xbox Game Pass progresse
Good point, on the other hand, sales of games, content and services have held up better than in the forecasts of Microsoft, which also anticipated a drop in this segment. It is finally up 3% thanks in particular to the growth of Game Pass subscriptions, which represent close to a billion dollars over the quarter. An interesting new statistic which does not prevent us from recalling that Microsoft has not taken stock of the number of subscribers since January 2022 (25 million). Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer revealed last October that Game Pass growth had slowed on consoles and the real room for improvement was on PC. All platforms combined, the CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, evokes in any case a record number of users for a quarter January – March.
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