Microsoft officially reported their earnings for the quarter that ended September 30 today, sharing some new info on how the company’s numeous divisions are doing. To say the least, they’re doing really well, thanks to the aggressive push of cloud and enterprise services. But, the gaming division seems to have just floated by in this first fiscal quarter of 2017.
The overall gaming revenue dropped by staggering 5 percent, in numbers, representing a decrease of $110 million from the same exact quarter last year. The downturn was mostly attributed to lower Xbox console sales(despite the recent surge of xbox sales in India), but was significantly helped by much stronger game and Xbox Live service revenue.
To be precise, hardware revenue specifically dropped 26 percent, a downturn that Microsoft primely attributed to the fewer consoles sold (Xbox One and Xbox 360 combined) and the lower prices of the consoles that were sold. Microsoft has stopped sharing hard data about the number of Xbox consoles it sells.
The brighter news for gaming giant was that both the Xbox game sales and the revenue from Xbox Live increased by 6 percent, though a specific dollar figure was never provided. The uptick in the money that was derived from the Xbox Live service was attributed towards more Xbox Live transactions and more revenue per transaction.
Microsoft also officially confirmed that it had around 47 million monthly regular Xbox Live users during the quarter. This is a massive uptick from 39 million during the same period in 2015, but a slight down from the previous quarter’s 49 million. Monthly active users generally means “the number of people who logged into Xbox Live in the past 30 days and it counts not only Xbox One, but also Xbox 360 and PC”.
We are helping to lead a profound digital transformation for customers, infusing intelligence across all of our platforms and experiences, we continue to innovate, grow engagement, and build our total addressable market.
says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
In addition, riding on the back of staggering cloud revenues, Microsoft stock price has surged in after-hours trading. It has managed to peak at $60.63 and break its $59.97 all-time high record from 1999.
