Microsoft’s quarterly earnings for the primary quarter of fiscal yr 2022 are up, they usually’ve obtained some modestly excellent news for the state of its video game-related financials.
For the 3-month interval ending September 30 2021, Microsoft reported a 16 % improve in “gaming income” from Q1 2020. Should you dig via the outcomes, you will discover that was a rise of $501 million in gaming income.
The corporate additionally noticed a lift in Xbox {Hardware} income, which grew 166 % from the identical quarter final yr. (In fact, throughout this identical quarter final yr, the Xbox Sequence X|S had not been launched but).
Xbox content material and companies income was slower to develop nevertheless. That income stream solely grew 2 % over the identical time interval. Microsoft described this as a “robust prior yr comparable, with development in Xbox Sport Go subscriptions and first-party titles partially offset by declines from third-party titles.”
“Robust prior yr comparable” appears to be a nod to the worldwide spike in online game income that occurred through the COVID-19 pandemic’s early months, and a decline in third-party titles may be tied to the variety of massive sport releases that have been delayed out of 2022 by a number of publishers.
We did be taught not too long ago that whereas Xbox Sport Go is pulling in increasingly subscribers, the corporate did fall wanting its goal of 48 % development for the 12-month interval ending June 30 2021. It had solely managed to develop 37 % in that point interval.
Nonetheless, Microsoft’s non-gaming efforts helped increase the corporate’s Q1 income to $45.3 billion (it was $37.1 billion final yr). Its revenue for the quarter clocked in at $20.5 billion, a notable year-over-year improve from the $13.8 billion in revenue it earned in Q1 2021.
