It appears that Xbox's new shift into being more of a software company than a console-selling company might have been the right call, as the latest earnings figures show that Microsoft's overall gaming revenue rose by 10% last quarter.
Microsoft's gaming division earned $5.5 billion between April and June this year, compared to $5 billion the year before. This is despite hardware sales being down by 22%. Content and services sales increased by 13%, though.
During this quarter, Xbox saw the release of Doom: The Dark Ages, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and South of Midnight, with more first-party releases coming to other platforms and third-party games driving up hype for Game Pass like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
"When it comes to gaming, we have 500 million monthly active users across platforms and devices," said Microsoft CEO and chairman Satya Nadella in an earnings call (via Variety). "We are now the top publisher on both Xbox and PlayStation this quarter with successful launches of Forza Horizon 5 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered...We surpassed over 500 million hours of gameplay stream via the Cloud this year, and Game Pass annual revenue was nearly $5 billion for the first time."
Xbox also saw mass layoffs recently, with Microsoft laying off around 9,000 employees total as the company largely continues its focus on AI-based solutions.