Whilst not unexpected towards the end of a console generation, the latest figures out of Microsoft’s financials make for some grim reading, as Microsoft confirm revenue is down 21% year over year at the close of the 2nd Quarter of 2020.
As you would expect, Microsoft have pointed a finger at slowing hardware sales and a moderately unfair comparison to an unusually strong Q2, driven by an as of yet unnamed 3rd party game (we’d hazard a guess at Fortnite and RDR2 here!)
The TL;DR version:
Software and Services Revenue is down 11%
Hardware Revenue is down 43%
Overall Gaming related Revenue is down 21%
Subscriptions are up! (No numbers provided)
On the plus side, growth in subscription services (Hello there Xbox Game Pass!) apparently made the decline a little less brutal, though of course, Xbox continue to remain tight-lipped regarding actual subscriber numbers – the only hint we’ve had is from Satya Nadella himself who advised that Game Pass Subscriptions have doubled and they’ve set a new record for Xbox Live Monthly Active Users (MAU) – though no specific numbers were revealed. In addition, the XCloud Beta is off to a great start – “Hundreds of thousands of users”.
Of course, all eyes on the Xbox Team this year with the imminent release of Series X this Holiday Season – and will we finally get some solid subscriber numbers for Game Pass at E3?
We’ll see!
