As part of a financial report for the third quarter, Microsoft’s Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella expressed the company’s views on the gaming industry and how they hope to expand their stake in the market. Nadella stated that, the “vibrancy of the Xbox Live network” was one of the biggest changes that have happened in the company.
Nadella also spoke about eSports and streaming. “We have high expectations for our gaming business to bring more people to more Microsoft experiences and broaden our engagement and usage scenarios. This means fundamentally rethinking how we measure progress in gaming. While we continue to innovate across the console, PC and live services, we see substantial additional opportunities across eSports and streaming. At 20% this quarter, our software and services revenue growth reflects the early-stage potential of this larger opportunity”.
In the current quarter, the company expects revenue growth thanks to the launch of the Xbox One X, according to Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood. It remains to be seen how much of a success the high-end console will be. Hood also spoke about various software services such as Mixer and Xbox game pass, both of which have been showing “promising early results”.
As of now, Microsoft seems to targeting a diverse population of gamers with its focus of cross-platforming and backwards compatibility. Nadella stated that the goal is to a have a “Netflix for games,” with the gaming service being enabled across different platforms.