Yesterday, Microsoft shared their latest financial report, and the picture wasn’t all that pretty for the gaming division, which saw revenues go down- something that Microsoft are undoubtedly desperately hoping will change with the Xbox One S and the Xbox One Scorpio’s release. However, even with that drop-off, it sounds like the company is satisfied with its position in gaming.
“We continue to drive growth in gaming, by connecting fans on Xbox Live across Windows 10, iOS and Android,” CEO Satya Nadella said during the financial report conference call yesterday (via DualShockers). “Just this quarter we launched our Minecraft Realms subscription on Android and iOS. Overall Engagement on Xbox Live is at record levels, with more than 49 million monthly active users, up 33% year over year.
“At E3 we announced our biggest line-up of exclusive games ever for Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs, and we announced Xbox Play Anywhere titles, where gamers can buy a game once, and play it on both Windows 10 PCs and Xbox One. We also announced two new members of the Xbox One consoles family, the Xbox One S and Project Scorpio.”
I want to say that Microsoft’s Xbox Anywhere initiative, as well as Xbox Scorpio, are definitely bold and progressive in their vision- but at the same time, are Microsoft really driving growth in gaming any more? The console market is dominated by PlayStation, the most successful and valuable IPs in the world are owned by Nintendo, and they have no control over iOS and Android, which are the most successful gaming platforms in the world. Xbox Live is successful, yes, and it is good that it has opened up to so many platforms- but its reach is limited by the other factors mentioned above.
That said, I hope Microsoft can rebound- this market is best when Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are evenly matched and duking it out, like they did last generation.
