It’s what you’d expect. Xbox Series consoles are five years old, cost more than they did at launch, Microsoft is producing less consoles because they cost more to make, and everyone is holding their breath for next gen with executives having now said multiple times in multiple places that this generation is essentially over and Xbox is looking forward to the next one.
And I’m assuming the ROG Xbox Ally goes into the Windows OEM revenue pool and not Xbox hardware pool. It’s great that they said it did better than expected, and that they saw more PC gamers than ever. That’s probably exactly what they were looking for, so I imagine they’re working on ways to do more OEMs (like maybe a gaming desktop or laptop PC) and rollout the Xbox Full screen experience. Xbox content and services growing despite a projected decline also seems significant. I really wouldn’t have expected people to be spending more on a hobby in the current economic climate. I wonder if this also is post the announced GPU price increase, in which case that mass cancelation was probably more smoke and mirrors from Microsoft’s perspective. Or who knows, maybe it’ll be down massively next quarter driven by a decline in Game Pass subscriptions.
Also: critically acclaimed games like Keeper Ninja Guide and Four and Outer Worlds Two
I think the autocorrect bug bit ya’ll here.
Yeah, cooking dinner while doing all this. It’s been fixed 
Enjoy your dinner (and some through your computer screen to me; I’ll be waiting) 
Only 1% increase? Time to cut more jerbs.
Their guidance, from 3 months ago, was a 7 to 9% decrease because last year was a high 40’s % increase due to the ABK acquisition. Their focus now is on margins far more than growth.
I’m honestly surprised at them for having consecutively grown multiple quarters now following ABK. I had expected Year over Year declines with the comparison being this big massive gains from ABK. I know people worry about Xbox’s oversight post ABK, but at least they are financially healthy. Big acquisitions like that can lead to a lot of long term loss in all the additional operating costs and difficulty in incorporating the new assets once the honeymoon year is over. It’s the thing I find weird about that “Xbox lost 300 million putting COD on Game Pass.” okay, but what does that matter if overall total gaming revenue GREW (and is still growing) compared to when they just absorbed the revenue of ABK as is and COD didn’t launch on Game Pass? As a consumer and gamer we obviously don’t want the same things as shareholders and the for profit business, but at least they’re financially healthy and sticking around. ABK really could’ve bled them badly.
Supposedly, Xbox has never been healthier as a division. Makes the firings that much shittier, but “that’s business”.
That does piss me off though. It’s not just Microsoft, but all the big corporations right now: they are reporting higher earnings than ever and more revenue and profits than ever; however, they are also insisting on mass layoffs to cut percentages of their workforce under the guise that they need to be “leaner in these changing industries and economic conditions.”
Amazon recently announced cutting 14,000 employees across its corporate workforce specifically stating AI and all this despite them having an insane increase in financials. We even got the same stock email of, “we know we’re doing better than ever, but we still have to layoff a bunch of people because reasons.”
It’s really frustrating being a US citizen knowing all the tax breaks these companies get on the promise of “trickle down economics” and yet increasingly more and more money is just being funneled to the richest shareholders. AI might have prospects as a tool, but right now it’s just an excuse for companies to layoff workers for no good financial reason. I don’t even see how this is healthy for the wider economy. More and more wealth is just being pooled into the top percentages and we’re left to pick up the pieces. All this instability and shrinkage in the job market as inflation continues to worsen. Like a who is even going to be left to be consumers spending money keeping the economy going. It honestly feels worrisome too: there’s so much contraction like we’re in a recession, but this is occurring as companies continue to earn more and invest more into everything but human resources.
I don’t like targeting Microsoft/Xbox specifically because I feel like that avoids and perpetuates the issue, but I think there’s a lot of good reason for people to be frustrated right now. It feels like we’re actively moving toward those dystopian speculative fiction stories where the wealth gap has been taken to the absolute extreme.
Not the greatest quarter but not bad either all things considered. Hardware though really seems dead until next gen. We know Sony has a PS5 bundle planned for Black Friday and going by what MS did last year in that period (basically nothing) I expect more declines in the next quarter as well which is somewhat counter to what you’d expect for that period of the year this late in the generation.
My theory on the Xbox console stock is since they are probably tapped out at the factory anyway (no point in manufacturing more with the way things are going) they are keeping them at MSRP with minimal sales till when GTA6 comes out, then probably go all out with sales and whatnot, since the Series S will be the minumum entry point to play that game. Then combine that with FH6 coming to Xbox/PC first then PS5 later, that might move a few consoles for people who cant wait till its on PS5. I wouldnt be surprised if Gears E-Day and Fable are also both “Xbox/PC first then other platforms later”. And then you have rumors that next years CoD will be current gen only, so that might get a few people on PS4/Xbox One to get a Series S/X. So there is a real opportunity to get people onto Xbox with GTA6 and keep them subbed onto Gamepass through the year with FH6/Gears/Halo/Fable/CoD and more etc.
And then some more sales throughout 2027 to clear out stock to make way for the holiday 2027 Nextbox