Xbox Gaming Revenue Up 8% YoY In Latest Earnings Report

Xbox first party had a great year with new releases. They released some of the highest rated games and rightfully so. Some of them were very well polished games during a market where games were rushed to meet deadlines instead of delaying. Xbox took their time with the games, and even added to the budget and delaying games to better them. They wanted to get them right and let the developers make the game they wanted to make. Going forward, I think their studios are only going to release even more impressive games, and I think their revenue is going to reflect that.

Bu-but... Game Pass isn't profitable!!!!!

I’m so happy to see Xbox coming back swinging, even if it is in a different way. GamePass is great ❤️

@BomberBlur07 Don't Worry Buddy WILL BE

Nice to see all the plays they made towards the end of the Xbox One era starting to come pay off.
I can only imagine the numbers when they've got enough studios to be releasing an exclusive every 2-3 months!

@BomberBlur07 it actually probably isn't, especially due to how these numbers are presented (revenue vs. profit). But I would imagine it eventually (maybe soon) will be.
However, as a consumer, it was a rather good year.

@themightyant There's also the situation of it's still very easy to get GPU cheap. For example, those who upgraded 3 years of Gold to GPU for $1 back when GPU launched will still be on GPU from that upgrade and likely would have gained enough points from Microsoft Rewards that they could essentially have GPU for free until the price of GPU skyrockets.

That's only natural: if Microsoft keeps up their momentum with pro-consumer strategies, they'll rule key markets soon.
Here in Brazil, for instance, we have to make our decisions primarily based on prices. So first, the Switch (standard) costs R$2500, but first-party games are R$300. The PS4 costs R$2800, its games are easily findable in second hand markets, but it's a last-gen console who many have already played the good stuff. Finally, we've got XSX and PS5 - never less than R$5500, so, no way for the common folk (our minimum wage is R$1200, something around $230).
Now, back to my initial topic: the XSS hits R$2500, with GPU subscription at R$45/ month. It's just a no-brainer. Most of my fellows are going back to Microsoft, sometimes simply because you cannot deny the value MS offers in markets such as ours.
In short: there's no cheaper way to play this gen of games in places such as BR, India, Indonesia and so many others. So, either Sony and Nintendo develop strategies and interesting value to attract us, or they've already lost this generation.

Great start to the gen by xbox - I absolutely love my series s + gamepass which has to be one of the greatest value sets in gaming history.

It's funny that Xbox is a fraction of MS' business and it makes a lot of cash.

Interested to see how these compare to Sony and Nintendo's figures as if they've seen 20% increases or losses then that gives you a better indication.

I'm surprised to see that hardware revenue is only up by 4% for 2021 over 2020. With a new generation being released wouldn't you expect that the sales of expensive new hardware would be much higher?

@OldgamerDave That's a great illustration of why the Series S may be the dark horse of this generation. I'm interested to see how it works out over the years. With schemes like All Access you can get a console and a steady stream of games to play for a low monthly cost.

"Game Pass isn't sustainable because I have 3 friends and an uncle that works at Microsoft that said they stopped buying games after Game Pass"

H:I, FH5 in top 10 sales.

"Other companies can't loose tons money for years like MS to buy marketshare by giving away all their games. Of course they have value, because they can afford losing so much money!"

Revenue up 8%

"The games are all bad mtx games, I prefer quality over quantity!"

More games nominated/awarded at 2021 critics awards.

"Microsoft is ruining gaming!"

@PhileasFragg Supply constraints, though. They've gone many months without selling any hardware at most major retailers during the year. That's revenues, not profits, and their consoles are the same pricepoints as they were before, and they sell out of all hardware made quickly, so that's just down purely to how much they were able to produce rather than any real market change or stagnancy.

@themightyant @Cikajovazmaj Technically it's hard to figure out with these big companies what matters in terms of revenue vs profits. If you roll the big buyouts like Bethesda and Activision alone, expenses will monumentally overshadow profits, but it also can't be said that it's a lost since it's technically an expensive long term investment. Similarly Acitvision netted 8b/yr, had about 5b/yr in costs, and 2.1b a year came from King. So basically they made only 1b in profits a year from console/PC gaming made profit from mobile, and everything else was break-even. We know that's not true at all, it's just that profit is a meaningless figure so long as they're investing heavily into buyouts (such as King and Toys 4 Bob.) Which is why revenues is reported. Profits is a hard, and often meaningless value, since it's just what's left over after investment. And for big companies and projects like game pass figuring out revenues, expenses, opportunity cost, and long term potential is a whole industry in itself. Amazon's a great example. For like 20 years they didn't make a dime in retail and bled money, but now they've built a pure profit engine, which investors were willing to pay for. "Revenues" is the right number, because expenses can easily eclipse profits if they're spending for tomorrow's growth today. As long as revenue keeps growing, the goals are being met.

Not saying I like that, or how publicly traded companies work in general. If elected Earth's Emperor first thing I'll do is nuke the stock exchanges and reset us back to entrepreneurial mom & pop economies where business actually makes sense, and can be understood by all. Vote for me!

@PhileasFragg Yes, friend, these are interesting times for MS. Like I said, many of us have, realistically, 2 options from a financial perspective: play older stuff, or get on board with XBSS. I'm not a fanboy in any shape or form - if I could, I'd be gaming in all platforms - but, right now, I'm "grateful" (yup, I know they're all companies solely interested in our cash) for what what MS has been doing this gen.

@NEStalgia All hail the Emperor
But seriously, I feel the same: the market's become too convoluted and volatile. It's just an ugly living organism that can't be understood.

Xbox is the future of gaming..

So Xbox division brought in about $50 billion in the year. Obviously this article will rave about everything Xbox and that Phil is the second coming but I'd love to know how much they spend the other way. The Activision deal was $70 billion. Partly sounds a decent purchase to sacrifice a years revenue on that but if they spend $100 billion without this then it doesn't sound very sustainable.
On the other side Sony's reason for not doing Game Pass is it wouldn't sustain the $200 million AAA blockbuster games they create but if they are bringing in $50 billion a year as well then those prices don't seem so big either?