Microsoft's Xbox Gets Another Revenue Boost From Activision

Now imagine what they'd make if they put any of those Activision games on Game Pass. Or relisted licensed titles. Or announced remasters, remakes, and sequels to some of Activision games.

Instead of what they're doing, which is nothing. What they're doing seemingly all they're good for.

And that was just the quarter that ended in September....

just imagine the crazy profits and GamePass subscription numbers Call of Duty is to show in their next quarterly reports.

That Activision acquisition was truly a magnificent idea.

@shoeses : So you are saying Microsoft should milk gamers the way PlayStation is doing by remaking unnecessary 4 year old games and charging again full price for a new rerelease.

Perhaps you prefer to be milked to death but I prefer the way Xbox does things, less unnecessary remakes and less full priced re-releases and more fresh ideas to rejuvenate existing IPs which has been the case with Flight Simulator while taking popular franchises to even higher heights which is the case with the newest Call of Duty.

@Major_Player How would we be being milked to death for games that aren't even on the market right now? Do you think I'm talking about Crash 4, and not things like the Transformers, X-Men Legends, and the dozens of other stand alone games and licensed ones that haven't seen releases or new entries in a decade or longer? I can't tell if you don't think anything through or just want to argue. Considering you're calling CoD 'rejuvenated and fresh ideas' when three of their more recent games are rehashed Modern Warfare games and the newest is Black Ops SIX, I have to assume both.

@shoeses
Integrating Activision into XB is no simple task. Activision had their own gaming network for their games. I would think that XB is integrating the XB/Activision network together. Also, Activision had its own inflight projects. XB would not just cancel them all and start XB based projects. They have to integrate the Activision core technologies with XB technologies. Finally, Activision made zero effort to get on GamePass. Therefore XB has to make changes necessary for game pass to work with Activision games. And finally, Activision had their own standards as to what to put in games. XB supports a lot more things like adaptive controllers, etc.

You add all these things up and probably more and just publishing Activision games onto Gamepass is not what they are doing. Instead they are integrating games into XB as XB standard games and releasing them as they are ready.

@NeoRatt Those are all good and valid points. But they need to communicate they're doing these things while people still care to some degree, especially since most people do think everything is as simple as flipping a switch when it comes to adding to GP or relisting a game. They just need to say SOMETHING about any of the projects and refuse to. Especially since they've already done extra GP price hikes even before they started trickling games. Without giving some insight into what and how much they're doing, that just makes them look bad.

@shoeses : Xmen?, Transformers? How can Microsoft work on games that they don't own the license for?....back then the old Activision had teams that took on licensed games, this was over a decade ago those people are long gone....I guess you didn't know that.

To work on licensed games you need to have a team with special talent for that or those games can end up in messes like what Sega and Ubisoft usually does.

And for your information this year's Calls of Duty at the helm of Microsoft is leading the pack as the most successful Call of Duty in over a decade.

Yeah, Xbox isn't doing as bad as many believe. Sure Xbox consoles aren't selling that well, but that's not really the point.

@Major_Player They're talking about relisting existing licenced games, not making new ones. Which presumably comes down to balancing the cost of the new licence fees against the value they would bring to game pass and/or the money that could be recouped through new sales.

Ultimately if they're going to do this, it's going to involve a lot of very careful negotiations with Disney and Hasbro. Although Hasbro has already indicated that they're game, and MS already has deals with Disney including for the LucasArts SCUMM remasters that DoubleFine produced. It's all very possible, but not necessarily likely. And it's certainly not something they'd rush into as that would weaken their negotiating position.

That 70 billion will paid off in no time...

@shoeses So remasters would be good in this instant then?

@Bigmanfan It's exactly the the point when people continue to say, like they always did, that Xbox consoles are doing terrible for a long time now.

So when they say "gaming revenue growing by 43% "including 43 points of net impact from the Activision acquisition" " does that mean that their core revenue didn't grow at all, and all their gaming growth came from the company they just paid billions for?

So Microsoft buy a company for billions that makes Xbox earn a profit each quarter.
I think I could do that.
Whilst console sales continue to fall and GPU is stagnant.
You get my point, they have just purchased profit and Xbox from a console and GPU perspective go down or do nothing.

@andrewsqual Consoles means nothing. The ONLY thing that matters in business is the bottom line and Xbox has a healthy bottom line. Gamers can access Xbox on phones, tablets, PCs, and streaming devices, the console is only a small piece of the puzzle. It isn't 1995 anymore.

Overall though my wishes are that Xbox continue to make a home powerful under the tv console and start producing top end AAA games.
All like the xbox360 days.

Now if this profit per quarter enables them to do that then that is great. No matter where it comes from.

But if they decide not to up hold or fund Xbox consoles or even GPU with the other profit making areas. Then we could lose Xbox as we know it.

@PhileasFragg in a nutshell, yes, exactly that.

The thing with hardware is that once you buy it, you have it. It's a sort of one and done deal, whereas the software keeps coming out. Once people buy their xbox's, they're not going to buy another one until the next gen. Same with surfaces and accessories really.

People need to accept that Activision/Blizzard is a part of Xbox now and treat it as one instead of segmenting the two. Xbox had another successful quarter and Q4 looks like it's going to be a record quarter for the brand. If you're such a big fan of the Xbox brand than stop worrying about plastic boxes and start celebrating the success Xbox is enjoying as a whole.

Remember, this is a business and if they're going to rake in the dough by buying you other companies and putting their games on other consoles than so be it. The bottom line is what matters, not what a bunch of plastic box fanboys think about sales numbers. If I was MS, I'd be doing the exact same thing.

This is a trend we’ll continue to see. As I keep saying, Microsoft gaming will have duck tales levels of cash coming in, more than ever, while the Xbox brand slowly withers away. At best becoming a niche hardcore console or handheld variant brand.

@Vordus : Balancing cost is the key and do you really think Hasbro and Marvel would license those IPs as cheaply as they did over 15 years ago? Absolutely not.

It would cost too much just to appease a few people.

Playstation and steam COD sales are up 60%. Nintendo sales are on the way (maybe next year). Yeah xbox is making a killing off this franchise. There really is no argument that gamepass is harming it in any meaningful way. I think gamepass will actually be beneficial to it.

Always am happy to see a great game sell well and perform very good. This is a nice needed W for Xbox. Now the biggest thing for Xbox is that it needs too continue to deliver consistently and not have huge dead periods of time or release bad games like Redfall. Things are lining up good for the next couple of months, Xbox just needs to deliver on the promise of a big game every quarter which they have failed to achieve consistently.

It would still be nice if they even slightly tried to market their consoles every now and then.

@andrewsqual I mean, the consoles aren't doing well, that's for sure. But that's not the only way Microsoft makes money in the gaming department. At this point, not sure they really care about console sales, cause they're taking it in regardless.

Now with these reports and especially next quarter (because of bo6) Microsoft looking at the xbox and all the activison revenue especially the huge amount of money that will come out of the playstation sales, it'll just make them pivot more into becoming a publisher than platform holder and honestly no one can blame them

@shoeses They did though? Numerous times before and after the aquistion closed they made it clear it takes time to make a game ready for game pass and said it isn't as easy as flipping a switch. This was said on Twitter and during the court case and Xbox wire and they even made a point of keeping expectations in check with their first showcase after the aquistion closed (developer direct) by saying ABK will take time and game pass anmoucments wouldn't be that quick. They can say it a million more times, most people (case in point) aren't going to care much less remember.

Xbox both doesn't need to and there's really no point in them telling us every little thing going on internally. Rather that's what gets them in trouble more often because people get mad when they take an internal deadline as anything but a placeholder. No other gaming company has remotely that level of transparency and for good reason.

People need to remember that these numbers are year over year and hardware declines are in line with the market. What Xbox is really showing that they're strategy to grow beyond relying on a single market which hasn't been growing much at all is paying off. Xbox still earns a crap ton of money by itself. Before Zenimax and ABK it was pulling in over 15 billion during the COVID peak and still floated just a little below after. Now Xbox as a gaming business has jumped to over 20 billion. Remember that an aquistion is an investment and in this case the investment is that ABK accelerates Xbox's plans for growth and expansion while also greatly boosting it's foundational value. Based purely on comments from Satya Nadella, we're already seeing that. Black Ops 6 is selling more than ever while also boosting game pass subs.

This is depressing news. 29% decline over what was already a disappointing year for Xbox hardware sales is not good. Hopefully things pick up over the festive season.

Don't forget though "Xbox is dead" and all that.

@TheEstablishment
Perhaps for you consoles means nothing?
For some of us they do. And we know this isn’t 1995, but consoles are selling extremely well now in 2024, just not Xboxes.. Sadly. PS5 and Switch are selling like hot cakes.

I game on most things (Series X, PS5, Switch, PC etc. etc.), but I love my Series X (and my achievements ). I do NOT like the idea of there being no more future Xboxes. Time will tell.

@Briarback Actually, if you deep dive into it, hardware is down across the board, which is why Sony is adamant about getting games onto PC and expanding their player base there. Consoles still sell, but they certainly aren't selling like "hot cakes" right now. Sony can't even produce a profit these days, while Nintendo is experiencing poor hardware sales due to the Switch being in its late life stage.

Regardless, Xbox will live on via console, handheld, PC, mobile, cloud, and other devices. Xbox is going nowhere.