Starfield Helped Game Pass; Subscription Sets New Record

Source: Microsoft

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Microsoft has released financial results for the past quarter, which is the period of July 1 to September 30, 2023. In the report summarizing this period, we are most interested in the parts concerning video games.

1. Microsoft's CEO, Satya Nadella, boasted, that the release of Starfield has significantly helped Game Pass. On the game's debut days, the service set a daily record for the number of new subscribers.
2. So far Starfield has already been played by more than 11 million users. This figure includes both players who purchased the title and those who checked it out through Game Pass.
3. Revenues from Xbox games and services increased by 13%.
4. However, the report does not include only good news. Revenues from sales of Xbox consoles and accessories declined by 7%. Overall, however, revenue for the entire Xbox division rose 9%, as the increase in games and services was much larger than the decline in the hardware division.
5. In contrast, revenue for Microsoft as a whole rose 13% to a quarterly value of $56.5 billion, while net income was $22.3 billion (down 27%).

While discussing the results, CEO Satya Nadella confirmed also that following the completion of the Activision Blizzard acquisition, Microsoft will focus even more strongly on video games, both in terms of their development and publishing activities. As he explains, the market for games is growing all the time and with each generation of consoles they become more popular, so investing in this segment is crucial for the company. It is worth mentioning that after the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft will probably be the second largest publisher in the market in terms of revenue (behind China's Tencent).