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Xbox FY23 Q4 gaming revenue increased 1% year-over-year (HW down 13%)
- Thread starter cormack12
- Start date
ChorizoPicozo
Member
bro...we are pass that. the deal is done
Crispy Gamer
Member
So basically the brand would be almost dead this generation without going on a consolidation spree 
yeah Starfield isn't the savior they'll need years of quality output to turn things around. One things for certain consumers aren't stupid it should be tracking behind Xbox one since that system had way more desirable exclusives in its first 3 years in hindsight Ryse was a killer app 
(I loved it)
yeah Starfield isn't the savior they'll need years of quality output to turn things around. One things for certain consumers aren't stupid it should be tracking behind Xbox one since that system had way more desirable exclusives in its first 3 years in hindsight Ryse was a killer app (I loved it)
balls of snow
Member
And I hope they do the honourable thing and keep releasing games on series consoles instead of pulling the cord this gen to focus on the next generation of consoles (like thats gonna matter) as they did xbone.
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
Yep. Some people have a twisted mentality that competition means both competitors have to be neck-and-neck. I don't think there's ever really been a time where that was the case in gaming globally. SNES was curbstomping Genesis/MegaDrive outside of US, Europe & Brazil (and in light of new documents, their US sales may not have been as robust as thought during the peak 1993-1994 years); PS1 steamrolled N64 and Saturn. PS2 nuked Dreamcast, Xbox and Gamecube combined.
Maybe the only gen where "competition" has meant everyone being close was 7th gen, and even that is debatable. The Wii wasn't directly competing with Sony & Microsoft, and 360 had no traction outside of US and UK. PS3 was getting murked in those same markets by the 360 for pretty much the whole gen, especially early on.
I can't think of a single console generation where two competitors have been roughly equal in market share and output globally. It hasn't happened.
I genuinely think Xbox's problems are worst than that. PS5 didn't have any big notable exclusives this year up until FF XVI's release, but they've been keeping up pace with/outpacing PS4, and setting sales records.
Microsoft have zero big 3P AAA marketing deals (because they seem to only want deals with games that can be in Game Pass Day 1), have virtually no traditional market presence in any market, have little stable of previous 1P games to build off of, have made weird decisions like no physical in various ROTW markets, rarely ever buy back unsold console stock from brick & mortar retailers, and more. They are also fighting against 20 years of overall gradual brand decline globally, generation-over-generation, and have pushed away many enthusiasts buyers with things like Day 1 PC releases (meaning the people who'd of bought, say, an Xbox for Halo and other 3P games, are mainly now getting Halo on PC and making 3P purchases through Steam, not Xbox Store).
All of these things combine with not releasing any major 1P games for about 18 months (not to mention, other mistakes like no genuinely big push for a 3P AAA Day 1 release in Game Pass for 2022) and I feel like 2023 has been Xbox finally paying for years of mistakes. ABK won't magically change that for stop the bleed; Microsoft still have to actually be smart with it and apply a lot of work in post, to maybe start turning things around.
Buying large 3P publishers isn't "competing"; it's consolidating a 3P's valuation and worth into your console division's to give it an inorganic boost in revenue to please shareholders & investors.
It also isn't representative of the way the market actually decides winners and losers: purchasing the systems with their own money, and their own wallets. And it's definitely not like the ABK deal is being financed off the strengths of the Xbox division itself.
ABK acquisition meets only the bare minimum in providing genuine competition, mainly because it is an artificial stimulant to a stagnating gaming division gained through purchase of other money within the parent company. Gamers choosing Xbox isn't what's enabled ABK deal.
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kazuyamishima
Member
Xbox Series X/S January-June 2023 shipments estimates: 2.8m units
Playstation 5 January-March 2023 shipments estimates: 6.3m units
Playstation 5 January-March 2023 shipments estimates: 6.3m units
Luminoth-4545
Member
With hardware being down 13% in revenue i estimate Xbox series sold around 1.4 million units for the quarter and from the calculated revenue splits and year on year percentage revenue increases/decreases i have done my best to estimate the Xbox series quarterly, yearly and lifetime sales (bottom of chart). Xbox fiscal year is tabulated to match Nintendo's and Sony's, so Q1 is April to June.
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Ya...Even though they do get more revenue and IP and such after ABK closes.. it DID take 68 Billion to get it its not just free extra new revenue lol
harry mason 1989
Banned
Ms needs to buy Konami so they can end sony and Nintendo monopoly imo
Theres also Armored Core in August ... I assume people will be more willing to check it out since its a FROM game after the huge success of Elden RingDude, they've been tracking at OG Xbox levels for basically the whole year! That system did ~ 6.2 million in its third year on the market...and there's a very strong chance Xbox Series are performing even less than that.
They won't sell that many more systems because it's exclusive, in part because a good deal of that hype will be snuffed out between Balder's Gate 3, Mortal Kombat, and Spiderman 2. Plus Super Mario RPG Remake, can't forget that one.
I don't think Bethesda's games have more mass appeal than the Souls games do. I think Skyrim benefited a ton from the hype around shows like Game of Thrones during that time period, but there is no equivalent mainstream mega-hit sci-fi show going on right now (or in the near future from the looks of things) to give Starfield a similar boost. I mean, there are good sci-fi shows out currently (I'm enjoying Foundation, for instance), but I wouldn't say any of these have pop culture megahit status the way Game of Thrones did.
We never got a sales update for Fallout 4, FWIW, after the initial launch shipments and sales, at least to my understanding. Saying Starfield will tap out @ 15 million lifetime isn't even really the same as saying only 15 million will play the game. You have to remember, the game will be in Game Pass "Day 1", that will always act as a limiter to total overall sales as a result. You can't ignore this.
And again, skipping the most popular console brand altogether will also hurt lifetime sales, considering Skyrim & Fallout 4 saw huge sales in large part due to PlayStation platforms. That's just a fact.
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While I agree Bethesda RPGS have huge appeal... Starfield IS a new IP... its not an established franchise like Fallout or Elder Scrolls. Also I would say the Space/Sci FI setting has less casual appeal than the fantasy setting of say ES
Vox Machina
Banned
Wait until you hear the news that Tencent sold literally 0 consoles last year, and they don't even care. It'll blow your gourde!
ShadowkillXNA
Member
Why post this? What are you so defensive about? It's a news thread and people are discussing the news.
Sushi_Combo
Member
The results aren't improving for their console sales, maybe focus on maintaining a digital service for every possible platform to entice people on using as their gaming driver. I think When everyone plays we all win Spencer would agree to this.
ShadowkillXNA
Member
You're not wrong.
Vox Machina
Banned
Phil will just make the next Xbox run Windows, bringing Sony's games to millions more gamers. Sony will be a 3rd party publisher sooner than Xbox.
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
Can't tell if you're joking or not, but I genuinely think that's the best path forward for Xbox hardware: just literally make them PCs.
NUC-style mini-PCs tuned for affordable gaming, running Windows, with a console UI by default that can switch to Windows 10/11 desktop.
They'd never have to worry about unfavorable comparisons to Sony & Nintendo ever again. It would literally just all go away. They'd have no reason to withhold games from Sony & Nintendo platforms, either. Immediate increases in revenue and profits. Can finally sell Xboxes for profit instead of losing $200 per unit. Secures Windows as the gaming OS on PC while Valve is trying to shift people over to Linux with Steam Deck (and follow-ups).
But Microsoft are too egotistical and prideful to do this, because to them it would be "admitting defeat" to PlayStation.
Actually, I take that back: Microsoft are probably more than okay with that. Phil Spencer isn't.
They put gamepass front and centre for their brand and said they don't need big releases for their console due to it. People were just too oblivious and gushing over GP and its smaller releases.
You joke but that's what he's wishing for. MS don't rely on consoles. They don't care about competing on consoles, even though they would love to sell more than Sony they have always claimed it doesn't matter that they don't sell consoles. Phil's words repeated over the years have shown that they don't care to compete there but he's coy about it because at the same time he doesn't want to upset or alienate the xbox faithful by admitting it.
He is shifting the industry to subscriptions over consoles competing for a cut, i would say not even shifting to cloud either, that would just be a stepping stone while the high end market is still kind of relevant but shrinking. The console market is shrinking according to MS's own words. No higher spec midgen machine from them, the cheap low spec Series S being their main(stream) machine this gen, Phil saying xbox is 'untenable' without mobile. MS and Phil are trying to steer to the casual side for subscription growth without consoles
while Sony is going the other direction with enthusiast hardware (PS5/Pro specs or VR) . I think in the next 5 years you will even see xbox one like games running native on a mobile SoC and the console will become less and less relevant to MS's gaming ambitions overall. Phil's title wasn't changed from "CEO of Xbox" to "CEO of Microsoft Gaming" for no reason. The strategic shift is there and the only pushback are the people not adopting it as well as they'd hoped. Now they're trying to get peoples favourite IPs so they can change "consumer behaviour".
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ChorizoPicozo
Member
now Nintendo doesn't count
interstellar levels of spinning going around.
Vox Machina
Banned
Was only half joking. I think it makes sense too. Just have Windows run a gaming-focused frontend with Xbox being the default storefront. That way they can have Switch/Steam Deck style portables which plug into a base that sits at your TV and sell a high-powered stationary version similar in power to a hypothetical PS6. That platform then plays all XGS games, all PC-exclusive games, and all Sony games (a year late).
It makes too much sense, which is why they'll never do it.
ChorizoPicozo
Member
this ain't chief.
wonder if they have another console generation in them. this is abysmal stuff.
especially so since series s is in constantly sold with ridiculous discounts
just steer the brand towards windows running mini gamepass pc’s and be done with it.
hell start with allowing windows on series x.
especially so since series s is in constantly sold with ridiculous discounts
just steer the brand towards windows running mini gamepass pc’s and be done with it.
hell start with allowing windows on series x.
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Oddvintagechap
Member
Damn. Fuck it, give them Ubisoft too.
For Microsoft as a whole but we aren't Excel and Azure enthusiasts here. We're talking about how xbox/gaming performed last quarter.
Stardust_Dragon
Banned
I mean, sure Microsoft can try pivoting away from consoles to go to mobile to sell subscriptions to the billions of mobile gamers out there, but I noticed a pattern of the most popular mobile games: They're generally free-to-play, meaning mobile gamers aren't subscribing to access their favorite mobile games on their phones. So is Microsoft's strategic objective with mobile to convince mobile gamers to start paying for subscriptions when that's not how they've usually accessed the top mobile games previously? Because it's either that or it's cloud gaming, which also still requires a subscription to access their xCloud technology (outside of Fortnite which is F2P anyways) as well as needing a constant connection to cloud servers.
Also, it wasn't like Microsoft started putting their games on Steam out of the goodness of their hearts and to make gaming more accessible, but rather they knew their own PC storefront was never going to pose much of a threat to Steam and pragmatically decided to start making their games available on Steam only several years after they started porting their games to PC around 2016 for boosting revenue, even though Steam still doesn't have GamePass as of present, despite Gabe previously stating that he'd be open to having GamePass on Steam.
I guess more than anything else, I'm just perplexed how Microsoft truly plans on achieving their vision for gaming while claiming to not care about directly competing for console marketshare yet at the same time trying to lock out Sony out of as many of their own 1st party titles along with not even having GamePass on Steam. But hey, maybe they think they can actually change consumer behavior to favor renting games via subscriptions over Buy-to-Play + Free-to-Play games in the medium to long term, I personally don't think it's going to happen but as with everything in life only time will tell.
Bernardougf
Member
Is so good to have daddys money to cover for your fuck ups and abysmal perfomance
Spitfire098
Member
Clear
CliffyB's Cock Holster
its always been something of an article of faith that the subscription model is actually something that gamers want. Personally, I've never been entirely convinced that's actually the case.
Games are different from movies and music; its not a given that any part of this strategy is going to work, let alone become the dominant way people access and consume digital interactive content.
Apple and Google have launched Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass to some success I believe so paying a sub isn't entirely new to current mobile users. I do think they may struggle to compete with f2p games but they are trying to get some popular franchises which they can lock to their sub or store like Candy Crush, Diablo, CoD etc. I think in five years you will see a massive influx of xbox one quality console games that run native across all devices including mobile and chasing high end/enthusiast only releases will become more and more rare.
StereoVsn
Gold Member
Yes, MS as a whole is doing crazy good. Thus, revenue, profit and loss from Gaming is a blip on their radar really. It's a giant $2.5 TRILLION corpo, so not sure what point you are trying to make. Because their gaming division is not doing well at all and these two things (MS doing well and MS Gaming doing poorly) can happen at same time.
At some point, MS and its investors may get tired of blowing profits from rest of the company on non-consequential/ not-important division and either jettison the whole thing/sell it off or go full on 3rd Party and Cloud Gaming.
Ozzy Onya A2Z
Member
And ps5 out sells competitors combine i combine is usually 52% ps5 40% switch 8h$%7days xbox
Stardust_Dragon
Banned
That's certainly possible for technology to move forward quick enough for mobile phones to be able to handle native PS4/Xbox One games by the end of the 2020s decade, but I do wonder if mobile gamers would even want to play those type of games on their phones at all rather than just sticking with their more simplified mobile games they have now? Like, I know it's not a great example, but remote play off of Xbox and PlayStation consoles don't seem to have garnered much mainstream attraction despite being around for at least several years now as an option to play those type of games on the phone, and Sony's newest attempt at appealing to the remote play market with their Project Q device seems to have fallen flat, and for good reason.
Ozzy Onya A2Z
Member
Do we consider Google Pixel phones dead when all other Android sales trounce that hardware and compete with Apple?
How about Surface devices? Same goes.
Never change Doom&GloomGAF.
How about Surface devices? Same goes.
Never change Doom&GloomGAF.
Gamepass everwhere and PC centric gaming should be the future for them.
Azure/Cloud and AI will carry MS into the future
yurinka
Member
They will continue to be able to buy it on PS. In Xbox they'll also be able to rent it for almost $200/year with more games, but in PC too.
And due to a marketing deal with Sony they had signed before MS, the next CoD won't be day one on GP. In fact won't be on GP for over a year after release.
I assume most of the ones interested on Starfield already have the console or will play it on PC. Same goes with GP. I think that GP will have a small bump from people who still doesn't have GP and may be interested on it but that won't almost move consoles.
I also think that most people who may buy a console just for this game, which I assume won't be a lot, will wait until the game release.
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Its ALREADY crazy to me that Phil or somehow Xbox Division convinced MS to dump almost 80 BILLION into the division... mind blowing really. Their future projected revenue and plans must be massive to not just invest that into more cloud or ai tech. Their cloud revenue just this year can be upwards of over 100 billion
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Stardust_Dragon
Banned
There's a lengthy list of products killed by Microsoft throughout its history, as seen here. Among some notables there are Mixer, the Kinect, Games for Windows Live, and the Windows Phone, all gone and taken to the woodshed by the board of directors at Microsoft.
Now, I really doubt they'll kill off/spin off Xbox anytime soon as they just spent almost $80 billion in gaming over the past few years, so at the very least I'm sure they'll try and see how next console generation goes for the first couple years starting in 2028 prior to making any big decision on changing direction regarding console gaming right around when that 10 year commitment for COD nears it end and then they'd need to decide if it's still worth risking the COD brand popularity by making it console exclusive to Xbox at that point.
