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Microsoft's full-year gaming revenues nearly flat for fiscal 2020

Minecraft, subscriptions, and COVID-19 saw content and services up, but hardware was down

Microsoft managed to eke out a slight increase in its overall gaming revenues year-over-year for fiscal 2020 thanks to strong Xbox content and services revenue, and unsurprisingly no real help from hardware sales.

The company published its full-year financials earlier this month, but just recently released its 10K form offering more detail than its initial financials initially had for the full-year results of its gaming segment specifically.

The 10K revealed that gaming revenue was up $189 million, or 2%, year-over-year for the full year ending June 30, 2020.

Xbox content and services revenue was up $943 million, or 11%, largely driven by growth in Minecraft, third-party games, and subscriptions, with Microsoft noting that higher engagement due to COVID-19 lockdowns also had a meaningful impact.

This includes Xbox Game Pass, which reached 10 million subscribers as of April this year, and Minecraft, which Microsoft reported saw 132 monthly active users over Q4 alone.

However, hardware revenue for the full year was down 31%, which Microsoft attributes to decreases in overall volume sold and lowered prices of its consoles, very likely due to the end of the current console generation.

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Latest comments (2)

David Reeves Consultant A year ago
One element to consider in connection with E3 is the cost

It is not out of the question for a stand to cost $ 9 million in total (yes!!) when everything is taken into, security, erection, taking down, manning, parties, presentations....the list goes on and it is unionised (which has advantages But adds to the cost) . Then, add delegates' cost in LA hotels, pre meetings in Las Vegas, flights, staff adding holidays to the end of E3 (good for them after the show) and staff not wanting to be left off the E3 'list' . Having been through it many times, TGS (if once a year at Makuhari) and Games Convention (subsidised by the Messe) are more cost effective and have the true fans for the last 3-4 days to offset cost and build excitement. Atalanta was far cheaper when it was there...maybe Seattle? Not against E3 in LA but the format needs to change and I am sure the organisers have thought of many ideas. The Industry needs focal points and exposure but the LA cost is exorbitant. From somebody whose Company used to foot the bill!
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Klaus Preisinger Freelance Writing A year ago
Would anybody be surprised, if the Seires X was sold like a mobile phone? Console as a service, consisting of hardware and a subscription for something between $25 and $35 depending on which publisher's subscription you book? Why just leverage your exclusives selling the box? Let EA and Ubisoft do the work with their subscriptions in a bundle.
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