Xbox console revenue fell off a cliff this year

Microsoft’s latest earnings report for the quarter ending on September 30 revealed that revenue from the Xbox hardware fell 30 percent year over year.

Worse, in a way, this revenue decline doesn’t reflect any dip in sales caused by the console’s $20 to $70 price hike, since that took effect on October 3 — after this earnings report. (Oh, and Microsoft raised the price for its Game Pass Ultimate subscription from $20 to $30 in October.)

Fortunately, revenue from Xbox content and services, specifically, remained relatively unchanged from the same period last year. That’s the Game Pass component of Microsoft’s gaming business.

When Microsoft started cutting down its global workforce earlier this year, Xbox was hit hard, with the company canceling games, like a modern reimagining of Perfect Dark, and even shutting the Xbox studio working on it.

More broadly, Microsoft’s revenue is up, with CEO Satya Nadella posting a few highlights about the company’s earnings call on X, which mostly focused on AI. He said the company will increase its AI capacity by 80 percent this year.

— Mat Smith

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