Starfield Aftermath: Mostly Positive Earnings Unveiled by Xbox

In recent news, Microsoft's release of the long-anticipated game Starfield has significantly boosted the company’s financial performance for the first quarter of the 2024 fiscal year. The boost in revenue predominantly comes from the rise in Xbox content and services, which includes the gaming subscription service, Xbox Game Pass. Revenue from this segment reportedly increased by 13% over the last quarter, which can be attributed to the release of Starfield.

Made by Bethesda Game Studios, Starfield quickly emerged as one of the most successful releases in Xbox's history, claiming an impressive 10 million players just within three weeks of its launch. The company also managed to enhance its earnings by adjusting the price on the Game Pass.

The corporation observed a hardware revenue decline of 7%, contributing to an overall decrease resulting from a 22% drop in revenue from Microsoft hardware devices, including Surface tablets. Although there's no explicit explanation for the slump in Xbox hardware sales, it could be linked to the recent leak of highly confidential plans to release new models of both the Xbox Series X and Series S next year, alongside the future introduction of a next-generation Xbox console, earmarked to launch in 2028.

This report also marks Microsoft's first earnings reveal after the successful acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the renowned Call of Duty maker. The details of this merger may significantly shape Microsoft's business strategy in the future, with plans already underway to introduce a plethora of Activision Blizzard games to Xbox Game Pass starting from next year. Despite these developments, Microsoft has announced that it does not intend to make any announcements about Activision Blizzard at the partner direct scheduled tomorrow.