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MS Earnings Call - FY23Q2 |

Alesimage

Banned
This is like the Apple quarterly reports. Their numbers are so insane and so ahead of everyone else. At this point, their profits come from a near autopilot monopoly of vital services or products too ingrained in modern living to live without.
Yep. I help contribute. Having office 365. Deal is too good to pass up. Having 6 account each with 1tb of online storage is too good of a deal. Lol
 

Astray

Member
Halo Infinite had f2p multiplayer. It was never intended to sell Game pass. You didn't need Game pass to play half the game. I don't know why people bring up that title over Forza which clearly was meant to attract people to Game pass.
My Halo Special Edition Series X with bundled in 3 months GP Ultimate trial begs to differ.

It was absolutely supposed to push both GP and Consoles.
 

LordOfChaos

Member
They're not yet profitable on Gamepass and they're going to have to be eventually/potentially soon as the world and the company are tightening and being less forgiving of loss leaders.

Prices will be going up, probably not too long after first party games go to 70 dollars. Doesn't make sense to ask someone for 70 dollars for Starfield but then they can play it and finish it in a month of Gamepass for 1/7th that. Following the Netflix model they're going to boil that frog and get more money out of us no doubt.
 
Holy shit Hardware down 13% during the holidays when they dropped the pricing to $200 for the Series S and that had massive stocks. The end is near. Who would have thought that people buy gaming consoles to play great games. Someone please tell Phil Spencer.

You realize the 13% is in dollars right? So, the discounts basically necessitate a drop. :messenger_tears_of_joy:

They didn't give any specific hardware numbers, so the direct comparisons there between X1 and previous years are imaginary fanboy drivel. What we know is they said that volume was also down YoY, that's the information that is available. Just that.
 
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DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
Not accurate

PS5 US NPD HW:
Jun-22: 277K
Jul-22: 301K
Aug-22: 341K
Sep-22: 494K
Oct-22: 456K
Nov-22: 1328K
LTD as of Nov-22: 10592K

XBX US NPD HW:
Jun-22: 260K
Jul-22: 247K
Aug-22: 251K
Sep-22: 288K
Oct-22: 261K
Nov-22: 730K
LTD as of Nov-22: 8736K

So we know that Microsoft outsold Sony for the first two quarters of the year? I guess they actually ended up pretty much neck and neck for the year.

Looks like MS got lucky and now they have to turn this ship around again with the opportunity they have in the first 6 months of this year.
 
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H-I-M

Member
For reference --

1. This is Xbox's worst performance in the US in the last 15 years.
2. Xbox is outsold by PS5 by 2:1 in the last 3 months (September, October, November) by nearly 2:1, despite having a $229 console. And US has been Xbox's strongest market, where Xbox-PS5 sales split is usually 1:1.
3. Because of Xbox's performance this quarter, the lifetime-to-date (LTD) console sales split for Xbox is now 2% lower than than it was for Xbox One and PS4. So XBX|S has lost the US market share compared to Xbox One and PS4. This is despite a lower-priced console, Gamepass, Bethesda, and now Actvision.

You do not think these numbers are as bad?

Not accurate

PS5 US NPD HW:
Jun-22: 277K
Jul-22: 301K
Aug-22: 341K
Sep-22: 494K
Oct-22: 456K
Nov-22: 1328K
LTD as of Nov-22: 10592K

XBX US NPD HW:
Jun-22: 260K
Jul-22: 247K
Aug-22: 251K
Sep-22: 288K
Oct-22: 261K
Nov-22: 730K
LTD as of Nov-22: 8736K

This is alarming!
shock.gif
 

Ansphn

Member
You realize the 13% is in dollars right? So, the discounts basically necessitate a drop. :messenger_tears_of_joy:

They didn't give any specific hardware numbers, so the direct comparisons there between X1 and previous years are imaginary fanboy drivel. What we know is they said that volume was also down YoY, that's the information that is available. Just that.
And how is that good? Holiday rush with price drop should mean selling like hot cakes.
 

Pelta88

Member
Hahaha. Wrong.

Not that bad lol, they did around 730k in November alone in USA.

Clearly wrong that's probably for Nov or Dec in the US.

No, that's not correct. We don't know YTD, but they hit 732K in the US in Nov. 2022 alone.


Ughh I miss typed. I meant Dec 2022 :messenger_tears_of_joy::messenger_tears_of_joy::messenger_tears_of_joy:

Which would have given us a clearer picture in comparison to 2021. I dun goofed lol
 
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Pelta88

Member
Not accurate

PS5 US NPD HW:
Jun-22: 277K
Jul-22: 301K
Aug-22: 341K
Sep-22: 494K
Oct-22: 456K
Nov-22: 1328K
LTD as of Nov-22: 10592K

XBX US NPD HW:
Jun-22: 260K
Jul-22: 247K
Aug-22: 251K
Sep-22: 288K
Oct-22: 261K
Nov-22: 730K
LTD as of Nov-22: 8736K

This is the comparison I was looking for. Can we get a 2022/21 comparison Kacho Kacho
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
I know people are trying to downplay it but Covid boom was still very much happening in 2021, so I dont think this is as bleak as people are saying.

Now, if sony / nintendo have a big uplift vs YoY in the US than MS for Q4 then it shows a pretty amazing performance from those guys as all tech companies were tracking down, including retail in general. We are talking like 20% down across categories in UK so I am not sure how the US is doing. UK has pretty much been in a recession for at least two months though.

Really interested to see SOny and Nintendo's YoY Q4 reports now.
 

jm89

Member
Ughh I miss typed. I meant Dec 2022 :messenger_tears_of_joy::messenger_tears_of_joy::messenger_tears_of_joy:

Which would have given us a clearer picture in comparison to 2021. I dun goofed lol
800k wouldn't be too farfetched for December numbers.

Leaker seem to have only given numbers up to November.
 
And how is that good? Holiday rush with price drop should mean selling like hot cakes.

I didn't say it was good. Just that it is doubtful that units were actually down 13% when the $ are down 13% including the discounts. HW volume was likely down low single digits with the discounts handling the rest of the revenue drop.

Obviously MS had the launch hype for Halo and FH5 last year which helped them move more units. Software is always important to sell consoles, taking a year off definitely hurt momentum. Even the biggest Xbox fanboys can see that.
 
MS delayed all of their big heavy hitters (Star Field, Red Fall, and Forza Motorsport) to this year and there wasn't many third party AAA games last year as well. So I'm not surprise there was a drop especially with the covid boom dying off and we are heading into a recession sadly. The only thing MS had going was game pass day one games and Xbox series S price drop.

I do believe this year will be better for Xbox because both Series consoles should be able to drop in price, all the big heavy hitter games are releasing this year, and MS-Activision deal should be completed which will result in a lot of games for game pass.
 
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I didn't say it was good. Just that it is doubtful that units were actually down 13% when the $ are down 13% including the discounts. HW volume was likely down low single digits with the discounts handling the rest of the revenue drop.

Obviously MS had the launch hype for Halo and FH5 last year which helped them move more units. Software is always important to sell consoles, taking a year off definitely hurt momentum. Even the biggest Xbox fanboys can see that.
I was thinking the same. Hardware revenue was down probably due to all the heavy discounts given
 
None of those products ever had the popular consumer support, brand recognition, or power that Xbox has had. Not even close.

IKR. It's just best to let them keep thinking it though. 20+ years it's always the same song. LOL

I guess these people assume that only one brand exists for every product, because hey, if you aren't #1 you close up shop.
 
None of those products ever had the popular consumer support, brand recognition, or power that Xbox has had. Not even close.
For real, we can go over all of Sony's failed products over the years like Walkman, Sony Laptops, Playstation Vita, etc. They have no effect on the PS5 console.
 
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Hard to call the walkman a failure. It lasted like 30 years. Went the way of the dodo when physical music died off.
Walkman did initially succeed but got phased out quite fast. Sony could've beaten Apple to create the iPod which ultimately became the iPhone.
 
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Playstation move, 3d tvs, psp, wonderbook the list goes on and on.
Playstation move, 3d tvs, psp, wonderbook the list goes on and on.
Honestly, playstation move was successful because a lot of the technology that went into it went to PSVR. More I think about it, walkman was a failure at the end because it didn't keep up with the times. Sony could've beaten apple to the punch but dropped the ball.
 
Honestly, playstation move was successful because a lot of the technology that went into it went to PSVR. More I think about it, walkman was a failure at the end because it didn't keep up with the times. Sony could've beaten apple to the punch but dropped the ball.
I would actually argue psvr was not a success. 5 million users out of 120+ million is very poor. Yeah it was one of the better selling vr headsets but that's not saying much. I've stated this many times but i predict psvr2 will sell less than the first and it will be sony last vr headset.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Sea of thieves and grounded doing very well. also minecraft.

I guess it's all how we define "hits".

Sea of Thieves is currently played less than For Honor and Assassins Creed Odyssey on XBox Live Most Played. Grounded not even on the top 50.

We better hope XBox leadership isn't going "We already have Live Service hits with...Grounded and Sea of Thieves."

Minecraft continues to do well but new blood is clearly what's needed.
 
I would actually argue psvr was not a success. 5 million users out of 120+ million is very poor. Yeah it was one of the better selling vr headsets but that's not saying much. I've stated this many times but i predict psvr2 will sell less than the first and it will be sony last vr headset.
I believe PSVR was successful overall, but I also think PSVR2 is going to flop. You can't charge that much for a head set especially when we are all heading into a recession. PSVR2 might've been successful if it had BC and was stand alone.
 
I've stated this many times but i predict psvr2 will sell less than the first and it will be sony last vr headset.

This is going to be a hilarious post to look back on in 5 years

I predict PSVR2 is going to be the next hot thing / must have accessory we haven’t seen since the Kinect era
 
I guess it's all how we define "hits".

Sea of Thieves is currently played less than For Honor and Assassins Creed Odyssey on XBox Live Most Played. Grounded not even on the top 50.

We better hope XBox leadership isn't going "We already have Live Service hits with...Grounded and Sea of Thieves."

Minecraft continues to do well but new blood is clearly what's needed.
MS is about to purchase Activision which includes COD and WOW IP. Also, games don't need to be top 20 to be successful in regards to live service especially on one platform.
 
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I guess it's all how we define "hits".

Sea of Thieves is currently played less than For Honor and Assassins Creed Odyssey on XBox Live Most Played. Grounded not even on the top 50.

We better hope XBox leadership isn't going "We already have Live Service hits with...Grounded and Sea of Thieves."

Minecraft continues to do well but new blood is clearly what's needed.
I mean there are others Forza Horizon 5 Halo Infinite Fallout 76. But yeah if you consider only top ten or even top 50 to be considered a success then that's just personal opinion.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
MS is about to purchase Activision which included COD and WOW. Also games don't need to be top 20 to be successful in regards to live service.

Live Service has entered the Supercarrier era. Being profitable and keeping the lights on does not move the needle for these companies. Microsoft has to deliver the true Live Service hits to keep up.

The target is Fortnite, League of Legends, and Minecraft...not For Honor.
 
Live Service has entered the Supercarrier era. Being profitable and keeping the lights on does not move the needle for these companies. Microsoft has to deliver the true Live Service hits to keep up.

The target is Fortnite, League of Legends, and Minecraft...not For Honor.
What? I'm pretty sure Forza Horizon, Grounded, Halo Infinite, and Sea of thieves made money for Microsoft. If not, they will not keep getting support with seasons and DLC. Basic economics 101.
 
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