Jaybe
Member
Wow. I suppose this is a given since they will be lapping the Forza Horizon 5 and Halo Infinite releases though.
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MS Gaming up 4%; content down 3% (1%CC) and hardware up 13% (19% CC)
Wow. I suppose this is a given since they will be lapping the Forza Horizon 5 and Halo Infinite releases though.
ChuckeRearmed
Member
To play the same games as Playstation but cheaper. I can play Plague Tale in Game Pass.
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Ghost of Caelid
Banned
As long as gamepass stays sustainable I keep saving money. Starfield , Redfall and avowed(?) should be a solid boost. This year was the slowest year for gamepass in forever and it’s still up.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
The results are good for having no first party games. Next year, when the games start coming out in the first half, should be better.
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SenjutsuSage
Banned
No, it grew also. It's always growing. You think PC Game Pass alone is what offset declines in third party and first party? With a jump in xbox consoles where 50% of Series S owners are new to the ecosystem? Put two and two together lol.
dotnotbot
Member
Then where are the numbers? There are people buying new consoles and then there are always some leaving the service.
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feynoob
Banned
You will get them in january. That is usually the date for gamepass numbers. You wont see anything now.
Jaybe
Member
Funny how they released stats on how PC side of Game Pass grew (nearly 200%) but closed mouth on the console side. I mean the quarter was probably the worst ever for big name releases to console Game Pass. First party releases included Forza Hot Wheels DLC and grounded vs last year’s Psychonauts 2, so that seems like a wash. Were you thinking that plummeted? Run the same comparison on third party. ‘Offset by Gamepass’ only means that in total the whole of Game Pass grew slightly and we know PC game pass tripled, so yeah the console side was probably flat or certainly so negligible it wasn’t worth reporting on.
feynoob
Banned
Not really. PC gamepass saw alot of pc oriented games, which caused the service to skyrocket.
Also, next year it would be a big event for PC gamepass players, consdering the partnership with with riot games. so expect more boost.
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2022/06/12/riot-games-is-coming-to-game-pass/
I think their slow first party releases is probably what is hurting growth along with Sony being aggressive on exclusives.
freefornow
Member
“nearly half of the Xbox Series S buyers are new to our ecosystem.”
Ronin_7
Member
What did I tell? PC market is collapsing, 2023 will be a bloodbath but as everything in life it'll pick up in 2024 or 2025 again.
Just a phase, MS Will be fine.
remember_spinal
Banned
SenjutsuSage
Banned
I don't know... I think you're missing the forest for the trees. Why does the breakdown between PC and Console matter in the first place? Over 25 million game pass subscribers and growing is still over 25 million game pass subscribers and growing, regardless of the breakdown. They've never said how many belong to which.
All we know for certain is that xbox consoles are clearly the #1 platform for Game Pass, with PC clearly being #2.
They have never provided a breakdown between PC or console, largely because it doesn't matter. Every game pass ultimate subscription also counts as a pc game pass sub as well, for example? It's highly likely a significantly larger number of subscriptions took place on the consoles compared to PC, but because the consoles already have a sizeable lead, it didn't rise to anywhere close to 150%
Game Pass on PC and Game Pass on console are bringing the same revenue all the same.
As to why there might have been a jump in interest on the PC side of things? Maybe because this winter is looking exciting for fans of Riot Games' PC titles and all the Game Pass related perks that come with them.
Jaybe
Member
You tell me. You jumped in on my response to someone else’s question.
S0ULZB0URNE
Member
So content and services sounds to me like games and Gamepass.
SenjutsuSage
Banned
The point still stands. Game Pass has gained an average of 7-8 million subscribers each of the last two years and we have never been told how much is for console and how much is for pc. Whether it grows on Xbox consoles or PC doesn't matter; it's all the same for Microsoft. I "jumped in" because you seemed to be reaching to imply something amiss or troubling about game pass' growth on console. It wasn't really until my last reply to you that I realized just how irrelevant a point the distinction you were trying to make in the first place actually was. The revenue is the same no matter where growth occurs. And with increased console sales compared to the prior year tied together with 150% growth year or over year, it suggests that Game Pass might be doing even better this year than it did last year.
This is also the strongest Q1 ever for Xbox.
tldr - you tried to take good Game Pass news and somehow turn it into bad Game Pass news. It's akin to when Brazil revealed that Game Pass on console made $2.9 billion for calendar year 2021 and people started saying "but what about PC?" Game Pass hasn't stopped growing during what has been called a very weak first party year for Xbox. That signals very positive things for a stacked 2023.
I hear you can kill them with fire
THEY SHOULD BE STOMPED ON!I hear you can kill them with fire
Chukhopops
Member
More GP users = More GP budget = more Big Cheese deals.
Everybody wins.
Everybody wins.
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
Seems really solid for the current climate and looming recession. Microsoft being honest and upfront about how tough 2023 is going to be.
Perfect scenario for them to weather the storm with series s and gamepass. Just, get those bloody games out MS. 2023 better be crazy.
Perfect scenario for them to weather the storm with series s and gamepass. Just, get those bloody games out MS. 2023 better be crazy.
Naru
Member
ELI5, what exactly does this mean?
Robb
Gold Member
Nothing outstanding it seems. But considering all the delays I guess they should be happy to see growth.
It’ll be more interesting next year when they start to push out heavy hitters like StarField and more first party games in general. I’m very curious to see if the numbers go up by a lot or not.
It’ll be more interesting next year when they start to push out heavy hitters like StarField and more first party games in general. I’m very curious to see if the numbers go up by a lot or not.
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Recession is coming or is here, which means that large consumer spending is going to be down and businesses are less likely to be hiring so laptop/pc demand and sales are going to decrease.
This impact MS and other companies (AMD) that have royalties based of laptop sales.
Jaybe
Member
For a major corporation in gaming on their earnings report, they handily share the least amount of information. We have much more to dissect on Sony’s and Nintendo’s and publishers like Embracer. This thread discusses those numbers. Microsoft thought the separation of PC Game Pass growth was so imperative to share as one of very few tidbits (just 5 in total with two of them being in the call!). So yeah, those numbers get discussed. Stop crying about.
ProtoByte
Weeb Underling
Why is an analyst celebrating the PC Gamepass percentage without even knowing what the absolute numbers are? For all we know that could be an increase from 1000 to 2590.
SenjutsuSage
Banned
The thread is discussing the numbers and information Microsoft gave, not numbers and information they didn't give, but you wish they did.
Numbers and information - might I add - they rarely, if ever, give. We can't know for sure what PC Game Pass growing 159% compared to the prior 3-month period in 2021 means in pure numbers, but in the grand scheme, it's $9.99 or $14.99 all the same. Game Pass Ultimate also gives you PC Game Pass, for the record, so that's clearly being counted also. All we do know for a fact is that it's excellent news for Game Pass as a whole. That's the way this thing works. More subscribers on either end lifts all boats.
Microsoft as a "major corporation in gaming" isn't anything like any of those companies you compared them to. They bring in significantly more revenue and operating income as a nearly 2 trillion dollar corporation, where a significant majority of that revenue and operating income doesn't have a thing to do with the gaming portion of the business. Therefore Microsoft does not need to fully expose all the internal numbers of a lesser segment, especially when they're telling their investors the only parts they give a damn about. Investors clearly don't care so long as the overall company numbers look good, so that's why Microsoft is able to get away with that.
Till then, know what investors DO care about? That Microsoft during the quarter gave back $9.7 billion to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends.
Perhaps once they complete the Activision deal and begin reporting Microsoft Gaming as its own separate segment, we will then start to get deeper details into the numbers, though I doubt it still even then because it isn't competitively wise to do so. Keep reporting the public numbers at the start of the new year as always. Revealing the breakdowns and exact numbers could impact their negotiating footing in the middle of trying to work out a contract with partners to get games added to Game Pass.
But let's have a look at what was said about gaming, and in particular Xbox Game Pass subscriber growth in Microsoft's investor call transcript. It becomes pretty clear that Game Pass on consoles OBVIOUSLY was not flat as you are implying. Just because they don't cite as big a percentage increase as the one experienced on PC Game Pass doesn't mean it didn't grow meaningfully in line with their expectations or that it isn't clearly chipping in a lot more revenue than PC Game Pass.
Taken from Microsoft's earnings call transcript this is what was said about gaming: Pay special attention to what they say is offsetting declines in their More Personal Computing segment (Xbox console sales), and what specifically in gaming is helping them offset declines in other areas of the business (Xbox Game Pass Subscriptions Growth - not PC Game Pass Subscriptions growth).
In fact, you will see even in their Q2 outlook that while they expect gaming revenue to decline in the low-to-mid teens, and for Xbox content and services revenue to decline in the low-to-mid teens, what they still appear confident will happen is that Xbox Game Pass subscribers will continue to grow and partially offset that. They realize this time they don't have the same big first-party launches as they did in 2021, so they expect revenue declines.
Jaybe
Member
The thread is discussing the numbers and information Microsoft gave, not numbers and information they didn't give, but you wish they did.
Numbers and information - might I add - they rarely, if ever, give. We can't know for sure what PC Game Pass growing 159% compared to the prior 3-month period in 2021 means in pure numbers, but in the grand scheme, it's $9.99 or $14.99 all the same. Game Pass Ultimate also gives you PC Game Pass, for the record, so that's clearly being counted also. All we do know for a fact is that it's excellent news for Game Pass as a whole. That's the way this thing works. More subscribers on either end lifts all boats.
Microsoft as a "major corporation in gaming" isn't anything like any of those companies you compared them to. They bring in significantly more revenue and operating income as a nearly 2 trillion dollar corporation, where a significant majority of that revenue and operating income doesn't have a thing to do with the gaming portion of the business. Therefore Microsoft does not need to fully expose all the internal numbers of a lesser segment, especially when they're telling their investors the only parts they give a damn about. Investors clearly don't care so long as the overall company numbers look good, so that's why Microsoft is able to get away with that.
Till then, know what investors DO care about? That Microsoft during the quarter gave back $9.7 billion to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends.
Perhaps once they complete the Activision deal and begin reporting Microsoft Gaming as its own separate segment, we will then start to get deeper details into the numbers, though I doubt it still even then because it isn't competitively wise to do so. Keep reporting the public numbers at the start of the new year as always. Revealing the breakdowns and exact numbers could impact their negotiating footing in the middle of trying to work out a contract with partners to get games added to Game Pass.
But let's have a look at what was said about gaming, and in particular Xbox Game Pass subscriber growth in Microsoft's investor call transcript. It becomes pretty clear that Game Pass on consoles OBVIOUSLY was not flat as you are implying. Just because they don't cite as big a percentage increase as the one experienced on PC Game Pass doesn't mean it didn't grow meaningfully in line with their expectations or that it isn't clearly chipping in a lot more revenue than PC Game Pass.
Taken from Microsoft's earnings call transcript this is what was said about gaming: Pay special attention to what they say is offsetting declines in their More Personal Computing segment (Xbox console sales), and what specifically in gaming is helping them offset declines in other areas of the business (Xbox Game Pass Subscriptions Growth - not PC Game Pass Subscriptions growth).
In fact, you will see even in their Q2 outlook that while they expect gaming revenue to decline in the low-to-mid teens, and for Xbox content and services revenue to decline in the low-to-mid teens, what they still appear confident will happen is that Xbox Game Pass subscribers will continue to grow and partially offset that. They realize this time they don't have the same big first-party launches as they did in 2021, so they expect revenue declines.
I see you put a lot more stock in the words ‘offset by’ than I do, and I’ll leave it at that.