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[LectureMaster]

Xbox has 20 video game franchises that have earned $1 billion

After ABK, Microsoft now has 20x separate video game franchises that have made at least $1 billion in both sales revenues and in-game microtransactions.

www.tweaktown.com

A year ago, after Microsoft closed its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard King, we attempted to wrangle up the top billion-dollar franchises that Xbox now owns. After all, Activision had a total of 8x separate franchises that each earned over $1 billion in revenue before the Microsoft buyout. Matching that up with other games in Microsoft's already-sizable first-party lineup, we came up with the number 17.

That number is actually a bit higher. In a recent annual report filing, Microsoft says that it owns 20 billion-dollar gaming franchises.

And one of these franchises, Call of Duty, has made more than $31 billion in revenue.

"We are bringing great games to more people on more devices. With our acquisition of Activision Blizzard King, which closed October 2023, we've added hundreds of millions of players to our ecosystem.

We now have 20 franchises that have generated over $1 billion in lifetime revenue--from Candy Crush, Diablo, and Halo, to Warcraft, Elder Scrolls, and Gears of War.

And with Xbox cloud gaming, we continue to innovate to offer players more ways to experience the games they love-where, when, and how they want.

Finally, we brought four of our fan-favorite titles to Nintendo Switch and Sony PlayStation for the first time, as we continue to extend our content to new platforms."

What's most interesting is that as of October 2023, during a Q1 earnings call, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Xbox had around 13x franchises of this caliber:

"With Activision Blizzard King, we will now add significant depth to our content portfolio. We will have 13 billion dollar-plus franchises - from Candy Crush, Diablo, and Halo, to Warcraft, Elder Scrolls, and Gears of War."

Below are franchises we came up with, but obviously there are more:

• Halo
• Minecraft
• Forza
• Age of Empires
• Flight Simulator
• Gears of War
• Call of Duty
• Candy Crush
• Warcraft
• Diablo
• Overwatch
• Guitar Hero
• Tony Hawk
• Crash Bandicoot
• The Elder Scrolls
• Fallout
• Doom

What you guys think are the last three? Starfield? Sea of Thieves? State of Decay?

 

[LectureMaster]

 

[Banjo64]

The least impressive flex ever.

 

[Bloobs]

 

[Skifi28]

They paid nearly 100 billion to get many of them. Not exactly impressive.

 

[SJRB]

Okay, congrats?

 

[Yoshichan]

Half of these aren't even Microsoft lol

 

[RoboFu]

Only about 69 billion to go! ( I don't know the actual number )

 

[HeWhoWalks]

I mean, acquisition or not, it’s $ in their pockets, right?

If they continue putting games on other consoles, it’s only going to continue! Business and Microsoft knows how to make money, despite the issues with Xbox.

 

[Kikorin]

If they'd have invested these 69$ billions on buying copies of Microsoft Studios games, they'd actually have even more of them.

 

[Dodo123]

"have earned" and won't earn anymore

 

[TintoConCasera]

"Look at all the cool shit we've bought!"

 

[BlackTron]

Investors we'd like to relieve ourselves of talking about the present for a moment to point out how much Indiana Jones and Star Wars made in the past, before we had it. Pretty cool, right?

 

[Esparadrapo]

The least impressive flex ever.

Indeed.

Talking revenue up is a losers contest and we know that Microsoft hides all the metrics that matter. Hiding hardware units and Game Pass figures speaks way louder than whatever this is.

 

[Little Chicken]

Ignore the jealous snakes , Satan Nadella.

Congrats Xbox! Sailing into next gen on success after success

 

[Damigos]

Nice, do this 68 more times and you re even

 

[Bojanglez]

Tremendous achievement for all the hard work and good decision making that the XBox team have put in over the years.

 

[Vyse]

You go girl!

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Kamala says her administration did a great job too.

 

[HeWhoWalks]

Ignore the jealous snakes , Satan Nadella.

Congrats Xbox! Sailing into next gen on success after success

 

[keefged4]

"I'll take the lot" Harry Potter vibes. Then do nothing with the IPs. Great job!

 

[Donald mac Ronald]

Ignore the jealous snakes , Satan Nadella.

Congrats Xbox! Sailing into next gen on success after success

Is this satire?

 

[Kvally]

 

[TintoConCasera]

Satan Nadella

lol

 

[Cyberpunkd]

They paid nearly 100 billion to get many of them. Not exactly impressive.

After a century they will break even!

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

Lol...

Why accomplish anything when you can buy the accomplishment?

 

[Gojiira]

Funny how few them can be attributed to Xbox or Microsoft…

 

[Kokoloko85]

Like it or not, Xbox secureed themselves into gaming with these purchases. It was a safe exit from console platform to genuine 3rd party publisher.

If they didnt have Bethesda and Activision. Would there have even been a Xbox Series? Xbox Series was carried by Bethesda/Gamepass “hype”.
Without Bethesda and Activision, Xbox would of been done by now, and being a 3rd party without Bethesda and Activision, would of been a total failure for MS.

They will basically be around forever unless they really go full on fuck up with every title. But with the likes of Elder Scrolls, Doom, COD, Minecraft, Fallout, Diablo, they are always gonna have customers now

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

all thanks to their hard work and consistency. Xbox truly is the the best, biggest and most successful videogames publisher

 

[adamsapple]

Ignore the jealous snakes , Satan Nadella.

Congrats Xbox! Sailing into next gen on success after success

 

[DenchDeckard]

Suffering from success!

 

[Sooner]

And it only cost them 80 billion

 

[OmegaSupreme]

Lmao. Yep. They've bought a lot of successful franchises lately.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Like it or not, Xbox secureed themselves into gaming with these purchases. It was a safe exit from console platform to genuine 3rd party publisher.

If they didnt have Bethesda and Activision. Would there have even been a Xbox Series? Xbox Series was carried by Bethesda/Gamepass “hype”.
Without Bethesda and Activision, Xbox would of been done by now, and being a 3rd party without Bethesda and Activision, would of been a total failure for MS.

They will basically be around forever unless they really go full on fuck up with every title. But with the likes of Elder Scrolls, Doom, COD, Minecraft, Fallout, Diablo, they are always gonna have customers now

never underestimate their ability to fuck things up. Xbox is never going to have the success that should have in relation to it's size and potential. in fact; because all of their acquisitions and their current situation, their future is more uncertain than ever.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Damn, XBOX is proving haters wrong. Just you wait for Halo Studios to start the GOTY machine.

 

[Markio128]

I have very little respect for anybody who champions the confusing monstrosity that Xbox has become.

 

[TBiddy]

I have very little respect for anybody who champions the confusing monstrosity that Xbox has become.

I'd widen that to anybody who champions for any major corporate entity. Corporations are not your friends.

 

[FrankWza]

My Psygnosis-sense is tingling

 

[Ozriel]

They paid nearly 100 billion to get many of them. Not exactly impressive.

Do they own the franchises?

Have these franchises grossed over a billion dollars?

That’s all that’s relevant to this discussion, tbh.

 

[Cakeboxer]

I'd widen that to anybody who champions for any major corporate entity. Corporations are not your friends.

Right statement in the wrong forum.

 

[Venom Snake]

This looks more like a train wreck in slow motion.

 

[Skifi28]

Do they own the franchises?

Have these franchises grossed over a billion dollars?

That’s all that’s relevant to this discussion, tbh.

What you listed are the facts, but what is there to discuss if we don't give our opinion? In my opinion it's an unimpressive accomplishment and they now own even more franchises to kill and studios to mismanage and close.

 

[Ozriel]

After a century they will break even!

Apparently if you buy a house and put it up for rent, you only break even when you’ve collected rent that covers the purchase price. It’s a bad investment until then.

This looks more like a train wreck in slow motion.

‘Train wreck’?
From shareholders point of view, revenue’s going up.

 

[Unknown?]

Ignore the jealous snakes , Satan Nadella.

Congrats Xbox! Sailing into next gen on success after success

You realize Satan loses in the end, right?

 

[Ozriel]

What you listed are the facts, but what is there to discuss if we don't give our opinion? In my opinion it's an unimpressive accomplishment and they now own even more franchises to kill and studios to mismanage and close.

looking at the hype around the new Call of Duty and it doesn’t look ‘killed’ to me.

But I guess any day now? Pray hard enough and perhaps it might just happen.

 

[DenchDeckard]

You realize Satan loses in the end, right?

with the current state of the world. id say hes winning.

 

[Kokoloko85]

never underestimate their ability to fuck things up. Xbox is never going to have the success that should have in relation to it's size and potential. in fact; because all of their acquisitions and their current situation, their future is more uncertain than ever.

Oh I dont.
If MS manage to slower or kill sales with Elder Scrolls, Minecraft, Doom, Diablo and COD like they done with Halo and Gears. It would be grand achievement, whatever MS touches mostly messes up

 

[Skifi28]

looking at the hype around the new Call of Duty and it doesn’t look ‘killed’ to me.

But I guess any day now? Pray hard enough and perhaps it might just happen.

I'm not doing any praying, just observing how they've nearly killed some of my favourite franchises.

 

[twilo99]

They paid nearly 100 billion to get many of them. Not exactly impressive.

It depends … are those acquired assets appreciating or not?

 

[poodaddy]

"have earned" and won't earn anymore

? I'm pretty sure those IP's will keep moving numbers, especially on all platforms. What makes you think they won't earn anymore?