Microsoft gaming business now more than US$9bn

Gaming is now more than a US$9 billion (€7.8 billion) business for Microsoft and is “growing profitably,” according to company CEO Satya Nadella.

Speaking on the company’s fiscal fourth quarter earnings call, Nadella said that Xbox Live is now at 53 million members, up 8% year-on-year, and claimed that Microsoft is well positioned to claim a larger share of the games market across PC, console and mobile.

“The gaming world is evolving faster than ever before – from game play across multiple devices, to the explosive growth in streaming and eSports, to new subscription services and mixed reality scenarios,” he said.

“Our approach is to let gamers play the games they want, with the people they want, on the devices they want.”

Microsoft said that gaming revenue was up 3% as strength in Xbox software and services offset lower hardware revenue.

Overall for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 Microsoft reported operating income of US$5.3 billion, up 73% year-on-year following strong results from its Azure cloud business, which almost doubled its revenues.

Total net income was up 109% year-on-year to US$6.5 billion while revenue increased 13% to US$23.3 billion.

“Innovation across our cloud platforms drove strong results this quarter,” said Nadella. “Customers are looking to Microsoft and our thriving partner ecosystem to accelerate their own digital transformations and to unlock new opportunity in this era of intelligent cloud and intelligent edge.”