A few years ago, when it got aware of the fact that Xbox One sales were being a disaster, Microsoft stopped sharing sales data and started to push Xbox Live monthly active users as a metric of the success of its gaming division.
A few years ago, when it got aware of the fact that Xbox One sales were being a disaster, Microsoft stopped sharing sales data and started to push Xbox Live monthly active users as a metric of the success of its gaming division.
Now, it’s stopping sharing Xbox Live monthly active users data as well, perhaps because it has started to note a flection in those numbers that might have harmed in the long run the idea that people have of the online gaming platform.
Going forward, Microsoft will only share Xbox content and services growth, which is a percentage that covers the year-over-year of growth in terms of revenue of the services offered by Xbox and Xbox brand, which should cover Xbox Game Pass, software sales and Xbox Live among the others.
Gaming revenue will still be disclosed in the Securities and Exchange Commission filings, which is a given considering that Microsoft is quoted at the stock exchange, but sure enough, this is going to make even a more difficult task to read into data and understand how Xbox is doing in the future.
There are no clues about the situation changing with the arrival of next-generation consoles, and that’s not going to change if you ask me, mainly because Microsoft has already made known that it doesn’t really care about selling consoles but has implemented a philosophical change, if you might say so, that puts services on top of the priority list.
How much is Microsoft committed to services?
It will longer include Gaming Revenue or XBL Monthly Users in its earnings reports. (Though will keep Gaming Revenue in SEC filings.)
Instead, it’s reporting “Xbox Content & Services Revenue Growth.”
Includes subscriptions & cloud. pic.twitter.com/Vi8qokX6cC
— Dom (@DomsPlaying) September 18, 2019
