Mod Edit: If you're only here to console war, don't post.
From Microsoft's investor Q&A, someone asked Satya Nadella and Amy Hood about growth in gaming. A lot of information here.
https://www.dualshockers.com/xbox-one-engagement-strategy-gaming/
EDIT: Some clarification from Matt.
From Microsoft's investor Q&A, someone asked Satya Nadella and Amy Hood about growth in gaming. A lot of information here.
Asked to explain the large growth registered in gaming revenue, Nadella explained that Microsoft has a strategy for the gaming segment that really helps the company articulate both the growth opportunities as well as the investment across the various layers of the business.
According to Nadella, the Xbox One is the "highest-engagement console in the marketplace." Any time a new game releases, whether it's first or third-party, "the fact that Xbox is where the best engagement is driven benefits" Microsoft. As a platform owner, that's a "great growth area" for the company.
Yet the strategy doesn't stop there, because of Microsoft has Xbox Live, Game Pass, and Mixer are all additional opportunities to "really serve the gamers" as they play more games or watch games on different platforms.
The last element, which Nadella thinks is new and is already paying its dividends on the Azure growth side is that Microsoft has taken all the knowledge of what it means to build first-party games, and has built it into services in Azure for game developers. The PlayFab acquisition speaks directly to that. Those are the levers Microsoft has in gaming, and investors will see the effects on the More Personal Computing segment and overtime on Azure.
Hood added that she expects to see in the current quarter a continuation of the growth seen in the past quarter in Xbox software and services. Part of this is consistent even going back a few quarters. It has been a double-digit growing factor for a while, and it'll continue to be, despite the fact that there might be some volatility in the numbers.
https://www.dualshockers.com/xbox-one-engagement-strategy-gaming/
EDIT: Some clarification from Matt.
What this means is the average Xbox player spends more money then the average Playstation player. Which is true, and is absolutely a bright spot for the brand.
But it's also pretty normal. The more a console sells, the more it sells to a less "hardcore" player base, which means the spend per player will be diluted. The first 10 million people to buy a system will always be more valuable than the next 10 million, and so on.
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