“Microsoft Xbox sees 30% drop in console sales, but Game Pass continues to grow”

It’s been an awkward week for Microsoft…and it’s only Wednesday. This day dawns with the unexpected announcement that the British CMA has blocked the purchase of Activision-Blizzard, but yesterday there was already bad news, as Xbox reported a significant 30% drop in console sales for the most recent fiscal quarter.

Its about weakest sales quarter for Xbox, since the debut of Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S in 2020, a phenomenon that Microsoft attributes to inventory problems. The good news is that, as expected, Xbox Game Pass continues to grow, and the results of the Xbox content and services area reflect it, with a 3% increase in sales.

In any case, it was a discouraging third quarter of the year for the gaming area in general, whose sales fell 4%. It is worth clarifying that the fiscal year that Microsoft manages runs from April to March, therefore, this is Q3, despite being only in the spring of the conventional calendar.

It should be noted, to be fair, that, on a large scale, Microsoft produced relatively bad results -for a technological giant-, that is, it was not only Xbox that presented a performance below expectations. Sales of the Windows licensing area (OEM) fell 28%; and the distribution of computers and laptops fell 30%.

And even so, Microsoft billed almost 53 billion dollarsof which, 18 billion dollars were profits.

Xbox buys Activision… or no

As we mentioned, the news pales in comparison to the announcement, this morning, of the blockade of the purchase of Activision by Xbox, which was decreed by the UK CMA, the implications of which are important for the future of the Xbox business and the gaming industry in general. . Microsoft will appeal the decision, but now faces two firm hurdles: the CMA and the US FTC, which will take the Redmonds to court in August. The European Commission must issue its verdict in May.