Microsoft powered through supply chain issues to post huge gains in Xbox hardware sales during the first quarter of its fiscal 2022.
The tech giant saw revenue rise 22% year-over-year to $45.3 billion, which was split between cloud services ($17 billion), productivity and business services like Microsoft Office ($15 billion), and its More Personal Computing segment ($13.3 billion) which includes Xbox.
- Xbox hardware revenue grew 166% year-over-year thanks to new consoles.
- However, content and services revenue was nearly flat, with 2% year-over-year growth.
- An Xbox exec claimed the company has never turned a profit on Xbox hardware during testimony in the Epic Games v. Apple case.
Key to the company’s gaming strategy is its Xbox Game Pass subscription service, which provides access to new titles and a large library of classic games. The service includes most of Microsoft’s in-house games and dozens more through a partnership with Electronic Arts.
The company said in January that Game Pass had 18 million subscribers. In September, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said the subscriber count was around 30 million, which Microsoft has yet to confirm.
Supply chain shortages have limited the availability of both the Xbox Series X|S and Sony’s PlayStation 5. Toshiba said in September that the shortages could last until 2023.
