Gaming Revenue For Microsoft Is Up, Hardware Is Down, And Call Of Duty Sets Game Pass And Sales Records

Time to look back at the Q1 results for Microsoft and see how things are shaking out in a post-Activision merger world. The company's quarter ended on September 30th and the financial in the gaming division are generally positive. While initial reports showed some downward trends right after the Activision Blizzard purchase and the company was hit hard by layoffs, financial outlooks are much improved in the latest report.

First up, gaming revenue. Revenue itself came in at $65.6 billion, an increase of over 16% compared to the same period last year. Net income hit the $24.7 billion mark, again an increase over last year. This time an increase of 11%.

While the Activision Blizzard King purchase has led to a revenue increase of 61% for the Xbox content and services portion of the business, Xbox hardware continues to slip. Sales of consoles was down 29% over the same period last year.

Game Pass itself is doing well, with revenue hitting a "new Q1 record for total revenue and average revenue per subscriber," according to CEO Satya Nadella. Of course, this comes after the price increase and tier package changes introduced earlier this year.

Next quarter's Game Pass numbers should be VERY interesting, though. Remember, they'll include the launch of Call of Duty Black Ops 6, a launch that Nadella says, "broke records" not only on Game Pass (being the first CoD to launch on Day One there), but also for general sales across all platforms. PlayStation and Steam saw a 60% increase in the game's sales and some analysts think the title could add 2-4 million subscribers to Game Pass's bottom line.