The latest earnings results from Microsoft further justify its decision to port Xbox games to PlayStation, with hardware revenue continuing to drop.
The decision to bring Xbox exclusives to PlayStation may have been met with some backlash from particularly devout Xbox fans, but it’s one that Microsoft is committed to.
It’s only had a few console exclusives so far this year, with the rest of its line-up being multiplatform launches or PlayStation 5 ports. Just recently, Forza Horizon 5 made the jump just weeks after the Indiana Jones game arrived on Sony’s platform.
This strategy is so far paying off, with Microsoft’s newest earnings results revealing that the company ended its last fiscal quarter (January 2025 to March 2025) with the most pre-orders and pre-installs across both its own storefront and the PlayStation Store.
Essentially, this means PlayStation owners are putting more-pre orders down for Microsoft published games than Sony ones, which only further justifies Microsoft’s decision to launch more of its games on PlayStation 5.
Granted, Microsoft has the advantage of owning Bethesda and Activision Blizzard, both of which are responsible for incredibly popular franchises that have established audiences on PlayStation.
In fact, it’s the acquisition of Activision Blizzard and its Call Of Duty series that makes Microsoft the largest video game publisher on the planet.
Plus, Sony’s own output for 2025 has been awfully dry so far. In that January to March period, the only first party console games it had available for pre-order were MLB The Show 25 and the Days Gone remaster (Ghost Of Yōtei pre-orders only went live last week).
Regardless, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella boasted the stats in an earnings call, adding that with the Xbox Play Anywhere feature, over 1,000 games are available across console and PC.
Xbox’s cloud gaming feature also seems to be getting more popular, with it setting a new record of ‘150 million hours played for the first time this quarter.’
As for actual revenue, gaming revenue has gone up by 5%, while Xbox content and services revenue increased by 8%, which Microsoft attributes to continued growth for Call Of Duty, Minecraft, and Xbox Game Pass.
Revenue for PC Game Pass specifically has gone up by more than 45%. Perhaps that’s the most popular option since Microsoft hasn’t touched on revenue for Game Pass on console.
Hardware revenue has continued to drop by 6%, but that’s hardly surprising when console sales have been flagging for ages now. It’s why Microsoft has begun releasing games on PlayStation to begin with though that doesn’t mean it’s abandoning hardware altogether.
Exact details remain vague, but Microsoft has been blatantly teasing a dedicated Xbox handheld as well as a new home console that will be the ‘biggest technological leap ever in a generation.’
What that means is similarly unclear. It certainly can’t refer to improved graphics since console visuals have frankly plateaued this generation. It may have something to do with AI since Microsoft’s been going all in on the technology.
Nadella even reiterated in the earnings call how AI is being integrated into Xbox with the Copilot for Gaming feature as well as the company’s plans to automatically generate gameplay through its Muse AI model, much to the dismay of actual developers.
Xbox stands to have another solid quarter thanks to the aforementioned PlayStation 5 launches of Indiana Jones and Forza Horizon 5, plus the remaster of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion.
Microsoft has recently been facing calls for a boycott by the Palestinian-led BDS movement for its ties to Israel, specifically for providing its cloud technology and technical support as part of the Gaza war efforts (per a Guardian report). But it remains to be seen how much of an impact this will have on the company.
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