Satya Nadella says Microsoft will continue to invest aggressively in gaming

By Asher Madan
published

Microsoft is going all in on gaming.

Yesterday, Microsoft announced its FY18 Q4 earnings. According to the company, during the past fiscal year, the gaming division generated over $10 billion in revenue. In response to these figures, Microsoft head Satya Nadella emphasized the company's commitment to the Xbox brand. He mentioned that Microsoft is aggressively investing in content, community, and cloud services for games. You can read the excerpt compiled by DualShockers below.

In gaming, we're pursuing our expansive opportunity from the way games are created and distributed, to how they're played and viewed, surpassing $10 billion revenue this year for the first time. We're investing aggressively in content, community, and cloud services across every end-point to expand usage and deepen engagement with gamers... The combination of Xbox Live Game Pass subscription and Mixer are driving record levels of growth and engagement... PlayFab accelerates our vision to build a world-class cloud platform for the gaming industry across mobile, PC and console. The addition of five new gaming studios bolsters our first-party content development to support our fast-growing gaming services.

It's great to see that Microsoft will continue to strengthen its gaming division. Hopefully this means that the company will also acquire more studios in the future. When the Xbox One X's successor launches, it also needs to incorporate advanced technology not found in competing consoles. We already know that Microsoft is developing a cloud streaming service and can't wait to see what the coming years hold for the brand.

Keep an eye on WindowsCentral.com/Gaming for all the latest in Xbox and Windows 10 gaming, accessories, news, and reviews!

Asher Madan
Asher Madan

Asher Madan handles gaming news for Windows Central. Before joining Windows Central in 2017, Asher worked for a number of different gaming outlets. He has a background in medical science and is passionate about all forms of entertainment, cooking, and antiquing.

53 Comments
  • with how well the xbox gaming division is doing, they should keep this aggressive approach up and going. even Michael Pachter said something positive about xbox for a change :D
  • Satya also said they would continue to invest in Windows Phone, even if partners didn't.
    Just saying🙂
  • The difference being Microsoft making a lot of money from gaming.
  • Yeah like WP ever came close to that 10 billion annual revenue... Satya chooses to build upon established business, whether that is the right approach or not is up for debate. But conflating WP and their gaming Division is more then just foolish!
  • Ok about the revenue but what about the profit?
  • Damn, not in before Rodney. Same comment as his.
  • And they still do actually. :)
  • that's also the guy who said "Mobile first" so i wouldn't take his words seriously
  • Exactly my thought. Amen brother.
  • Except this fits quite clearly into his already well known cloud vision. Obvious to me.
  • People don't want "cloud" games on consoles. They want to be able to own them, because they want to be able to resell them. The idea that a system had to always be online to play games is what relegated Microsoft to third place in gaming.
  • How much are games reselling for anyways?
  • But a physical copy cannot let me run on a xb1x and xb1 (and past and future Xbox) simultaneously. It cannot let me run on a PC or WoA. Waste shelf/storage space? Swap disc? bring the disc back and forth between home and office? Impractical. Digital sales is actually going strong tho... The always online requirement bombed Xbox, but the world / trend has changed.
  • I'm afraid you're stuck in the wrong century. Discs are extremely impractical. Personally I hope the next Xbox generation has a version without optical drive. Better spend those resources on an SSD.
  • LOL you actually want options removed?
    You want to cut off the people who still prefer physical games just because you think they are impractical? LOL
  • Yes. I want the optical disk removed and you luddites get with the 20th century. My optical disk is just a waste of space and value. I would have swapped it for more disk space.
  • I actually laugh at MS/XB "fans" hyping the 4K BR player but want to get rid of it as soon as possible...
    Laughable... Digital games was suppose to be cheaper than physical games but at this stage they are generally more expensive.
    Physical disc is regulating the market and the prices. Having digital only will also kill off the used games market. Also what happens to those who have a game library or game collection?
    What about retailers? There will probably be less retailers selling games, meaning less exposure, meaning less people into gaming... It's amazing how people want to use the "It's the 21st century" argument to defend companies and goes against consumers.
    Why not have two versions? One normal version, and a cheaper version without disks for lazy people who can't get up and swap disk every few days...
  • Should they also add a floppy drive and a VHS slot so you can have all the options?
  • Lol! Don't forget the tape drive for all that game storage!
  • AH AH. So you must be really pissed off at MS for putting a 4K BR drive and increasing the price of the console...
  • Good thing Microsoft is giving people options then. Also, digital games are on the rise so not as many people care about reselling games as you think.
  • How is MS 3rd?
  • Sales in the last year or so I guess...
    Sony 1st
    Nintendo 2nd
    MS 3rd
  • Source?
  • Look at NPD sales.
    Wait, do you think XB1 sold better than PS4 or/and Switch in the last 12 months?
  • "People" or you?
  • I only ever buy digital games now, so your assumption is incorrect.
  • You're making your case a generality?
  • I love posts that claim to speak for everyone. Just once though I wish they'd cite their sources. The other problem here is that Microsoft is not just talking about console gaming. We know they are still investing in consoles, but there is so much more to this initiative than that.
  • mobile first : WoA -> AR MR, IOT (and connect different type of Windows with Azure and AI)
    WinMobile (the not-Windows) is just not possible to succeed, living on life support will not help.
  • They've been clearly focused on mobile and cloud. Just because your crappy Lumia is no longer supported doesn't mean they've abandoned mobile. It just means that they are focusing on where the money is... because... you know... they're a business. 😎
  • This is good, bold and optimistic approach.
  • Nadela cant be trusted. But Microsoft needs to be more present in mainstream and XBox is all that is left.
  • If he can't be trusted then how is Microsoft is such a big profit every year? Cause mobile devices is not in his vision anymore besides the andromeda phone, does not mean he does a bad job overall. His decisions on things are working and no petty 'they need to do this and that' by some outsider will stop him from making good decisions.
  • Ignore the "I'm hater because I want MS to support my failed Lumia forever" people. They're too irrational to conversate with.
  • Pretty sure the surface line is pretty mainstream so is Windows 10
  • GET IT MS! You have the money to attract developers. Satya Nadella has slowly, but surely, changed the culture but it can be better. I want Ms to bring things we have never experienced and their cloud infrastructure can catipult it there.
  • Satya says and has said allot of things.
  • They are missing a huge opportunity in gaming, the mobile space. Why are they still refusing to allow 3rd party developers use Xbox Live on mobile apps? Just to give you an idea of the market they are missing... https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/gaming/worldwide-mobile-game-spe...
  • As long it is raking in $, he will support it. WM was bleeding money and got axed. Surface lost a billion but it got turned around. The guy is practical and do what he was hired to do. Make more money.
  • I still miss WM: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-4581_en.htm . It is not a joke. In Europe where major operators are like Telia and others they were only pushing Androids. Get 100km south and you would see Windows Phone billboards all over the city. No Telia in other country. That says something. Sitting on Android for 1 year and hate it every day in every app, in every missing integration. No dismiss button on Alarm - how stupid is that? Calculator does not have converter. Can't copy whole URL in browser and need to do selection first. It is just stupid programmers pile of apps and total crap. And apps are crap as well - 99,9% of them. Even the big ones like spotify - add to playlist, why can't you make it convenient to manage playlists.
  • Thanks goodness Surface turned around before Nadella took control...
  • Nadella made that positive turn around for surface happen. What are u talking about? xDD
  • It was Nadella's idea to stop making tablets and focus on laptops and other classic form factors?
  • I just want the entire gears & halo franchise on pc
  • As he said for mobile?
  • Microsoft promised a new Age of Empires (4 or 5?) for years already. It's still "under development" by Relic Entertainment, but no news whatsoever. Last year, they put out a trailer which was pretty much a collage made of art assets from previous games.
    They also promised a re-made AOE3, but no news either. Last time I heard from Relic Ent. they weren't making much progress and they were losing some employees.
    Microsoft delayed making a new AOE game so much that the franchise is pretty much dead. Sure, the RTS genre is no longer so popular as it once was, but there are still games like Starcraft which are still played.
    I've been part of the AOE3 community for years and everyone is very disappointed by the way Microsoft treated this franchise.
  • Yeah, I really hope they show us more of AOE 4.
    AOE definitive edition was a mess when it released on Win10 and there has been very little on that from MS. It almost look as though they move from projects to projects. These days it's all about Mixer and services.
  • They displayed over 50+ games at E3 including 10+ exclusives. So your statement is incorrect 'These days it's all about Mixer and services'. Just get over it already.
  • lol, I was starting to miss your bs.
  • Just like he said he would in Windows Phones. The dude is a liar. I remember distinctly...if no one else will, we will make the hardware for it and we will maintain a presence...😂😂😂
  • B
  • last time Nadella say something similar was about mobile.... sigh :'(