Today, Microsoft released its quarterly earnings ending on March 31, 2018. The report shows revenue of $26.8 billion and $7.4 billion in net income over the past three months. Net income is the profit after the costs of goods sold, expenses, and taxes are deducted.
Aside from that, it looks like the company's gaming division witnessed a few strong months. Gaming revenue increased by 18 percent, to $2.25 billion, mostly driven by software and services revenue growth. The 24 percent software and services increase is mostly from third-party game sales.
A few years ago, Microsoft stopped reporting Xbox One sales figures and instead measured success through engagement. Over the past three months, Xbox Live monthly active users grew 13 percent year-over-year to 59 million, consistent with the last quarter. This is surprising because the quarter before this was the lucrative holiday season which usually means more console purchases and usage.
It's great to see that Xbox is doing so well and hitting 59 million monthly active users even after the holiday season. The continued success of games like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Sea of Thieves probably contributed to that. Hopefully this means that Phil Spencer, the Executive Vice President of Gaming, will be able to invest more in quality first-party experiences along the lines of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and God of War for the platform.
In the earnings call, Microsoft stressed that a large portion of its quarterly expenses were due to investment in gaming. Hopefully that means that the company is developing numerous first-party titles.
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