Microsoft CEO Boasts 200 Million Monthly Active Users, "Never Been More Excited" About Games Lineup

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood discussed the performance of the Xbox business, including the forecast for the current quarter.

[Jin_Sakai]

“Never Been More Excited" About Games Lineup“

It’s like a broken record. Put up or shut up.

[darthv72]

...oh the irony in that last statement.

[isarai]

Not really, they still haven't "Put up" besides Hi-Fi Rush. Now we're hearing Hellblade 2 is not only digital only, but no longer than the 1st game which you can beat in like 4hrs. I'm all for quality over quantity but you would think going from Indy to backed by one of the biggest corporations in the planet would see a sizeable increase in scope or production, especially after putting this game front and center of nearly every bit of promo for the Xbox brand. But on to the next dangling carrot am I right? Until that one under delivers too, rinse repeat for another 10yrs if they're around that long.

[VenomUK]

I believe that "200 Million Monthly Active Users" includes PlayStation players of Call of Duty and PC players of World of Warcraft.

Now Microsoft has the statistics it has probably found that it is making more profits from PlayStation gamers than Xbox gamers and this will affect its decisions on platform exclusivity.

[k2d]

@venomuk Watch it turn into an Xbox-first initiative down the line *sigh*

[itsmebryan]

@jin
What is Sony putting up this year? What first party games are coming out this year has you excited? What games are you expecting at today's State of play?

[neutralgamer1992]

sony has a history of over 2 decades of releasing excellent games. State of Play should help today make that point even stronger

[CrashMania]

I'm curious, do games like FF7 Rebirth, Rise of the Ronin just magically no longer count as playstation games or an advantageous release for playstation just for not being third party? Even though Sony own the former IP? And they aren't coming to Xbox as of now?

Goalposts moved and now only games directly made by first party count, even if the IP is owned and not made by a first party studio, they don't count. See how ridiculous it sounds? lol

[shinoff2183]

First party games are great and everything , but ps still gets a ton of 3rd party stuff devs dont bother to make for Xbox. As a fan of jrpgs Xbox can't hang so ps is the choice.

Plus I'm sure Sony has something. You guys went over a decade without multiple decent games in a year. If Sony has a slow couple years ps owners will be alright.

[andy85]

I mean Rebirth is coming out in a few weeks and that's gonna blow anything Xbox releases this year out of the water.

[kayoss]

Sony have proven enough. They have large library of in house exclusives that have been proven to be excellent games. before you ask about Sony, look at the history of xbox for the last 15 years, what have they've done last generation and so far what have they done for this generation in terms of excellent games.

[TheEroica]

Thank you Sony fans for funding the next several Xbox games!

[InUrFoxHole]

😆 🤣 😂

[BlackTar187]

Imagine writing this as if the only reason you xbox peeps have no games and really haven’t in like 8 years is because there wasn’t enough money from trillion dollar MS.

[CrashMania]

'as well as mobile, where we now, have over 200 million monthly active users alone, inclusive of Activision Blizzard King'

There's your context. They'll probably start including every playstation\switch player playing an activision game next, if they haven't already in that figure.

[darthv72]

...as they should

[Crows90]

That's true...publishers do that

[Abriael]

I mean, it's not "next." They're included.

[raWfodog]

The 'Pay to Win' mentality isn't just for weak gamers anymore.

[itsmebryan]

@raW
What do you mean? Does that also count for all the 3rd party exclusives Sony has paid for this year?

Microsoft bought ABK for a reason and it looks like it paid off. Compared to Sony's Bungie purchase, which one seems like a better buy now?🤔

[InUrFoxHole]

@itsmebryan
What are you going on about man? All of sonys studios were built from the ground up by devs who knew no matter what they were going to make it could only be done because of the sony banner, not their talent.

[OtterX]

Look what we m̶a̶d̶e̶ bought!

[InUrFoxHole]

New goal post inbound 👍🏽

[crazyCoconuts]

Lot of emphasis on cloud streaming, didn't see any call outs on the console business.
However he did reiterate that the games covered earlier this year are slated for Xbox and not PlayStation.
Really curious on whether any of the rumors re: physical games, console future, and exclusives are true - if they are he's not signalling too much at this point.

[DarXyde]

This is how they'll justify their bonuses, I guess. Maybe it's just me, but this flex after layoffs really rubs me the wrong way.

I get that this is a financial earnings call, but it was less than a week ago we were talking about people losng their jobs. Just comes across as distasteful.

Honestly, I'd like to see some product boycotting, but if 2023's Call of Duty can still be profitable despite all of the issues, I don't have much hope.

There will always be a contingent of fans that, regardless of what happens to the workers, will embrace the products as Game Pass Day One perks. Even so, you always want to hope there's a come to Jesus moment.

[crazyCoconuts]

There's no come to Jesus for high-level execs, really. They all have golden parachutes so even if they get canned they walk out with a ton of $. And they're usually so slick they can spin a failure like a success so they weasel their way into their next great job.

[DarXyde]

The come to Jesus content was for gamers that continue to support them, actually. I agree, there's no moment humanity for them.

But I don't think they "weasel their way" into another great job. If anything, I think you can be catastrophic and still land at a good job based on your personality. There's a certain personality type you'll find in an exec and I suspect that matters more than actually doing a good job. But that's just me. Basic things like did they crumble under pressure when confronted by a controversy, are they willing to fire as many people as necessary for the company's bottom line regardless of the pleading from workers you face, etc.

[crazyCoconuts]

I agree with you. What I mean by "weasel" i guess is the way they spin the truth. Like, if Phil were to leave right now to go work at... let's say the NFL as an executive. The CEO of the NFL isn't going to know the inside story on gaming and everything he did / didn't do for Xbox as a brand. Phil will say he led the company to record levels of revenue, modernized and transformed gaming by bringing in GamePass and the cloud, and created the most diverse executive lineups in the industry. Something like that. At that level, they can make almost anything smell like roses.

[Crows90]

Deathbed ...that's most people's come to Jesus moment.

[MrDead]

Essentially they are bragging about buying a successful pre-made business then firing lots of people that helped to create the success.

[Crows90]

And giving the finger to most gamers

[InUrFoxHole]

Good cry moar

[MrDead]

@InUr
Tell that to the thousands of devs that just lost their jobs.

[TwoPicklesGood]

Xbox has some great releases this year so if they can keep that momentum going forward each year they'll be on a good place. This might be the first generation that I buy an Xbox to go along with my ps5.

[CantThinkOfAUsername]

They'll be great once they're released and are actually good.

[BlackTar187]

Why would you buy an xbox ?

[Profchaos]

The new just wait for e3

Also a really inappropriate time to be out making statements like this

Haven't addressed the firings or the all digital rumours

[Hofstaderman]

Because its true. They wouldnt release a statement until the last possible moment, they using their ambassador influencers to soften the blow first. Look at the vids being posted by Colt Eastwood etc....its very apparent.

[YourMommySpoils]

Sure sure he is. Just another MS hoax marketing scheme in one day. Seems someone's scared about State of Play tomorrow.

[MrDead]

You purchased a pre-made business with millions of monthly users, the only input MS has had is how many people get fired because of your buyouts and how much CEO's and shareholders will benefit.

[anast]

The games are not going to do as well as they would like for two reasons: They cut every corner imaginable and not very many people game on Xbox. If they take care of the first, the second one will change.

[BrainSyphoned]

The real reason they added Candy Crush and WoW wasn't the money, it was the fake numbers they can generate.

[CPTN MITCHELL]

2 years later and no game pass update and 200 million users but no break down showing what percentage is Xbox 😂

[Plague-Doctor27]

The 200 million MAUs sounds like he's only talking about mobile right? He says "alone" so doubt this is the entire Xbox division. ABK was previously 300 million MAU even before the merger (roughly 200 million for King and 100 million for Activision/Blizzard)

[Destiny1080]

it went from 5 million to 200 million over night ???

[jznrpg]

Spin masters at work

[__y2jb]

They have so much scope now to twist and distort the true state of their gaming business. Basically you will never know just how bad xbox is doing because they will hide behind twisted metrics such as including playstation cod players and mobile candy crush players.

[Stanjara]

Cod, WOW, Diablo, Elder Scrolls online, Minecraft accounts are included I guess.
All these great franchises created by Microsoft - aka best company for gamers. /s

Oh and I don't want to forget - while SONY... waiting for Sweet Baby Inc. to tell them what to narratively do next.
We are all waiting...

[Spenok]

Never been more excited for their games lineup.

Well, they didn't have to WORK for it. They just bought other people's work and claimed it as their own. That isn't too hard >_>

[RhinoGamer88]

Redfall and Star Field not included. #abandoned

[waderae]

"200 Million Monthly Active Users" - yes they include the 150+ hours of minecraft ios by my 7 year old. stats from MS are work absolutely nothing.