Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has claimed during the company’s Q3 FY25 earnings call overnight that the Xbox format holder was the top publisher on the PlayStation Store during the first quarter of this year in regards to preorders and preinstalls.
The executive announced that gaming revenue was up 5% year-on-year, with Xbox Game Pass, Call of Duty, and Minecraft growth driving Xbox content and services revenue during the period, which saw an increase of 8%. On the flip side, revenue for Xbox hardware was down by 6% compared to the same period last year.
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We continue to transform the business and focus on margin expansion, as we bring our games to over 500 million monthly active users across devices. We ended the quarter as the top publisher by pre-orders and pre-installs on both Xbox and the PlayStation Store. PC Game Pass revenue increased over 45% year-over-year.
With Xbox Play Anywhere, players now can access more than 1,000 games they can play across console and PC. And just last week we brought cloud gaming to LG TVs. Cloud gaming set a new record, surpassing 150 million hours played for the first time this quarter.
In the last year Microsoft has adopted a multiplatform strategy by releasing a number of its first-party Xbox games on PlayStation and Nintendo formats, the most recent batch being Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Forza Horizon 5, which hit PS5 on April 17 and April 29, respectively.
Looking ahead, Gears of War Collection has been heavily rumoured to appear on the PS5, with leaker eXtas1s stating that the collection will be announced at June’s Xbox Game Showcase. The tipster had previously claimed that the Gears of War Collection come to Sony’s console day-and-date with PC and Xbox Series X/S versions.
[Source – VGC]