Xbox software sales up 11%, console revenue declines 29% due to lower prices, fewer units sold
Microsoft announced its fourth quarter and year end results for 2017, and while hardware revenue declined, revenue from Xbox software increased.
During the fourth quarter for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2017, gaming revenue increased 3% to $44 million thanks to strength in Xbox software and services, which helped offset the 29% decrease in Xbox hardware revenue.
Xbox software and services revenue increased 11%, primarily due to a higher volume of Xbox Live transactions. The Xbox hardware revenue decline was due to lower prices and a decline in volume of consoles sold.
Xbox Live monthly active users (MaU) continued to grow, with Q4 seeing a 8% increase in users yoy, bringing the total to 53 million across Xbox One, Windows 10 and mobile. During Q4 and year-end 2016, Xbox Live users totaled 49 million.
>Xbox One consoles and software are housed under More Personal Computing, and revenue for the sector was $8.8 billion for Q4 FY17, which is a 2% year-over-year (yoy) decline. However, this was attributed to lower phone revenue, which is also included in the sector.
For Q4, revenue was $23.3 billion, up 13% yoy and net income came in at $6.5 billion for the company as a whole. For the fiscal year, Microsoft reported $90.0 billion in revenue and $21.2 billion net income.
A call to investors will take place this evening, and if any interesting information comes out of it, we'll be sure to tell you about it.