Today, Microsoft shared its earnings report for the first quarter of its fiscal year, which just so happens to also be the first almost-full quarter (minus just a couple of days) since Xbox head Asha Sharma announced “the most significant restructure in Xbox history.” While it’s certainly far too soon to meaningfully tell how much of an impact the elimination of over 1,600 jobs (3,200 by July of next year) and the separation from several beloved Microsoft-owned studios will have on Xbox’s financials, it is perhaps nonetheless notable that it thus far does not seem to have had any major effect on the number Microsoft considers important enough to share with investors.
For the first quarter (July, August, and September) of the new fiscal year, Microsoft reported that Xbox content and services revenue was down 2 percent thanks to declines in third-party content and in Xbox Game Pass, which saw a price cut take effect back in April. Hardware revenue dropped 14 percent year-over-year, something it’s been doing reliably almost every quarter for years now (down 13 percent YOY last quarter, 33 percent the quarter prior, and so forth).
” The overall division Xbox is in (Devices and Consumer) saw its operating expenses drop 3 percent “driven by Xbox,” which potentially points to Sharma’s cuts managing to save some money. ” So at least in part, laying off all those Xbox employees is serving to help Microsoft spend more money on research and development for Windows, or search and advertising, or something else under that umbrella.
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