It's no secret that Xbox has been lacking big first-party titles for quite a while now, and though it's ardent defenders will claim that doesn't matter, its earnings from last quarter are most definitely being affected by it. Revealed by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, both Xbox's gaming revenue and hardware revenue declined by 13 percent during the holiday period last year compared to the same period in 2021.
It was also revealed that Xbox's content and services revenue declined by 12 percent as well due to lack of first-party content and lower monetization in third-party content. However, it's also been revealed that this number could have been much worse, had Xbox Game Pass subscriptions numbers not have increased during that time.
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If you take an interest in the gaming industry, then hearing this news probably won't be too much of a surprise. Xbox managed to release two big first-party games in the holiday season of 2021, which were Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5. In 2022, Xbox failed to release any major first-party titles at all during that same period, relying on smaller games such as Obisidian Entertainment's title Pentiment to give it any real presence.
Hardware is most likely the bigger concern for Xbox, as a fall in sales means fewer people are considering the Xbox Series X as a must own console. With the lack of first-party titles released over the past year, it's easy to why interest is waning. If Microsoft can get some of its bigger titles like Redfall, Hellblade 2, and Starfield released over the next year, we'll likely see that number grow again.
In fact, we'll see just what the company has planned for the future tomorrow, as it will be hosting a Developer Direct showcase in which we'll see some of the titles Xbox is lining up for release. Don't expect to see Starfield though, as it's already been confirmed that the game is getting its own little showcase later in the year.