msftgames

Microsoft’s games business was a mixed bag in the June quarter, with Xbox Live monthly active users climbing 33 percent to 49 million, amid declining revenue for the company’s Xbox consoles.

As part of its quarterly report this afternoon, Microsoft said gaming revenue decreased $152 million, or 9 percent, to $1.53 billion. That was primarily due to a decline of 33 percent in Xbox hardware revenue, which the company attributed to “a decline in consoles sold and lower prices of consoles sold.”

Microsoft has been aggressively discounting Xbox One hardware in advance of the scheduled Aug. 2 launch of the new Xbox One S console.

However, the increase in Xbox Live usage boosted revenue from the online service by 4 percent, “driven by higher volume of transactions and revenue per transaction,” according to the company.

Microsoft’s Xbox business competes directly with Sony’s PlayStation, which leads the current console generation and has been performing well for the Japanese electronics giant in recent results. Microsoft has stopped reporting Xbox console unit sales as part of its quarterly results.

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