New financial information from Microsoft reveals that Xbox hasn’t performed as well as the company expected in 2023. According to the number, Microsoft missed the Xbox annual revenue forecast by a whopping $780 million between March 2022 and March 2023.
The document comes out of the latest FTC court session where Microsoft is busy arguing the company’s merger with Activision. The slide showed that Microsoft was originally estimated to earn $17 billion during its Q4 financial period which is January 2023 – March 2023. The company missed this target only making $16.22 billion.
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While $16.22 billion is still a lot of money, the slide does reveal that Microsoft’s Q4 FY23 earnings have been much lower than in past years. However, it also tells us that while Microsoft didn’t hit its target, the company still managed to make more money in its Xbox division than Nintendo. Keep in mind that Nintendo currently has a better-selling console on the market too.
The FTC court filings also show that Microsoft missed its mark on Xbox Game Pass growth too. The company originally aimed to grow the service by 72.8% during its financial year ending March 2023. That number only managed to grow by 33%. As of March 2023, Microsoft has 25 million Xbox Game Pass users. The company would need 31 million in order to achieve its original target.
Microsoft does agree that the Xbox division is currently underperforming. During one of the FTC hearings, lawyer James Weingarten asked about the Xbox division performance. He asked, “Your business is not necessarily meeting its internal targets today?” In a response, Xbox’s Phil Spencer replied: “It is not right now, no“.
Microsoft is currently in the middle of its Activision merger hearing where the company is pleading its case with the FTC as it tries to get the green light on the deal
