Xbox is seeing its best third quarter ever with the help of Bethesda

Microsoft’s games division performed the best in the third quarter of all time, thanks not only to continued sales of the Xbox Series S and X devices, but also largely because it had already incorporated full additional business into its sales during the last three weeks of that quarter. In today’s revenue, Microsoft reported that gaming revenue rose 50% year-on-year, from $ 2.35 billion in the same period last year to $ 3.53 billion this year. It’s not a record quarter at all, as Microsoft’s games revenue grew from October to December of last year by more than $ 5 billion for the first time in that three-month period thanks to the launch of the new console. But it is a record January-March period, which has traditionally been quieter for bookmakers after the busy holiday season for new major releases.

It’s clear that Xbox Series S and X are still new games and improved fundamentals for both, after the initial holiday storm was a major factor in the revenue spike. The shift from a quiet quarter in January to March 2020 resulted in the company’s hardware sales up 232% from a year ago. This is certainly not surprising given that he might not have bought an Xbox Ones in the first three months of last year while awaiting the launch of the Xbox series, but it’s still an impressive number.

But hardware was far from the only culprit in Microsoft’s excellent quarter of games. Xbox content and services revenue – also known as software, Game Pass, and anything other than hardware – rose to $ 739 million, or 34%, which Microsoft attributes to … Game Pass revenue.

However, these content and service revenue is a new factor this quarter: Bethesda and ZeniMax. Microsoft officially completed its acquisition of ZeniMax in March, which means that the company’s revenue for the last three weeks of the quarter was collected for everything else for Xbox games. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to know what impact this has actually had on Microsoft’s revenue numbers, as ZeniMax was previously not a publicly traded company and did not disclose actual quarterly or annual revenue prior to the acquisition, but it is very likely that an increase in content helped the revenue to earn the business. . Anyway, by suddenly adding a lot of additional game sales to the balance. The full impact may become more evident in the coming quarters when the major new games are launched from ZeniMax’s portfolio.

Rebecca Valentine is a News Correspondent for IGN. You can find him on Twitter Include a Tweet.

This post was revised after publication to clarify (from Microsoft’s earnings call) that ZeniMax sales only affected the last three weeks of the quarter.