Game division at Microsoft generates more revenue than Windows
Microsoft reports record sales figures and becomes a three-billion-euro company. The gaming division overtakes Windows. At the same time, there are mass redundancies.
Directly after the Office and Cloud divisions, Microsoft's gaming division now brings in the most revenue. The company announced this in the aktuellen Quartalszahlen. Windows is now only in fourth place. In the second quarter, Microsoft recorded a turnover of 62 billion US dollars and a profit of 21.9 billion US dollars. This corresponds to an increase of 18 and 33 per cent respectively compared to the previous year. 60 per cent of total revenue continues to be generated by the Office and Cloud division.
Xbox content and services such as Game Pass recorded a massive increase of 61 per cent. This was made possible by the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, whose revenue is included in Microsoft's balance sheet for the first time.
A few days earlier, Microsoft's stock market value broke the three trillion brand. This puts the company in an illustrious circle that includes Apple. The iPhone company achieved this feat two years ago. Microsoft and Apple have been battling it out for the title of most valuable company for some time now. Redmond has recently been ahead of Cupertino.
Source: Blizzard
Wave of redundancies follows record sales
Not all employees are likely to be happy about the success stories. 1,900 people, primarily from Activision Blizzard, were made redundant a few days ago. This corresponds to around eight per cent of the entire workforce at Microsoft's gaming division. There were also redundancies at Zenimax and Xbox. Some of these are due to duplications that arise from company takeovers. At the same time, Blizzard announced that the survival game announced two years ago, which has been in development for six years, has been cancelled. Some people from the project are said to have been given new jobs internally.
Blizzard CEO Mike Ybarra will also be leaving the company. His successor is Johanna Faries. Until now, she was responsible for "Call of Duty". <p
Being the game and gadget geek that I am, working at digitec and Galaxus makes me feel like a kid in a candy shop – but it does take its toll on my wallet. I enjoy tinkering with my PC in Tim Taylor fashion and talking about games on my podcast http://www.onemorelevel.ch. To satisfy my need for speed, I get on my full suspension mountain bike and set out to find some nice trails. My thirst for culture is quenched by deep conversations over a couple of cold ones at the mostly frustrating games of FC Winterthur.