Xbox down YoY in both hardware and services for Q2 FY26

[GameArts]

@Doncabesa

Again, there is nothing in their guidance or responses about Game Pass losing customers. They grew on Cloud, they grew on PC, they lost money YoY because of COD’s lack of success. That will continue throughout the year as BO7 makes far less money than BO6.

Xbox is down year on year and as Master Chief said, I would imagine loads have left Game Pass.

[Doncabesa]

@GameArts

Xbox is down year on year and as Master Chief said, I would imagine loads have left Game Pass.

You would be imagining it, yes. They didn’t point out a lowering in subscription revenue, in fact they expect it to go UP next quarter. They only pointed out first-party game performance, and everyone in the know knows that it means COD BO7 vs COD BO6. They would have mentioned sub money going down, they didn’t.

Circana gave subs going up as a thing straight through all of 2025 in the US.

[GameArts]

@Doncabesa

You would be imagining it, yes. They didn’t point out a lowering in subscription revenue, in fact they expect it to go UP next quarter. They only pointed out first-party game performance, and everyone in the know knows that it means COD BO7 vs COD BO6. They would have mentioned sub money going down, they didn’t.

Circana gave subs going up as a thing straight through all of 2025 in the US.

Wasn’t like last year’s Q2 results were good, so this years is very disappointing; All the more so given what great games were out and on GamePass.

Putting your price up for the top tier sub by 50% was always going to create a backlash.

[Doncabesa]

@GameArts

Wasn’t like last year’s Q2 results were good, so this years is very disappointing; All the more so given what great games were out and on GamePass.

Putting your price up by top tier sub up by 50% was always going to create a backlash.

You’re making a scenario up that they didn’t say happened, though. They have straight-up said it was 1st-party performance, and those in the know understand that BO7 has sold only half of what BO6, the biggest-selling COD of all time, did. There is nothing in their statements or future guidance ot indicate an actual “backlash” against Game Pass. Again, they expect GP to go up next quarter, year-over-year.

[CallMeCraig]

Why are we talking about Avowed, Oblivion, … here? This is Q2.

[GameArts]

@Doncabesa

You’re making a scenario up that they didn’t say happened, though. They have straight-up said it was 1st-party performance, and those in the know understand that BO7 has sold only half of what BO6, the biggest-selling COD of all time, did. There is nothing in their statements or future guidance ot indicate an actual “backlash” against Game Pass. Again, they expect GP to go up next quarter, year-over-year.

I think the Backlash went bigger than just people not renewing Game Pass, but people not buying Xbox games full stop

[Meister10000]

@GameArts

I think the Backlash went bigger than just people not renewing Game Pass, but people not buying Xbox games full stop

Wrong, but continue with your assessment. What is likely to have gone down is Game Pass and its decision to increase its price and divide it into three tiers.

What I expect is them trying their absolute best to add as many games to the premium tier as possible to take back much of the casual userbase, while Ultimate remains for those who game as a job and a full-on hobby.

Now, what we are likely seeing is Xbox preparing for its next-gen console, as well as the perks of being in the ecosystem this very year.

Why? Because Xbox cannot afford to lose its user base to PlayStation or Nintendo, those markets are limited and will saturate over time(The reason amny are buying some of the xbox games over its mostly cause of novelty and once it wears off, which i expect in around 3 years to 5 then their priority is likely to shift over to the actual growing markets), whereas PC, cloud, and mobile are not and are growing and will continue to do so for many years.

[Doncabesa]

@GameArts

I think the Backlash went bigger than just people not renewing Game Pass, but people not buying Xbox games full stop

“you think” doesn’t actually mean anything when they said exactly why in the legally binding investors call. COD BLOPS 7 tanked comparatively to COD BLOPS 6, which was the biggest game in series history.

[MasterChief]

@Doncabesa

Again, there is nothing in their guidance or responses about Game Pass losing customers. They grew on Cloud, they grew on PC, they lost money YoY because of COD’s lack of success. That will continue throughout the year as BO7 makes far less money than BO6.

So outside of COD there is a possibility that this isn’t that bad of a new for Xbox as a whole, of course outside of the clear lost sales due to unreasonable price increases to their hardware, if this is mainly due to COD underperforming and Game Pass doesn’t end up suffering, which I doubt, 30$ a month is a month is a big ask for a subscription service.

[GameArts]

@Doncabesa

“you think” doesn’t actually mean anything when they said exactly why in the legally binding investors call. COD BLOPS 7 tanked comparatively to COD BLOPS 6, which was the biggest game in series history.

I think people have had a gutsful of Microsoft in general Just so much negativity about Xbox and Windows these days. It could have been even worse numbers if not for PlayStation ports.

This year seems to be full of bangers mind and one hopes the next COD won’t be so terrible and dire

[CallMeCraig]

@Doncabesa

“you think” doesn’t actually mean anything when they said exactly why in the legally binding investors call. COD BLOPS 7 tanked comparatively to COD BLOPS 6, which was the biggest game in series history.

They have to make sure the next CoD is good and release it on Switch.

[BadNews]

@Solidevolution

I 100% agree with this. Xbox marketing their games and gamepass has been a thorn since the Xbox One. It’s funny how you mentioned the $80 price tag and how Outer Worlds 2 should have been $50-60 dollars. I was checking out the PlayStation Store I noticed that both versions of Avowed are selling more on the preorder best selling list than both versions of Saros which is PlayStation 1st party game. I think Avowed is going to do better than Outer Worlds 2 overall.

Hopefully they learned from 2025 that they need to market and price games better . I think this year will be key even though halo, gears and Forza will be popular . They’ll still need to give it proper marketing and build hype towards these games

[Doncabesa]

I know this feels like an excuse to bring up talking points but please, it wasn’t about ‘marketing’. It was about COD’s performance. That game has more marketing than God

[BadNews]

@Doncabesa

I know this feels like an excuse to bring up talking points but please, it wasn’t about ‘marketing’. It was about COD’s performance. That game has more marketing than God

This is more regarding games like Outer Worlds 2, Avowed, Doom, etc. I just feel there’s not much word of mouth about these games which would improve reception and sales. I could be wrong but I think they need to better price their games . Certain games should be $50-$60 and not $70 . Then certain smaller games should be $15-$20 instead of $30. I think better pricing helps drives launch window sales

[Doncabesa]

@BadNews

This is more regarding games like Outer Worlds 2, Avowed, Doom, etc. I just feel there’s not much word of mouth about these games which would improve reception and sales. I could be wrong but I think they need to better price their games . Certain games should be $50-$60 and not $70 . Then certain smaller games should be $15-$20 instead of $30. I think better pricing helps drives launch window sales

Everything will only get more expensive as this AI bubble makes it harder for most to spend money on gaming.

[Meister10000]

@Doncabesa

Everything will only get more expensive as this AI bubble makes it harder for most to spend money on gaming.

I admit I’m starting to welcome the burst if it means fewer overall price increases and decreases the prices overall, I want to buy my eggs for less than three reais if I can.

[BadNews]

@Doncabesa

Everything will only get more expensive as this AI bubble makes it harder for most to spend money on gaming.

It’s a tough battle because content creators are usually anti-Xbox, so uphill climb for positive word of mouth imo. I just think an improvement of that could help market their games better to generate hype. Also cost for certain games isn’t helping. Anyway, I assume things will improve over time in regard to that

[warbegun]

@BadNews

This is more regarding games like Outer Worlds 2, Avowed, Doom, etc. I just feel there’s not much word of mouth about these games which would improve reception and sales. I could be wrong but I think they need to better price their games . Certain games should be $50-$60 and not $70 . Then certain smaller games should be $15-$20 instead of $30. I think better pricing helps drives launch window sales

Games aren’t $70. Games are variable priced. They are $100 on day -5, $70 on day 0, $50 on day 60, …$10 on day 365.

As people who follow this hobby, we try to back into what xbox’s strategies are with this and that. They have so much user/customer data, I trust their pricing works best for their goals which is to hit their budgets.

[Cpt_Haddock]

@CallMeCraig

Why are we talking about Avowed, Oblivion, … here? This is Q2.

ToW2 released on Q2 i think, plus older games should also have legs, Capcom’s last game (Wilds) bombed after it’s release but their stock continues to go up as they have other older games with insane legs.

@Doncabesa

Everything will only get more expensive as this AI bubble makes it harder for most to spend money on gaming.

Not sure how is that related to games price, specially when some developers are trying to sell us that AI is helping or will help lower the game development cost / time.

I agree with @BadNews, the thing is gamers have limited time and money, most don’t play that many games yearly, and unlike on the Hardware space, there’s a lot of competition on Software, this year’s GOTY was 45€, KCD2 (my GOTY) is massive and it was 60€, less than smaller RPG’s like Avowed or ToW2. Silksong, Arc Raiders.. pretty much every really succesful game that’s not the typical Fifa, CoD, Sony AAA action game, etc.. had a very fair price.

I think MS’s politics on game prices on pretty much every game they released except Oblivion Remaster didn’t help at all. On the bright side, they asked 70€ for FH6 this year unlike cases like Doom where they went for 80€

[BadNews]

@warbegun

Games aren’t $70. Games are variable priced. They are $100 on day -5, $70 on day 0, $50 on day 60, …$10 on day 365.

As people who follow this hobby, we try to back into what xbox’s strategies are with this and that. They have so much user/customer data, I trust their pricing works best for their goals which is to hit their budgets.

They may have the data but I don’t think they have pricing correct . I know we don’t have information about budget. However, I think Microsoft published games need to improve pricing for some of their games which would translate to more sales . Outer worlds 2 at $80 doesn’t make sense. However , if they priced it at $50-$60, then we would see an increase revenue generated . Plus more people trying the game allows for word of mouth to improve