How's Xbox Doing? Key Takeaways From Microsoft's Earnings

Microsoft has announced the results of its most recent fiscal quarter, which ended on March 31, 2017, and provided a brief update on the state of its gaming business.

Xbox is part of Microsoft's More Personal Computing division, which saw its revenue decline 7% because of slow phone sales. However, Xbox itself did reasonably well--gaming revenue increased by 4% for the quarter, reaching $1.928 billion.

Microsoft attributed this to "growth in Xbox Live," which saw its monthly active users across Xbox, PC, and mobile climb 13% to 52 million, up from 46 million during the same period a year ago. It's a decline from the previous quarter, when Xbox Live MAUs reached a record 55 million, but that's to be expected, given that period included the busy holiday season.

Revenue from Xbox software and services were up 7%, although a specific dollar figure was not shared. Microsoft said this was "driven by continued adoption of digital distribution and a strong game lineup." During a subsequent conference call, Microsoft stated, "Xbox Live revenue growth offset declines in hardware."

Overall, Microsoft saw revenue of $22.1 billion for the quarter, while net income was $4.8 billion. Its Productivity and Business Processes group saw revenue increase 22%, while Intelligent Cloud revenue grew 11%.

Microsoft will host a call with investors and analysts later today to discuss its earnings report. While these are routinely focused on non-gaming areas of the company, we'll report back if it has anything interesting to share.