Microsoft aiming to tap 3 bn gamers globally: Nadella

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said the company is now expanding its gaming strategy to reach millions of gamers globally.

Nadella said that gaming is the largest category in the entertainment industry and the company is aiming to reach the world's 3 billion gamers wherever and whenever they play.

"We are all-in on games. At E3 last month, we unveiled our biggest games lineup ever, announcing 27 new titles, which will all be available to Game Pass subscribers," Nadella said during an earnings call on Tuesday.

"Game Pass is growing rapidly and it's transforming how people discover, connect and play games," he added.

According to him, subscribers play approximately 40 per cent more games and spend 50 per cent more than non-members.

"We continue to lead in the fast-growing cloud gaming market with last month -- just last month we made Xbox Cloud gaming available on PCs as well as Apple Phones and tablets via the browser in 22 countries with more to come," he added.

Millions have already streamed games to their desktops, tablets and phones. And the Xbox Series S and X are the company's fastest selling consoles ever with more consoles sold live-to-date than any previous generation.

"Finally, we continue to grow our opportunity in the creator economy adding new ways for players to build and monetize their creations in many of our most popular games including Flight Simulator and Minecraft," Nadella said.

"Creators earn more than double what they did a year ago across our titles. In closing, going forward every person and every organization will require more digital technology to be more resilient and to transform. We are innovating across the entire deck stack to ensure our customers succeed in this new era," he added.

As per the Executive Vice President and CFO, Amy Hood, the company saw a strong engagement across the platform while demand for Xbox Series X and S consoles continued to exceed supply.

"As a reminder, the Q4 was the first full quarter impacted by Covid-19 a year ago across revenue and operating expenses," Hood said.

"This quarter, even with a declining expiration base, commercial bookings grew 30 per cent and 25 per cent in constant currency, significantly ahead of expectations, driven by strong execution across our core annuity sales motions and an increase in the number of larger long-term Azure contracts," Hood added.

The company on Tuesday posted a healthy revenue of $46.2 billion, up 21 per cent, with $16.5 billion in net income that rose 47 per cent in the June quarter.