Microsoft Games Are Doing Super Well On PlayStation Store, Publisher Tops Preorder Charts

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It appears that Microsoft’s approach of launching Xbox exclusive games on PlayStation is proving successful, as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed during their Q3 FY25 financial results call that the company has been leading the pack in preorders on the PlayStation Store.

During the timeframe from January to March in the year 2025, Nadella mentioned that Microsoft had finished the quarter as the leading publisher for advance orders and installations on both the Xbox and PlayStation platforms.

Additional figures Nadella emphasized showed a 45% surge in PC Game Pass revenue compared to the previous year, despite a 6% decrease in Xbox hardware revenue. However, gaming revenue grew by 5%, and Xbox content and services revenue swelled by 8%. This growth can be attributed to an increase in Xbox Game Pass subscribers, as well as Call of Duty and Minecraft sales, according to Nadella.

It seems that the high number of Xbox games available on PlayStation that were up for preorder was due to a number of significant titles from Microsoft being scheduled for release shortly after the time period mentioned by Nadella. For instance, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which became the top-selling PS5 game for that week, was released on April 17. Following closely behind, Forza Horizon 5 was launched for PS5 on April 29 (or April 25 for those who bought the premium edition). Lastly, the upcoming release of Doom: The Dark Ages on May 15 may also contribute to increased preorders for Microsoft on Sony’s platform.

During the investor call, Nadella didn’t bring it up, but the following day, Microsoft unveiled significant price hikes for Xbox consoles, accessories, and games. The prices of all Xbox Series models, including the Series X, rose by as much as $100, with controllers seeing an increase between $5 and $10. Furthermore, Microsoft revealed that certain first-party games will retail at $80 from this holiday season onwards, although they didn’t specify which titles would be affected.

Microsoft implemented the price increases after taking into account current market situations and escalating development costs.

Microsoft hasn’t explicitly linked recently imposed U.S. tariffs to their price hikes, but they join other game publishers who may have been impacted. Nintendo postponed pre-orders for Switch 2 and later announced an increase in the prices of its accessories rather than the console itself (at least initially), citing market conditions as the reason, which some speculate could be due to tariffs.

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2025-05-01 21:39