The tribalism between the domineering duo is over, to an extent. Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer has said that The Last of Us is a "great moment" for gaming, encouraging those who might have sworn off video games to reconsider their stance. What's more, Microsoft has commended Sony's exclusives to be a higher quality than of its own, though that was in the interest of furthering its acquisition of Activision.
Tweak Town's report shows the state of the game - so to speak - plainly. Sony raked in $24.4 billion over the course of the year with a hefty fourth quarter buoyed by the release of God of War: Ragnarök. Microsoft's fourth quarter was also more lucrative than the other three in its own earnings, however, Microsoft only made $15.5 billion from its games division. I say "only," when of course I mean, that's a lot of money and I wouldn't sniff at it if I were you.
Both Microsoft and Sony recently announced their Holiday 2022 financials and gave us all the data required to make a full-year earnings analysis. In this article we'll be solely focused on the video game segment revenues and not total company numbers for the tech giants.
Based on earnings and conversion data provided in Sony's Fiscal Year 2022 financial reports, the PlayStation games division made $24.4 billion throughout 2022. Note that this data represents calendar year 2022 (Jan. - Dec.) and is not based on fiscal year dates (April - March of proceeding year).
PlayStation's annual earnings decreased by $200 million, as compared to the $24.6 billion it earned throughout 2021, likely driven by a combination of foreign exchange fluctuations and lower year-over-year revenues throughout January - September 2022.
Interestingly, the discrepancy between the two titans has been maintained from 2021 to 2022 and Tweak Town notes that the calculations do not include Xbox gaming profits as those statistics are under wraps. Sony and Microsoft offer totally different gaming experiences too, with Sony beefing up its roster with expensive exclusives that stay at a premium price for a while, and Microsoft giving away a lot of its exclusives on Xbox Game Pass.
But, Xbox has a handful of cards up its sleeve for 2023. Starfield, Redfall, Forza Motorsport, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl, State of Decay 3, The Outer Worlds 2 and the Fable reboot, to name but a few. We'll have to wait and see how this shakes out.
No comments:
Post a Comment