Xbox business shows decline in Microsoft's latest results

Xbox revenues are down 24 percent, and hardware sales are down 20 percent, year-over-year.

That info comes from Microsoft's third quarter 2015 results, which cover the three months ending March 31, 2015. Its Computing and Gaming Hardware segment -- which includes the Xbox business -- suffered decreased revenue of only 4 percent, however, thanks to gains in Surface tablet revenue, which jumped up 44 percent.

The rub is this: Microsoft does not break out the revenue or sales of its two platforms, so it's unclear how much of the drop-off is due to the Xbox 360 nearing the end of its lifespan, and how much is the Xbox One. The company did say that price drops for its newer console affected its bottom line; Microsoft slashed $50 off the price of the console in October last year.

Still, that downturn represents an overall $306 million decrease for Xbox platform revenues year-on-year, which is substantial. The company reports, however, that Xbox Live use leapt up 30 percent for the period.

Overall, the company beat analyst expectations as revenue rose 6.5 percent overall for the period. Microsoft reported revenues of $21.7 billion for the quarter, and gross margin of $14.6 billion, a year-on-year rise of 1 percent.