Xbox sees earnings rise on the strength of third-party game sales

Microsoft published its earnings report today for the quarter ended September 30, showing an increase in gaming revenue driven mainly by third-party titles.

The company said total games revenue for the quarter increased 44 percent, reporting Xbox software and services revenue growth of 36 percent, thanks chiefly to the performance of third-party games.

Microsoft's games business is under its "more personal computing" segment, which reported $10.7 billion in revenue -- a year-over-year increase of 15 percent.

Xbox hardware revenue grew 94 percent against a low prior year comparable, which Microsoft says is due to the timing of the Xbox One X launch.

This is fairly interesting, since the console directly contributed to an increase in games-related revenue last year. 

It's worth noting that hardware like the Xbox Adaptive Controller and the subscription-based service Xbox All Access (A two-year payment plan offering an Xbox One, Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass) were released during this past quarter, with the latter seeing "strong consumer response and exceeded sales expectations." 

Company-wide, Microsoft reported quarterly revenues of $29.1 billion, a 19 percent year-on-year increase compared to this time last fiscal year.