In its third-quarter earnings call on Thursday, Microsoft reported a 30% drop in Xbox console sales, after reporting a 30% drop last April. "It blamed the nosedive on a 'lower volume of consoles sold' during the start of 2024," reports Kotaku. From the report: In February, Grand Theft Auto VI parent company Take-Two claimed in a presentation to investors that there were roughly 77 million "gen 9" consoles in people's homes. It didn't take fans long to do the math and speculate that Microsoft had only sold around 25 million Xbox Series X/S consoles to-date. That puts it ahead of the GameCube but behind the Nintendo 64, at least for now. Given the results this quarter as well, it doesn't seem like Game Pass and Starfield have moved the needle much. Maybe that will change once Call of Duty, which Microsoft acquired last fall along with the rest of Activision Blizzard, finally makes its way to Game Pass. Diablo IV only just arrived on the Netflix-like subscription platform this month. But given the fact that the fate of Xbox Series X/S appears to be locked in at this point, it's easy to see why Microsoft is looking at other places it can put its games. Sea of Thieves, the last of four games in this initial volley to come to PS5, dominated the PlayStation Store's top sellers list last week on pre-orders alone. CEO Satya Nadella specifically called this out during a call with investors, noting that Microsoft had more games in the top 25 best sellers on PS5 than any other publisher. "We are committed to meeting players where they are by bringing great games to more people on more devices," he said. If players there continue to flock to the live-service pirate sim, it's not hard to imagine Microsoft bringing another batch of its first-party exclusives to the rival platform. Whether that means more recent blockbusters like Starfield or the upcoming Indiana Jones game will someday make the journey remains to be seen.

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Microsoft is moving "full speed ahead" on its next generation console, an internal email from Xbox president Sarah Bond has revealed. From a report: The email, obtained by Windows Central and verified to be genuine by Microsoft, also announced the formation of a game preservation team at Xbox. "We are moving full speed ahead on our next generation hardware, focused on delivering the biggest technological leap ever in a generation," Bond said, reiterating comments made in February when the console's existence was officially announced. No further information was shared regarding the hardware itself, nor when fans might be able to buy it, but documents leaked in 2023 suggested Microsoft plans to release the next Xbox in 2028. Regardless, with Microsoft seemingly making its development a priority, it will likely be available sooner rather than later. Alongside it looking to the future, Xbox also appears committed to the past and present. "We have formed a new team dedicated to game preservation, important to all of us at Xbox and the industry itself," Bond said in the email. "We are building on our strong history of delivering backwards compatibility to our players, and we remain committed to bringing forward the amazing library of Xbox games for future generations of players to enjoy."

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Chris Plante reports via Polygon: Phil Spencer doesn't just want Xbox games on other consoles. He wants other video game retailers on Xbox, too. In an interview with Microsoft's CEO of Gaming during the annual Game Developers Conference, Spencer told Polygon about the ways he'd like to break down the walled gardens that have historically limited players to making purchases through the first-party stores tied to each console. Or, in layperson terms, why you should be able to buy games from other stores on Xbox -- not just the official storefront. Spencer mentioned his frustrations with closed ecosystems, so we asked for clarity. Could he really see a future where stores like Itch.io and Epic Games Store existed on Xbox? Was it just a matter of figuring out mountains of paperwork to get there? "Yes," said Spencer. "[Consider] our history as the Windows company. Nobody would blink twice if I said, 'Hey, when you're using a PC, you get to decide the type of experience you have [by picking where to buy games]. There's real value in that." Spencer believes console players would benefit from that freedom too -- and so would console makers like Microsoft. Spencer explained how, in the past, console makers would typically subsidize the cost of expensive hardware, knowing that a portion of every dollar spent on games for the platform over the years would eventually make it back to the console maker. Then, in time, the console maker would recoup the subsidy -- and hopefully more. But, Spencer said, "Moore's Law has slowed down. The price of the components of a console aren't coming down as fast as they have in previous generations." Worse, he explained, the console market isn't growing, with more gamers moving to PC and handheld options. Now, the notion of subsidizing a console -- and forcing players to purchase games through the official storefront to help recoup costs -- might not make sense. The walls meant to lock people into consoles might be motivating them to stay out. "[Subsidizing hardware] becomes more challenging in today's world," Spencer said. "And I will say, and this may seem too altruistic, I don't know that it's growing the industry. So I think, what are the barriers? What are the things that create friction in today's world for creators and players? And how can we be part of opening up that model?" The answer, in part, is scrapping exclusivity on more and more Xbox games. Spencer explained that the game experience is hindered when it matters what consoles we play on or what shops sell us our games. As an example, he pointed to Sea of Thieves. A player, he explained, shouldn't have to worry about what hardware they or their friends own. They should just know if their friends have and want to play Sea of Thieves. Now, Spencer said, "if I want to play on a gaming PC, then I feel like I'm more a continuous part of a gaming ecosystem as a whole. As opposed to [on console], my gaming is kind of sharded -- to use a gaming term -- based on these different closed ecosystems that I have to play across."

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Tom Warren reports via The Verge: Microsoft is starting to preview mouse and keyboard support for Xbox Cloud Gaming today. Xbox Insiders will be able to start playing with their mouse and keyboard in Edge, Chrome, or the Xbox app on Windows PCs, nearly two years after Microsoft announced it was preparing to add mouse and keyboard support to its Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud) service. Not every game will be supported during the preview, but there's a large selection, including Fortnite, Sea of Thieves, and Halo Infinite. Microsoft warns that some games will display controller UI elements briefly before adapting to mouse and keyboard input after you start interacting with the game. If you're interested in trying games with mouse and keyboard in the browser version of Xbox Cloud Gaming, then you'll need to be in full-screen mode, according to Microsoft. This is so the game can correctly capture your pointer as input. If you want to exit out of mouse and keyboard mode and use an Xbox controller instead, there's an ALT+F9 shortcut to do so. The full list of supported games include: Fortnite (browser only), ARK Survival Evolved, Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Halo Infinite, Atomic Heart, Sniper Elite 5, Deep Rock Galactic, High on Life, Zombie Army 4 Dead War, Gears Tactics, Pentiment, Doom 64, and Age of Empires 2.

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