Xbox sales continue to rise with a helping hand from Minecraft

Microsoft sold 1.4 million Xbox consoles in the last quarter, showing a solid increase in both users and revenue for the platform.

The company released its earnings for the quarter ending June 30 this past Tuesday, and the Xbox brand had a particularly strong presence.

The company sold 1.4 million consoles throughout the three-month period, bear in mind that this includes Xbox One and Xbox 360. Platform revenue rose by $86 million, or 10% when compared to the same time period in 2014.

This surge in sales was likely led by the abundance of software driven bundles currently available; the general price point of Xbox consoles is also lower than ever before.

On a broader scale, Microsoft sold a combined total of 12.1 million Xbox consoles during the fiscal year, a steady increase from the 11.7 million of last year.

Xbox Live revenue saw an increase of $205 million as the number of users signing up for the service continues to rise.

Related: Best Xbox One Games 2015

Minecraft also continues to be a driving force for Microsoft, a property the company acquired last year for a hefty $2.5 billion from previous owner, Mojang. The block-building marvel helped boost Microsoft’s first party revenue by 62 percent.

However Microsoft as a whole isn’t seeing the same positive numbers, reporting an operation loss of $2.1 billion. This seemingly poor performance is due to an $8.4 billion impairment charge related to the recent Nokia mobile restructuring.
Despite presenting an operating loss, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella believes that Xbox had “an incredible Q4.”

“The excitement we generated at E3 with Xbox exclusive gaming content and backwards compatibility demonstrates the building momentum that exists within the Xbox ecosystem”

“Our growing fan base is excited for the best games lineup in our history. All of this comes together with Windows 10, when fans can connect with each other, stream all of their Xbox One games to Windows 10,” Nadella added.

Nadella expects Xbox to continue to grow in terms of “both fans and profitability” as the christmas period approaches, with the launch of high profile exclusives like Halo 5 and Rise of The Tomb Raider to come later this year.

Xbox One still lags behind the overall sales of PS4 however, Sony’s console has shipped 22.3 million units as of March 31st 2015. Microsoft is yet to confirm the total sales number for Xbox One.