Item 1

  

Gaming

Microsoft is expanding how billions of people globally access and play video games on PC, console, mobile, and cloud. Our game content is developed through a collection of first-party studios creating iconic and differentiated gaming experiences. We continue to invest in gaming studios and content to expand our intellectual property roadmap and leverage new content creators. These unique gaming experiences are the cornerstone of Xbox Game Pass, a subscription service and gaming community with access to a curated library of first- and third-party titles.

The gamer remains at the heart of the Xbox ecosystem. We are identifying new opportunities to attract gamers across a variety of different end points through our first- and third-party content and business diversification across subscriptions, ads, and digital stores. We’ve seen new devices from third-party manufacturers along with key PC and mobile end points that help us empower gamers to play in a way that is most convenient to them. We are focused on growing the platform and expanding to new ecosystems to engage as many gamers as possible.

Xbox enables people to connect and share online gaming experiences that are accessible on Xbox consoles, Windows-enabled devices, and other devices. Xbox is designed to benefit users by providing access to a network of certified applications and services and to benefit our developer and partner ecosystems by providing access to a large customer base. Xbox revenue is mainly affected by subscriptions and sales of first- and third-party content, as well as advertising. Growth of our Gaming business is determined by the overall active user base through Xbox enabled content, availability of games, providing exclusive game content that gamers seek, the computational power and reliability of the devices used to access our content and services, and the ability to create new experiences.

Search and News Advertising

Our Search and news advertising business is designed to deliver relevant search, native, and display advertising to a global audience. Microsoft Copilot is a digital companion designed to inform, entertain, and inspire. Our Microsoft Edge browser and Bing search engine with Copilot are key tools to enable user acquisition and engagement, while our technology platform enables accelerated delivery of digital advertising solutions. In addition to first-party tools, we have several partnerships with companies through which we provide and monetize search offerings. Growth depends on our ability to attract new users, understand intent, and match intent with relevant content on advertising offerings.

Competition

Windows faces competition from various software products and from alternative platforms and devices. We believe Windows competes effectively by giving customers choice, value, flexibility, security, an easy-to-use interface, and compatibility with a broad range of hardware and software applications, including those that enable productivity.

Devices face competition from various computer, tablet, and hardware manufacturers who offer a unique combination of high-quality industrial design and innovative technologies across various price points. Many of these manufacturers are also current or potential partners and customers, including our Windows OEMs.

Xbox and our cloud gaming services face competition from various online gaming ecosystems and game streaming services. We also compete with other providers of entertainment services such as video streaming platforms. Our gaming platform competes with other console platforms. We believe our gaming platform is effectively positioned against, and uniquely differentiated from, competitive products and services based on significant innovation in hardware architecture, user interface, developer tools, online gaming and entertainment services, and continued strong content from our own first-party game franchises as well as other digital content offerings.

Our Search and news advertising business competes with search engines, and a wide array of websites, social platforms, and portals that provide content and online offerings to end users.

HUMAN CAPITAL RESOURCES

As of June 30, 2025, we employed approximately 228,000 people on a full-time basis, 125,000 in the U.S. and 103,000 internationally. Of the total employees, 89,000 were in operations, including product support and consulting services, datacenter operations, and manufacturing and distribution; 80,000 were in product research and development; 44,000 were in sales and marketing; and 15,000 were in general and administration. Certain employees are subject to collective bargaining agreements.

  

9

---

  

PART I