With the end of April fast approaching, a lot of major companies will be declaring their quarterly financial earnings to their investors. Microsoft is one of the first companies to do this, and they've just revealed their Q3 FY19 earnings. Thanks to their cloud features, Xbox Game Pass, and other Xbox software and services, they've once again recorded an increase in gaming revenue.Microsoft's gaming revenue has increased by 5%. More specifically, the revenue gained from their Xbox software and services has increased by 12%. The products and services that Microsoft specifically named as helping to drive this increase were the release of Crackdown 3 , more Xbox Game Pass titles to drive subscription uptake, the introduction of Xbox Game Studios , the expansion of Xbox Live to Android and iOS devices , an update to Xbox One family settings , and new Mixer features like Mixer Embers and the Mixer HypeZone for Apex Legends There are now 63 million active Xbox Live users across all Xbox gaming platforms, including Xbox One, Windows 10, iOS, and Android. By active users, this is just people who have used the service over the last month. This is slightly lower than the last quarter figures, which were the highest number of subscribers the service has ever had. It is, however, an increase upon the 59 million users the company reports year-over-year.The main driving factor in Microsoft's success this quarter has been their cloud services. Microsoft's xCloud service, which will stream console-quality games to devices such as Xbox consoles, PCs and mobiles, is due to be trialled in public soon. Microsoft's executive vice president Amy Hood confirmed their "cloud offerings" had increased their revenue by 41%, up to $9.6 billion for this quarter alone. Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella stated:

Leading organizations of every size in every industry trust the Microsoft cloud. We are accelerating our innovation across the cloud and edge so our customers can build the digital capability increasingly required to compete and grow

The company no longer declares their earnings from console hardware, but reports suggest that hardware earnings were down for the quarter yet again, although this isn't terribly surprising given the age of their Xbox One X console. Earnings in this sector should rise for the next quarter with the release of the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition , due to be released in just a few days time on May 7th.