Microsoft just announced their quarterly earnings and the Entertainment and Devices Division (which the Xbox 360 is a part of) is seeing its losses decrease. Though, everything isn't peaches and cream, because Microsoft still lost $315 million in the EDD division last quarter down from $415 million last year. The reason? They are shrinking their losses due to shipping less hardware (money saver since they lose money every console sold) and improved console margins. But the launch of the Zune (which is also in the EDD division) and improved Xbox 360 warranty program offset some of those money making benefits.We're certain Microsoft is in the video game market for the long haul, it's not only a prevention measure from competition, but could be their Trojan horse into our living rooms. But losing $315 million cannot feel good and we doubt it looks any better on paper ... maybe that's why they are charging so damn much for that 120GB HDD.
[Via Digg]




Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-27-2007 @ 12:35PM
Tony said...
I imagine in the next year or two it will be completely profitable. If nothing else, 360 fans clearly love buying games. The system isn't selling on Wii levels, but given the price difference and lack of a real pack-in game (particularly one that's such a phenomenon as Wii Sports is) they're not doing badly. As prices for parts for the system continue to decrease, I have to imagine they'll just be doing better and better.
It's kind of hard to underestimate the possiblities of Halo 3, too. If their stats about Xbox users moving to 360 are true, I'd have to imagine that a LOT of the people still obsessed with Halo/Halo 2 have yet to bother to even buy a 360. There's a lot of potential for system sales increases at that point and I imagine other good software will see a short term sales increase as well while these new owners pick up things they missed.
So we'll see. I suppose there's a way to twist anything lol.
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4-27-2007 @ 12:52PM
TIMMAY! said...
yeah... i'm sure a $315mil loss hurts a lot when microsoft as a whole made almost $5 Billion this quarter... so while everyone else at is trying to fix vista, EDD gets to play video games. sounds rough. haha...
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4-27-2007 @ 1:00PM
s.tillings said...
That's a week of interest on all of the money they have.
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4-27-2007 @ 1:03PM
David Norman said...
MSFT's losses are shrinking for its EDD division but revenues for the same division also shrank. So proportionally, the losses-to-revenue ratio is the same this year as last, at 1:2.5.
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4-27-2007 @ 1:10PM
JJZee said...
Not all hardware is a loss leader. The hard drive has to make profit to make sense. Look the elite only went up 79 dollars and 2 very important things were added(hdmi & larger hard drive) Give the poor profit starved entertainment division a break. And with Halo 3 coming out in Fiscal 2008 the 360 is poised for profit. Also xbox live subscription renewals are 300 million dollars and counting of huge profit margins. Subscriptions are where it is at for them
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4-27-2007 @ 1:47PM
Daz said...
I think it is why they nickel and dime us over Microtransactions. If you break that down into MS Points they lost 25.2 BILLION Microsoft points for the past quarter. Ouch.
It will take a lot of "selling something for 800 when it should be 400" to make that up....
My Math:
Loss of $315,000,000
Divided into $20 increments
= 15,750,000 1600 MS Point Cards
= 25,200,000,000 total MS points.
YIKES (yes its my lunchbreak. Where is my free copy of PACMAN!)
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4-27-2007 @ 2:07PM
Evil said...
agreed, halo 3 is going to sell million of copies, and millions of consoles. Thats the bottom line people...
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4-27-2007 @ 2:18PM
jesse said...
Actually, you got the story completely wrong. Microsoft's losses on the Xbox 360 are /GROWING/. The rate at which the losses are growing is lower this year than it was last.
Once (more like if, rite?) the 360 maintains profitability for a quarter, then their losses will be shrinking.
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4-27-2007 @ 4:00PM
Ciaran Gallagher said...
It would be disappointing if Microsoft never profited from Xbox, especially since they've put in so much effort and have produced something quite amazing (despite A LOT of hardware issues, I've still had a brilliant time with my Xbox 360 and I'm still glad I never waited on a PS3)
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4-27-2007 @ 5:40PM
h0mi said...
The EDD division also includes the Zune. How much of the losses are due to that?
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4-28-2007 @ 2:30AM
CHris said...
Don't forget, yes the EDD is loosing cash... as gates and others said in the beginning, their in it for the longterm effect, they want the box in the living room and bedroom. They want their name all over the place.
315m in marketing basically is what that amounts to not exactly much considering a 30 second spot on the superbowl is what? 30m dollars? And the 360 gets alot more microsoft press than any 30 second spot on the super bowl...
And the end result is a wicked console, that will see profit eventaully... you guys seem to forget they havent even rolled out the 65nm chips yet.
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4-28-2007 @ 4:32AM
Fandomlife said...
They're in it for the long-term, though I suspect, for Microsoft, this is largely a software battle not a hardware one.
They don't make computers? They don't make mobile phones? It's about extended the software infrastructure. If by some miracle all consoles started to use their software, a bit like how they have extended into mobiles, I'm sure they'd ditch the Xbox line.
Still, that's unlikely to happen, not in the remotely near future anyway.
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4-28-2007 @ 1:53PM
John said...
hmm, the 360's cool (i love mine) but once the PS3 comes down in price and gets rumble Microsoft are gonna be in trouble
for one thing the ps3 contains wifi, next gen dvd, free online and a rechargable controller. all of these cost extra with the 360 and buying a 360 with all of these already costs more than a ps3
Also the PS3 has loads of cool games lined up for it such as Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy XIII, Tekken etc and once these are sure system sellers
like I said I love my 360 but im getting a ps3 once the price is right as are many ppls lol
:)
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4-28-2007 @ 4:58PM
Patrick said...
@13, what is the etc? flow?
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4-30-2007 @ 6:46AM
Markus87 said...
Oo @ 13.
Has the MGS4 rumour been squashed? What about the Final Fantasy rumours...
At the moment my 360 has wifi and a next gen disk format. (well... next gen for a dead format at least)
All the things you've mentioned are available for the 360 as well...
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