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Record Xbox 360 Sales, Kinect Success Fuel Microsoft Quarterly Growth
Record Xbox 360 Sales, Kinect Success Fuel Microsoft Quarterly Growth

April 28, 2011 | By Frank Cifaldi
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    31 comments
More: Console/PC, Business/Marketing



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A record number of Xbox 360 console sales -- along with the rapid-selling Kinect -- helped to fuel record revenue results for Microsoft, which saw a 13% increase year-on-year for the first three months of 2011.

Company-wide revenue was reported at $16.43 billion, with the Entertainment & Devices Division -- which includes the Xbox family, the Microsoft Game Studios publishing subsidiary, and the Windows Phone line -- contributing $1.94 billion of that figure, up 60 percent from the $1.21 billion it brought in during the same period one year prior.

In all, 2.7 million Xbox 360 units were sold, up from 1.5 million in the same period last year, representing a new quarterly record for the nearly five and a half-year-old console. The Kinect add-on -- which debuted November 4 -- sold 2.4 million during the quarter, putting it well over 10 million sold life-to-date. Revenue for the entire Xbox 360 platform was up $712 million (69 percent).

In all, the EDD division made a quarterly profit of $225 million, a leap of 50 percent from the previous year.

"We delivered strong financial results despite a mixed PC environment, which demonstrates the strength and breadth of our businesses," said Microsoft CFO Peter Klein. "Consumers are purchasing Office 2010, Xbox and Kinect at tremendous rates, and businesses of all sizes are purchasing Microsoft platforms and applications."

Overall profit for the quarter across the whole company for the tech giant was reported at $5.71 billion, up 10 percent on the same quarter in the previous year. According to Microsoft, its Windows 7 operating system has sold 350 million licenses to date, though revenue for its Windows division declined 4 percent, in line with PC sales trends.

Microsoft's outlook for the next quarter says that the Entertainment & Devices division will see a revenue growth of "roughly 25 percent."

[UPDATED: In a Gamasutra-attendend conference call that took place following the announcement of these results, Stifel Nicolaus analyst Tim Klassell asked Microsoft about the timing for the announcement of its next console, asking "Do you guys internally have a time point on when you have to make that decision?"

In response, Microsoft's Peter Klein said simply that the company is "really not talking about that," and is instead focused on the Xbox 360 and Kinect for the time being.

During the same call, Microsoft also spoke briefly to the success of Xbox Live, saying that the service "saw healthy increases in transactional revenue, which continues to exceed subscription revenue."]


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Christian Keichel
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No profit/loss numbers for the entertainment division, only revenues? Revenues alone don't say much.

Simon Carless
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Christian, it's been added - it was buried somewhat in the 10Q.

Christian Keichel
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Thanks a lot for the update.

Leon T
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So MS might actually make a profit off the xbox 360 but will not make up the losses from the xbox. The game industry is pretty warped when the 360 is reported as such a success after taking so long to even break even. Actually they will not really break even since they will be spending money making the next console. Maybe they will write off the R&D cost to a different division to make is look like the Entertainment & Device Devision are in the positive.



MS will need to sell their next console for a profit from day one if they ever want to make up the losses from the first xbox. Else they. They might lose the 360 profits just like Sony lost the PS1 and PS2 profits with the PS3.

Lyon Medina
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Excuse me, but what the hell are you talking about? Where is your research in that statement, for that matter where are your details or even sources?



I highly doubt that a business giant like Microsoft would have lossed so much an amount that they are still recooping from launching the X-Box this many years out. And not only that, after loosing the amount (your not detailing the amount thier loss but what you making to sound out like a large amount) would get into a whole new console cycle just to have another few years before they can make into the positive again? That's a stretch even for me.

Leon T
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Why don't you look it up yourself if you really want to know. I didn't make my post to prove anything to you or anyone else. Microsoft lost billions on the Xbox. That is a fact. They lost more on the Xbox360. Anyone that follows the business even a little knows this.



They sell their consoles at a lost. The entire RROD situation cost them billions on to deal with on top of the money they were not making on the sell of the console for years. Again you can look up this information yourself if you want proof. I have an interest on the business side of the gaming industry and I'm not wasting my time proving facts to someone that clearly does not.

Jamie Mann
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Citation needed :) Saying something is a "fact" doesn't necessarily make it true.



Yes, they lost money on the Xbox 360, between subsidising the hardware and the RROD fiasco - but the division made $225 million in profit last quarter. Admittedly, that was on the back of Christmas sales and the Kinect launch, but that's on the back of an additional 2.7 million consumers. So they could still potentially clock up to a billion dollars *profit* per year.



And it's also worth bearing in mind that the hardware subsidies and the RROD write-off were almost certainly tax deductible. Certainly, Microsoft wouldn't have ploughed $1 billion into the Kinect marketing budget if the Xbox 360 was still heavily in the red...

Christian Keichel
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"Certainly, Microsoft wouldn't have ploughed $1 billion into the Kinect marketing budget if the Xbox 360 was still heavily in the red... "



Citation needed :) Nobody knows the marketing budget of Kinect, MS never confirmed these numbers.



"So they could still potentially clock up to a billion dollars *profit* per year."



That is simply multiplying the profit of the last quarter with 4, nobody knows how the profit will be in the next 3 quarter, potentially they can manage an overall *loss* as well as a profit.

Jamie Mann
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Well... After a bit more digging, it looks like the $1 billion was split evenly between Kinect and WM7, so the actual Kinect budget was a mere $500 million - the NY Post gives a breakdown of what they spent the money on. http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/microsoft_move_3gVmAyryJuD6px1dV7Le DP?CMP=
OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=



Not quite the same as $1 billion, but still an impressive number :)



Regarding the second point: I stressed the point that it was potential ;) Those 2.7 million new consumers will be spending money on more games and peripherals, after all...

Christian Keichel
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The famous NYPost article, that came up with the 500 million US$ marketing budget...

Your link isn't working, I tried to relink it, doesn't work due to the format of the comment section, but it can be easily googled.



The article was a good example, how electronic media works as a distributor for not proven information, if you read the article (from October 17th 2010), it gives no source for it's information, all the people from MS, that were cited don't tell any numbers.

And later MS didn't confirm these numbers, which was the reason, why Gamasutra wrote much more cautious on November 4th 2010:

"The company hasn't confirmed its marketing spend, but some reports have placed it as high as $500 million."

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/31349/Microsoft_Rings_In_Kinects_O fficial_Lau
nch_Amid_Celebration_Questions_Alike.php



"Those 2.7 million new consumers will be spending money on more games and peripherals, after all... "

Maybe they will, maybe they won't, at this moment nobody knows how much they will spend and how much money will be ending up at Microsoft, last year in July Microsoft reported a 172 million loss for the XBox division, despite the good Slim sales.

Leon T
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@ Jamie Mann,



Look it up yourself.



If you honestly think that Microsoft wouldn't spend more money on their video game business after losing a ton of money on it, than you honestly don't have clue.

Fábio Bernardon
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"Consumers are purchasing Office 2010, Xbox and Kinect at tremendous rates, and businesses of all sizes are purchasing Microsoft platforms and applications."



My question is: dos Office and Windows are part of the EDD division? Or are they in this sentence just because it was a comment over the overall performance of all divisions?

Simon Carless
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Office and Windows are not part of EDD.

Camilo R
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MS has actually been making a profit on the 360 for years now (since 2008 if I remember correctly). It's funny how MS news always come down to the same argument:



http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/28220/Xbox_360_Division_Pushes_165_Million_Pr
ofit_For_MS_Q3.php

Leon T
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What is funny are people that either don't understand or just don't have a clue how much an investment these companies put into consoles and how long it takes to make that investment back. It takes longer when you sell your console at a lost and even more so when you have spend more than a billion dollars dealing with RROD.



Here is a hint: You can still post a profit for few quarters or more before you actually make up those loses.



If not for RROD the Xbox 360 likely would have turned a profit as a whole by now. That might happen by the end of this year if R&D for the next gen are not too high.

Christian Keichel
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While I agree with you in most points, I think to say the 360 turns profit if R&D for next gen are not to high is false. R&D for next gen generate losses for next gen, but it an't generate a loss for the 360, only for the entertainment division. R&D costs for a new device can't be blamed on another device.

Leon T
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I agree ,but I remember Nintendo reporting lower profits in the past when their hardware was not on the decline but it was due to high R&D cost.



I guess what I am saying is that the 360 can turn a profit but if the R&D cost are high enough it may look like it did not. It is more of a reporting thing.

Christian Keichel
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I agree, overall, the XBox business didn't turned profit since 2001 and I think, this is what counts in the end.

Daniel Mackie
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Out of interest I am not as techinally aware possibly as yourself, do you think the R&D costs of the XBOX were high in comparison to say the PS3.



My impression is that the CPU was an IBM chip used in both consoles and most of the rest of the parts plus the actual SDK were a modified form of PC architecture.

I wonder if there R&D may have been relatively low compared to the competition.



No Bluray R&D outlay also would have helped. Again my tech credentials are not that great.



But I think the console was " relatively " cheap to develop.



On the profitability note. I think Microsoft are in for the long haul with this. They want to be in the living-room and the 360 is simply the first tentative step into the all in one PC under the internet connected TV future they in-vision for us all.



Fun times ahead I think.

Christian Keichel
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Just because they used an IBM CPU doesn't mean, it was cheap to develop. They were on the market 12 months prior to their competition, they head to develop the whole software side of the machine (i.e. the XBox Live architecture, which had not much in common with the original XBox online service), they had to manage to get all the components working in such a small system (which they failed in the first years -> RROD), they had to develop, as you say the SDK. Nowadays multicore CPUs are common, but in 2004/2005 when the system was developed, this was almost unknown territory in PC games development, unlike the original XBox, the 360 has not this much in common with PCs any more.



The PS3 had the Cell CPU, which was more or less developed for the PS3 exclusively, but this CPU is also based on IBM's PPC CPUs. BluRay wasn't developed for the PS3 and so doesn't count as R&D costs for the system.

Daniel Mackie
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That was certainly a pointed and to me slightly unfriendly sounding reply but thanks non the less for your opinion.

Christian Keichel
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Wasn't meant as an unfriendly reply, sorry if it sounded like one.

Daniel Mackie
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Then straight back at you to. My bad sir. Internet comment context still throws me a loop every now and then.

Kevin Jones
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"I agree, overall, the XBox business didn't turned profit since 2001 and I think, this is what counts in the end."





You gotta at least try and stop talking nonsense once in a while.

"That's what counts in the end" for who exactly (and I am speaking as a shareholder here)? And how the heck does the original XBOX losing money change the fac that the XBOX 360 has been making big money every year now for YEARS? And how the heck do you even know that overall, cumulatively(if thats what you are talking about), the XBOX business is not eventually going to be profitable, even if XBOX losses are taken into account?

Christian Keichel
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"And how the heck do you even know that overall, cumulatively(if thats what you are talking about), the XBOX business is not eventually going to be profitable, even if XBOX losses are taken into account? "



Simply by adding up the losses/profits MS reported for the division since the launch of the original XBox.

Kevin Jones
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"Simply by adding up the losses/profits MS reported for the division since the launch of the original XBox. "



# 1 . Pleasse show me ANY company on this planet, that reports their earnings results every quarter, by deducting losses from a product they were selling back over 10 yeaers ago (2001). Results reflect the CURRENT years/quarters.



# 2. Even if we go by your ridiculous proposition of dedecuting the original XBOX losses from current XBOX 360 profits, the question I asked you was, how the heck dol you know that ULTIMATELY, XBOX 360 profits are not going more than make up for all losses that the original XBOX suffered? As at now, XBOX Live is rocking and raking in profits, Kinect is rocking, and Microsoft is actually making profits on the XBOX 360 hadware ( the last real price cut for the 360 was nearly THREE years ago. Since then, the prices of electronics compotnents like RAM, CPU's etc have more than HALVED)?

Leon T
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A shareholder that does not care that the xbox business has not made a profit overall yet. I find that hard to believe.



The xbox business can make a profit overall if their next console is sold for a profit from the start and is a huge success.

Kevin Jones
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"A shareholder that does not care that the xbox business has not made a profit overall yet"



As a very long term Microsoft shareholder, who has been folowing the company for DECADES, UIknow for example, that the first versions of Windows bombed, and lost Microsoft lots ofmoney, untill they finally hit it with Windows 3, after which Wiondows startedraking in more money than any other software in history. Firts versions of Microsoft Word never went anywhere either. Today, its a huge cash cow.

Micrsoft has always been about invesying for the long term. In this last auarter's earnings report, you wil have noticed that while Windows y sales slowed down considerably, it was the XBOX 360/Kinect business which proceeded toregister huge gains in sales and profits. Thats what long term investing is about.





"I find that hard to believe"





Because you don't really know much about the history of Microsoft or their products do you?





"The xbox business can make a profit overall if their next console is sold for a profit from the start and is a huge success"





The XBOX business is already making very good profits right now, and registering high increases in profits and sales, even while Nintendo's profits and sales continue to PLUMMET! Chew on that.

Leon T
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"Micrsoft has always been about invesying for the long term"



So you should care how long it takes for the xbox business to make a profit. As a fan of the xbox and as a shareholder. The fan wants the xbox line to continue and the shareholder wants the investment to move more into the positive.



"The XBOX business is already making very good profits right now"



Yet you said you don't care about those profits. Odd. The 360 is taking how long to break even?

Kevin Jones
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"So you should care how long it takes for the xbox business to make a profit"





Umm...earth to. "Leon Terry", .the XBOX 360 business is not only making big profits right now, XBOX business profits are going UP, even while Nintendo's profits continue to PLUMMET!





"The fan wants the xbox line to continue and the shareholder wants the investment to move more into the positive"



In case you are blind and don't understand English, the XBOX 360 business's profits did go UP in the last quarter and the quarter before that. In this quarter, the XBOX business was one of the divsions of Microsoft that managed to register big increases in sales and profits, even as Windows 7 sales slowed down. The shareholder is happy with the XBOX 360/Kinect right now.



"Yet you said you don't care about those profits"



I did huh?

Now why don't you show me exactly where I said that?

What I have consistently said is that the XBOX busines IS making big profits right now, and those profits ahve been going UP. Futher, companies DON'T report current earnings by reapplying losses they suffered long ago..like back in 2001.

Making things up again are we?

You should learn not to tell tall tales out of school.

Marcus Miller
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I guess all those avatar accessories that I purchased added to their bottom line...


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