Microsoft FY16 Q1: Xbox HW rev down 17%, live rev up 17%, XBL MAU users up 28% to 39M
- Thread starter Rymuth
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Is anyone still believing that AAA games will be a deciding factor in what device will win the living room for the respective company? I'd imagine they already have let that idea go.
Pristine_Condition
Member
Deciding not to release shipment numbers is telling in and of itself. It also makes you wonder how much of those shipment figures in previous quarters amounted to channel stuffing, whether intentional or not.
hydrophilic attack
Member
but how many zombies were shot
Opus Angelorum
Member
Didn't Sony stop giving any numbers for while last generation?
Its not how many were shot that matters. What matters is that the Xbox Family is the best place to shoot Zombies.
all three companies are selective when they give numbers. sony used to be all about shipped numbers for the longest time.
we usually get hardware numbers after the holiday season since sales skyrocket and everyone wants to toot their horn. no point wasting time picking apart this crap report when well know how everyone has been doing soon enough.
Yeah that didnt work out too well this gen...
Aceofspades
Banned
Stopped reporting? Never, but they used PSfamily combined numbers .
TBiddy
Member
Do you know at which price point MS breaks even on an XB1 or are you just speculating?
TBiddy
Member
Sales numbers are mostly relevant for console wars (and click-bait articles). Microsoft, as a business, along with their shareholders care primarily about revenue and profit.
To put it bluntly - they do not care (not much, at least) whether 800,000, 1,800,000 or 18,000,000 consoles have been shipped. They only look at the bottom line.
KurtSloane
Banned
Of course they care, revenue from the Xbox business is directly impacted by install base.
chromatic9
Member
5192 bullets, 1.7 billion connection attempts
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Almost spit out my tea!
TBiddy
Member
You don't say.
Either you misunderstood me or I didn't make my point clear enough.
Sales numbers are only fun to use in console wars and click-bait articles. Investors and shareholders care about revenue and profit, not about some arbitrary number, which may or may not end up in more software sales.
womfalcs3
Banned
But when they've done it since the first installment it makes the company look silly.
PdotMichael
Banned
Of course investors care about market share and stuff.
No they never stopped reporting numbers. Twas a pretty poor attempt at a SonyToo.
Only it is not really an arbitrary number. It is a concrete number allowing investors to ascertain the market position of a product relative to the competition, which in turn can result in deployment of different strategies.
And while it is certainly true that the ultimate goal is a better bottom line, it will still be preferable to sell 100 consoles at $1 profit each, than one console for $100 profit.
Outside of USA and uk this thing doesn't seem to be moving at all. I'd hazard a guess a lot of that stock is still sitting on shelves and stock rooms outside of the two regions they are doing OK in.
SaucyJack
Member
To expand your point, It could be better to sell 1,000 consoles at zero profit (or even a loss) if you then make $10/game sold for those 1,000 consoles.
Yes, MS care about bottom line but number of consoles sold is a direct route to that bottom line.
Dirtyshubb
Member
To say investors don't care about anything but revenue is pretty short sighted.
You can't just take these numbers at face value, you need to look at trending data, market share, future prospects etc. Which can give you a much better picture of what the health is of your current product.
If things are OK now but trending downwards it is a big concern that needs exploring.
You can't just take these numbers at face value, you need to look at trending data, market share, future prospects etc. Which can give you a much better picture of what the health is of your current product.
If things are OK now but trending downwards it is a big concern that needs exploring.
DustyVonEric
Member
Shipment numbers can help tell which way the wind is blowing though. I'm surprised no one brought it up during the investors call supposedly. That should be another indicator to MS that this hardware business might not be the right strategy for them; if no one cares enough to ask. Integrate the Xbox Live service within other products and move on.
As said earlier in the thread, MS going from differentiating between 360 & XB1 ship figures to Xbox Family to no shipment numbers at all, in quick succession, is pretty eye opening for me at least.
Mikey Jr.
Member
You can't tell me with a straight face that they made this reporting change because they don't care about hardware sales anymore.
Come on bro. Come on.
It's clear as day why this change was made.
TBiddy
Member
It's not unheard of that companies change the way they present numbers. Especially when they are also changing their FY schedule.
It is an arbitrary number. It has next to no relevance, unless you wish to justify your purchase or downplay the competitors.
Do you honestly think Microsofts potential investors care whether the XB1 shipped 1 million or 1,2 million?
You saying "it's clear as day" doesn't really make it right, you know. Unless you have confirmation from Microsoft, stop laying it out as a fact.
Giriath_89
Member
I don't think Microsoft's investors care much about Xbox at all. If they did, I imagine they would care to know if it has shipped 10m or 15m. Or if it shipped more or less than last quarter or YoY.
People will not pay a subscription for Live on PC or Phone. They will try and make their money on their own PC marketplace, getting a 30% cut or so of digital purchases.
TBiddy
Member
That was kinda my point. The Xbox-series have never really been a moneymaker, hardware wise. The investors of Microsoft look to Windows, Office, Server and a lot of other software. Lately Surface has been good as well.
I get it - it would be fun if Microsoft released some shitty sales numbers. But as I've written a few times now. Their investors honestly doesn't care, imo.
Edit:
Also worth noting, that Microsoft doesn't give numbers for licenses sold, Surfaces sold, phones sold etc. from what I can see.
They released combined PS2/PS3 numbers in FY2012, but other than that, they've always provided detailed numbers for all consoles.
To me it seems plausible that MS in the next couple of quarters will be announcing a change to Xbox live regards the platforms its on and potentially a charge associated with that (probably not a charge for entry, but one for elevated content as otherwise they would have shown engagement solely by XBL Gold subs).
They can't just continue to use Xbox live MAU numbers if theres no stimulation to those numbers and I can't see how naturally those numbers will grow while X360 users drop - who would replace them with growth? Im not that clued up with the MS ecosystem so unsure what platform have/haven't got a Xbox live service...
Moving to such a metric can't solely just be hide hardware shipment numbers - they choose that particular metric for a reason, it has to be a long-term index than MS are working towards across their platforms.
ps3ud0 8)
They did stop reporting handheld numbers a little while back. And before that they stopped giving individual Vita numbers obscuring it's real performance. Sony definitely has a similar recent track record with this sort of thing when it benefits them.
All three report shipped numbers regularly in their IR reports, sometimes they'll use sold through for PR releases.
Both Sony and Microsoft have progressively been giving less and less numbers recently though. Nintendo hasn't weirdly even though they're arguably in the weakest position of the three. They still give out full hardware and software totals by region and quarter going back almost 2 decades. Handheld numbers even by model.
The user number will grow with the number of people using their PC marketplace. The same way Steam has a user count. There is a chance that MS may have a sub service for PC, but it would certainly not be to lock MP behind a paywall. It would be for free monthly games, cloud storage, dedicated server rentals, or some such. On PC they would really have to provide value to make a sub worth using.
TBiddy
Member
Could perhaps be a service like EA Access, but with access to Microsofts catalogue of PC games.
Would be a great way for MS to have another revenue-stream, while getting people used to using the Windows Store.
KillerMan91
Member
sörine;182660408 said:
While Nintendo obviously still gives most numbers (and they pretty much have to as a pure gaming company) they too have axed some data from their briefings . For example they used to give those very useful European hardware charts but haven't given them in a while as sales are not as great as they used to be.
Honestly these days i can´t see Xbox to pass this gen, if NX suceeds and Xbox keeps doing like this, it will be a massacre to Microsoft.
No more numbers says it all. Poor Phil :/
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/...les-down-xbox-live-user-up-to-39-million.aspx
No more numbers says it all. Poor Phil :/
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/...les-down-xbox-live-user-up-to-39-million.aspx
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
Xbox passed a gen of losing billions why shouldn't it pass this?
savage.
FlashFlooder
Member
Because the "battle for the living room" is no longer worth losing billions for. It's been won by $30 sticks that plug into your tv.
Shin-Ra
Junior Member
The active Live accounts they've given aren't relevant to revenue and profits unless they're all paying accounts. We don't even know what passes for an active account.
darkinstinct
...lacks reading comprehension.
Actually no. They could give Xbox One away for free and would reach 60 to 70 % market share easily. But it would be very expensive and probably not make any money. On the other side you can have a very small market share and be much more profitable than your competition. Market share alone is irrelevant.
As much as that is true, XBox both has a small market share and is not profitable.
And at this point, I doubt even giving it away in Europe would be effective.