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Everyone says how much Xbox is struggling, but their revenue is up? What am I missing?

RickMasters

Member
This is gaf…. As long as PS sells more consoles It dont matter how much MORE money the three trillion dollar company makes …. As long as the perception of ‘Playstation domination’ is a thing most think there are no actual problems in the industry….. I say they deserve 1000 dollar PlayStations 🤷🏾‍♂️🤣🤣🤣
 

RickMasters

Member
I remember reading here that the gaming division was perfectly fine overall including Activision, and this is what I meant when I said that their business was fine.

So I have no clue what you are talking about. And I don't care, by the way.
This is the other thing…. People like to treat the ABK aquisition as a seperate thing. As if ABK profits are sepeeeated from Xbox and MS. Last time I checked MS bought them too though😅🤷🏾‍♂️


They lost the ‘console wars’ but their money still longer than ocean drive and could probably buy Sony 5 times over and still have money to spare to buy Nintendo if the likes of the CMA wouldnt get in their way….. that don’t look like a company that is struggling to me.
 
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Astray

Member
The thing is that as hardcore Xbox fans inevitably switch to PS5, PS5 Pro and PC, if they switch to PC they can drop in and out of gamepass at will, for $12 a month, versus the $20 a month it would cost on Xbox console with their additional tier machinations.
$12/mo is a promotional price that's only happening because Steam is a behemoth that not only managed to beat off Gamepass's appeal, but also somehow managed to do it without introducing a sub service of their own like Sony did.
 

Brucey

Member
This is the other thing…. People like to treat the ABK aquisition as a seperate thing. As if ABK profits are sepeeeated from Xbox and MS. Last time I checked MS bought them too though😅🤷🏾‍♂️


They lost the ‘console wars’ but their money still longer than ocean drive and could probably buy Sony 5 times over and still have money to spare to buy Nintendo if the likes of the CMA wouldnt get in their way….. that don’t look like a company that is struggling to me.
Xbox has always had basically unlimited money to burn due to huge profits from Mother Microsoft software. Normally that allows them to buy their way out of "trouble".

That hasn't resulted in long term success in the home console market however, tho it has extended its presence there.

But now Nadella has pulled the purse strings tight. No more freebies.
 

Brucey

Member
$12/mo is a promotional price that's only happening because Steam is a behemoth that not only managed to beat off Gamepass's appeal, but also somehow managed to do it without introducing a sub service of their own like Sony did.
Isn't it the post price increase? I e used to be $10 and then they recently bumped it up $2 a month (PC gamepass)?

Basically on the Xbox gamepass plan you pay an extra $8 a month for multiplayer.
 

BlackTron

Member
This is the other thing…. People like to treat the ABK aquisition as a seperate thing. As if ABK profits are sepeeeated from Xbox and MS. Last time I checked MS bought them too though😅🤷🏾‍♂️


They lost the ‘console wars’ but their money still longer than ocean drive and could probably buy Sony 5 times over and still have money to spare to buy Nintendo if the likes of the CMA wouldnt get in their way….. that don’t look like a company that is struggling to me.

The point, which I think is a valid one, is that Xbox survives on non-gaming money. It would be like Google releasing a game system, and people judging it based on how much of a "trillion dollar company" it came from (made from advertising).

Xbox now shows the revenue of the 70bn in publishers purchased by the company, which they never would have been able to afford if financed only by gaming operations, so it comes off as a hollow indicator of their gaming success.

If SEGA managed to survive and saved up enough cash to do a deal half as big, it would be a massive credit to their gaming savvy because it's their only arena and couldn't rely on being a tiny speck of a giant corp to stay alive.
 

Brucey

Member
About 14 months ago....

"
Microsoft
ProGlobal, one of the region’s rapidly growing communications agencies is thrilled to announce its appointment as the official communications partner for Xbox in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
As the regional agency for Xbox, ProGlobal will harness its expertise and robust network of trusted partners, to drive impactful communications campaigns that foster deeper connections between Xbox and its fanbase across MENA. Key markets will include UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.
As Xbox continues to expand its footprint and engage with gamers across the region, ProGlobal takes on a pivotal role in crafting compelling storytelling, managing relations with media and content creators, and executing strategic campaigns to amplify its messaging and offerings."

 
By that logic all of MS' segments have less than good profit, because none of them report segment-level profit either.


This isn't an Xbox-speciific thing. It's how Microsoft reports.
Microsoft is well known for obfuscating specific division level revenue and profits by purposely grouping smaller divisions with Windows, Office, Azure so you never know how much Surface made (not much), Xbox made (not much), etc.

Speaking as an actual MSFT shareholder, I don't really care that much how much tiny meaningless divisions make. I just want the lines for Windows, Office, Azure, and now Activision Blizzard to keep going up and to the right forever, so my MSFT also goes up and to the right forever
 
So many are obsessed with sales when the Series X and One have been MS's most profitable consoles . The group never made a profit in the OG Xbox days and it took until Halo 3 launch for the Xbox division to post a modest profit and all that hard work was undone with the Three Rings Of Death.

I would imagine Xbox is disappointed with the Series X not selling better given what a good console it. I am very much looking forward to the new console and like the talk of a focus on making it a massive jump over previous generations
 

Woopah

Member
Microsoft is well known for obfuscating specific division level revenue and profits by purposely grouping smaller divisions with Windows, Office, Azure so you never know how much Surface made (not much), Xbox made (not much), etc.

Speaking as an actual MSFT shareholder, I don't really care that much how much tiny meaningless divisions make. I just want the lines for Windows, Office, Azure, and now Activision Blizzard to keep going up and to the right forever, so my MSFT also goes up and to the right forever
Would it make any difference?

Even if Xbox was split off into it's own division, you still wouldn't see the profit levels.

MS doesn't report profit for any division, not just the smaller ones.
 

SenkiDala

Member
This is gaf…. As long as PS sells more consoles It dont matter how much MORE money the three trillion dollar company makes …. As long as the perception of ‘Playstation domination’ is a thing most think there are no actual problems in the industry….. I say they deserve 1000 dollar PlayStations 🤷🏾‍♂️🤣🤣🤣
This this this. And wait until they understand that when they buy COD, Diablo, Overwatch, Minecraft, Doom, Candy Crush, WoW, Elder Scrolls stuff, most of this money goes into Microsoft's pocket.
 
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ByWatterson

Member
Xbox just took away Day 1 Game Pass games from Game Pass Standard.

Because counts matter.

It's also why they're putting their games on PS5.

Because counts matter.


I know I've heard this argument before.

Hordes of people were going around saying console sales don't matter anymore.

How did that turn out for them?

We're 6-12 months away from an Xbox poster saying "Revenue doesn't really matter."
 
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Woopah

Member
So many are obsessed with sales when the Series X and One have been MS's most profitable consoles . The group never made a profit in the OG Xbox days and it took until Halo 3 launch for the Xbox division to post a modest profit and all that hard work was undone with the Three Rings Of Death.

I would imagine Xbox is disappointed with the Series X not selling better given what a good console it. I am very much looking forward to the new console and like the talk of a focus on making it a massive jump over previous generations
How do you know the Series X and One have been their most profitable consoles?
 
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Woopah

Member
Simple.

Xbox made no money in the OG Gen and it wasn't until Halo 3 launched on the 360 in 2007 that Xbox was even able to post any profit.


https://www.gamespot.com/articles/microsofts-xbox-arm-posts-rare-profit/1100-6181753/


Sadly then TTROD wiped out any profits with the billion quid price tag. Xbox unless I missed something hasn't posted a lost in the Xbox One or Series era
Microsoft doesn't report profits for individual decisions. So we have no way of knowing what profit or loss Xbox is currently making.
 
Microsoft doesn't report profits for individual decisions. So we have no way of knowing what profit or loss Xbox is currently making.
I take that as code for Xbox hasn't posted any loss in the One or Series era ;)
What we do know for a fact is Xbox lost a ton of money on the OG Xbox had a hard time making money with the 360 and when it started to turn it around with Halo 3.
It faced a billion dollar write-off bill for the Three Rings Of Death
 
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Woopah

Member
I take that as code for Xbox hasn't posted any loss in the One or Series era ;)
What we do know for a fact is Xbox lost a ton of money on the OG Xbox had a hard time making money with the 360 and when it started to turn it around with Halo 3.
It faced a billion dollar write-off bill for the Three Rings Of Death
By the same token, Xbox hasn't posted a single profit in this era. We have no idea if the Series is more profitable than the 360 (which was very profitable in its later life).
 

Topher

Gold Member
This is the other thing…. People like to treat the ABK aquisition as a seperate thing. As if ABK profits are sepeeeated from Xbox and MS. Last time I checked MS bought them too though😅🤷🏾‍♂️

Microsoft is the one making the distinction in their financial reports as far as ABK's impact in revenue. So yeah, they are separate. ABK and Xbox are not the same thing.

They lost the ‘console wars’ but their money still longer than ocean drive and could probably buy Sony 5 times over and still have money to spare to buy Nintendo if the likes of the CMA wouldnt get in their way….. that don’t look like a company that is struggling to me.

Who said Microsoft was struggling as a whole?

This this this. And wait until they understand that when they buy COD, Diablo, Overwatch, Minecraft, Doom, Candy Crush, WoW, Elder Scrolls stuff, most of this money goes into Microsoft's pocket.

I think pretty much everyone here understands that the money made from Microsoft Gaming goes into Microsoft's pocket.

Come On What GIF by MOODMAN
 
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RickMasters

Member
Microsoft is the one making the distinction in their financial reports as far as ABK's impact in revenue. So yeah, they are separate. ABK and Xbox are not the same thing.



Who said Microsoft was struggling as a whole?



I think pretty much everyone here understands that the money made from Microsoft Gaming goes into Microsoft's pocket.

Come On What GIF by MOODMAN
That’s all I’m really saying…. It still end up in MS pocket.
 
By the same token, Xbox hasn't posted a single profit in this era. We have no idea if the Series is more profitable than the 360 (which was very profitable in its later life).
Xbox hasn't posted a loss in this era , unlike the OG Xbox or 360 era.

Has a business Xbox never been in better shape . Though I miss the OG Xbox and uncle Bill days myself
 

PSlayer

Member
I’m not being facetious, I likely *am* missing something. If Xbox’s revenue is increasing year over year, then isn’t that kind of objectively doing pretty well?

As far as I can tell, it seems like the decision to bring their games to other platforms, while obviously lowers demand for their own console, actually seems like it’s a pretty smart play? It would be kind of depressing to see them leave the console market, but if the company is still seeing record(?) profits, then it certainly doesn’t seem to be necessary.

What am I missing?
Revenue is not profit! Revenue is just how much money is flowing into your company. You can increase that by increasing your cost. For example,if i sell a product at loss,my revenue will likely go up because people will buy the product more(because it's cheaper) but i'm not making any money,in fact,i'm losing it.

A lot of silicon valley companies boost their revenues by increasing their cost, offering unsustainable deals to their users.

Examples of this is We Work,Uber,Twitter(before Elon),Twitch,Youtube,netflix(up until recently at least),etc...

All of them are money losers that offer insane deals to their users and generate big revenues because of that, but when you look at the fine print,they are on the red.
 
Spending billions on aquisitions = more revenue
Revenue =/ profit
No (significant) Game Pass growth
Console sales no too bad, but compared to Sony or Nintendo absolute ass

It's still possible that they dominate the gaming market in 10-20 years, but not with any hardware.
Much like 2008 there is about to be a major economic issue to kick off. The entertainment industry is gonna thrive off that like they always have done. When people can't afford to go out they gonna chill on a cheap console with their boy's rather than going on nights out.
 

Rockman33

Member
Their revenue NOT including ABK was still up YoY if I’m not mistaken in the last report. People just live to shit on Xbox
 
They have 34M gamepass subscribers at last count.

Conservatively that's $4B a year in revenue but probably more like $6B when you factor some of those are Ultimate subscribers.

I also think COD is going to have some pull there. Like if you play a lot of COD on console Gamepass Ultimate is by far the best value.
That 34 milliom includes the online only gold membership.
 
Cost of gamepass is definitely lower to the company than getting 3rd party exclusive deals.

Dunno why only xbox is making loss by giving its customers value.

Sony is giving you bragging rights of 3rd party exclusives that don’t have any material value.

Again fanbase is getting fooled.
 

Woopah

Member
Their revenue NOT including ABK was still up YoY if I’m not mistaken in the last report. People just live to shit on Xbox
Gaming revenue would have been down 4% without ABK.
Source for this?
I asked for sources on all of this “they aren’t making any profit!!” stuff pages ago but it just seems to be speculation and assumptions.
Microsoft doesn't report profit numbers for any of its segments. So we can't talk about profit of the Xbox Series with any certainty.
 
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jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
This is gaf…. As long as PS sells more consoles It dont matter how much MORE money the three trillion dollar company makes …. As long as the perception of ‘Playstation domination’ is a thing most think there are no actual problems in the industry….. I say they deserve 1000 dollar PlayStations 🤷🏾‍♂️🤣🤣🤣

This is the other thing…. People like to treat the ABK aquisition as a seperate thing. As if ABK profits are sepeeeated from Xbox and MS. Last time I checked MS bought them too though😅🤷🏾‍♂️


They lost the ‘console wars’ but their money still longer than ocean drive and could probably buy Sony 5 times over and still have money to spare to buy Nintendo if the likes of the CMA wouldnt get in their way….. that don’t look like a company that is struggling to me.
You say this like Windows Phone is still around.

The 3 trillion dollar company can still have divisions have issues.

Thread title says Xbox...not MS.

This this this. And wait until they understand that when they buy COD, Diablo, Overwatch, Minecraft, Doom, Candy Crush, WoW, Elder Scrolls stuff, most of this money goes into Microsoft's pocket.
And before the acquisitions that money went into Bethesda, ABK and Mojang pockets..

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

No one gave a damn about who was getting the money before, and no one will now.
 
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Evil Calvin

Afraid of Boobs
Spending billions on aquisitions = more revenue
Revenue =/ profit
No (significant) Game Pass growth
Console sales no too bad, but compared to Sony or Nintendo absolute ass

It's still possible that they dominate the gaming market in 10-20 years, but not with any hardware.
If they actually release any GREAT games in the next 5 years with the 25+ studios they have, Gamepass growth would happen. The narrative has been that Gamepass subs have plateaued and no more growth. I guarantee that if they released and had games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Astrobot, Last of Us, GOW, then people would have bought XSX and Gamepass. But MS released a buggy, uninspired Starfield and a tech demo called Hellblade 2 in the last year. MS releases nothing.
 
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