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[Prine]

fantastic news. Good to see MS finally making some profit on Xbox, should instil some faith with doubters (MS execs)

XBL subsciptions on the up, Xbox 2 looks like its going to rock, western market responding to Xbox and its software.


Everything is going sooo smoothly. Now all i need is Fable to top one million

2 million lead is great considering the utter failure in japan

 

[jedimike]

2 million lead is great considering the utter failure in japan

It is pretty amazing considering Xbox is down nearly 3 million to GC in Japan. MS made significant progress in the top 2 markets though. Like I said before, they gained huge ground in Europe where GC was leading Xbox early in the race.

 

[open_mouth_]

*joins in on the Xbox circle jerk*

While this doesn't indicate a resounding success, it does show that all those people that deemed the Xbox to be an utter failure (before and throughout it's life) couldn't be more wrong in their predictions.

Next-gen, instead of acquiring tons of devs/pubs, Microsoft is going to give them a great platform (Xenon) and all the support they need to bring quality games on a hot platform. It's alot like Sony's overall strategy of courting 3rd parties, except Microsoft seems to be doing it even more effectively at this point.

 

[AniHawk]

Say what you want about the company. But they make more profit in one year than Sony and Nintendo combined in 5. Imagine what they are going to do after they get over the getting their feet wet phase with Microsoft. EA might look pale in comparison.

Good lord, the original post was a knock against the Gamecube, not the Xbox.

 

[jimbo]

So if I read that right, their Home and Entertainment division made this profit including all the expenses they faced and are still facing developing the Xenon, buying Rare, taking a loss on hardware, etc? That's pretty impressive if true. Buying Bungie was the best move they ever made.

 

[Jesiatha]

So if I read that right, their Home and Entertainment division made this profit including all the expenses they faced and are still facing developing the Xenon, buying Rare, taking a loss on hardware, etc? That's pretty impressive if true. Buying Bungie was the best move they ever made.

We made a profit this quarter (October, November, December 2004). The Rare purchase happened a while back, so none of it showed up this quarter. I think the profit for HED was $92M (and I don't feel like looking it up), which makes up for about a quarter of the Rare purchase.

 

[jimbo]

A right, this was just for the quarter.

 

[nightez]

You guys are falling for Microsoft Spin doctors if you read it Xbox division is still in the red.

 

[open_mouth_]

We made a profit this quarter (October, November, December 2004). The Rare purchase happened a while back, so none of it showed up this quarter. I think the profit for HED was $92M (and I don't feel like looking it up), which makes up for about a quarter of the Rare purchase.

Only 3 more new iterations of the Halo franchise needed to completely recoup the Rare purchase!

 

[Wellington]

http://www.realestategates.com/News/28012005/hal_mic23498346858968934.html

Microsoft posted a net profit of $3,46 billion for its fiscal second quarter compared with $1,55 billion posted a year earlier. Company reported that sales of "Halo 2", video game for its Xbox game console, reached 6,3 million copies improving results in Microsoft home and entertainment division.

"Home and entertainment was also a highlight for us. We're very pleased with Halo 2 results and Xbox Live," said Microsoft’s outgoing CFO John Connors.

Connors considers that "across-the-board strength in both our business and consumer segments" helped to strengthen company’s performance. "Our long-term approach to growing new businesses is paying off," he said.

Microsoft's is planning the release of the next version of Windows in 2006. Company also expects PC shipment growth of 9% to 11% for the fiscal year to June.

"The PC environment is actually quite healthy," John Connors said.

 

[sonycowboy]

We made a profit this quarter (October, November, December 2004). The Rare purchase happened a while back, so none of it showed up this quarter. I think the profit for HED was $92M (and I don't feel like looking it up), which makes up for about a quarter of the Rare purchase.

You don't have to look it up, it's in the initial post. The profit for the HED division was 84M.
It's also quite possible that the Xbox "departments" still lost money (just not as much) and were buoyed by the other departments in the division. The games, consumer products, and Mac office has always been profitable and are in the HED division as well.

 

[Particle Physicist]

fantastic news. Good to see MS finally making some profit on Xbox, should instil some faith with doubters (MS execs)

this doesnt necessarily mean that the xbox is making a profit.. just that, at the very least, its losses have been improved. the way MS shoved the system into that division, i dont think we'll ever know for sure.



EDIT

dang.. beaten by the cowboy.

 

[nightez]

Look at it this way whenever the other firm posts a profit its always badly spinned (they emphasize the negative) by the media.

There's blatant spin doctoring and accounting hacks to please shareholders here.

Home and Entertainment: Revenue (In million$)

3 Months Ended December 31 2003: 1267
3 Months Ended December 31 2004: 1407
6 Months Ended December 31 2003: 1848
6 Months Ended December 31 2004: 2039

Home and Entertainment: Operating Income (In million$)

3 Months Ended December 31 2003: -397
3 Months Ended December 31 2004: 84
6 Months Ended December 31 2003: -669
6 Months Ended December 31 2004: -57

You see they still made a loss.

 

[Jesiatha]

You don't have to look it up, it's in the initial post. The profit for the HED division was 84M.

The initial post was not visible while typing my reply.

It's also quite possible that the Xbox "departments" still lost money (just not as much) and were buoyed by the other departments in the division. The games, consumer products, and Mac office has always been profitable and are in the HED division as well.

I don't think MS has ever broken results down by product units within a division, so any guess as to which units are profitable is only a guess (feel free to correct me if this info has been made public).

 

[Jesiatha]

You see they still made a loss.

The earnings release is clearly for the quarter - and for the quarter, HED made a profit. Did anyone claim that HED was in the black for the fiscal year?