Xbox Microsoft Xbox a dar lucro (a consola mesmo)?

Xbox makes profit, shocker

Christmas time, nickel and a dime

By Wil Harris: Saturday 29 January 2005, 12:21
MICROSOFT'S Home Entertainment division - responsible for the Xbox console - has posted its first ever quarterly profit.

While the Xbox has always been considered a loss leader for the next generation of consoles, the Christmas period has given the platform a boost into profitability.

Strong hardware sales, coupled with the phenomenally successful Halo 2, means that Microsoft made $84 million on total sales of $1.41 billion. This is compared to a loss made this time last year of $397 million on $1.27 billionn.

The majority of sales appear to be in North America, where Microsoft has had the most success with the console.

In Xbox 2 news, it now seems unlikely that the machine will be launched at the Game Developer's Conference this year, as speculated. The Microsoft speaker there will be J. Allard, who is a senior Xbox executive - but not senior enough to be launching the new console. That task will fall to our Bill. µ

Clicar para expandir...

Microsoft's console reports first profitable quarter as installed base nears 20 million

Second quarter financial results from software giant Microsoft have seen the Home and Entertainment Division, which is responsible for the Xbox, posting a profit for the first time as sales rocketed.

The division announced a profit of $84 million on sales of $1.41 billion for the three months ended December 31st, reversing a loss of $397 million on sales of $1.27 billion in the same period last year.

Although it still remains unlikely that the Xbox will ever break even overall, given the scale of losses in its life to date, achieving a profitable quarter is a huge milestone for Microsoft and reflects both the huge success of Halo 2, which has racked up $300 million in revenue since its launch, and the strong hardware sales of the platform during the holiday season.

Microsoft's figures reveal that 19.9 million Xboxes have now been sold, with the lion's share - some 13.2 million - of those in North America, where the platform has improved its year-on-year market share in for the past 14 months consecutively.

Europe lags far behind with five million consoles sold, while the Asia-Pacific region manages just 1.7 million consoles, giving a clear indication of where Microsoft's games strategy has been a success - and where there is still much to be done to shift Sony and even Nintendo from their market positions.

Interestingly, the Xbox worldwide figure isn't that far ahead of Nintendo's GameCube figures, which were announced earlier this week and showed total shipments of about 18.8 million units, and with the Xbox achieving a 7.7 attach rate in North America (believed to be lower elsewhere) compared to the Cube's global attach rate of over 8, software sales across the two platforms in this generation have probably been broadly similar.

Microsoft's achievement in terms of bringing in a profitable quarter for its console was lauded by outgoing CFO John Connors, who commented that "Home and Entertainment has really turned the corner in all respects - Halo 2 and Xbox Live have been remarkable, exceeding our expectations."

"More Xbox consoles were sold during the critical holiday season in the United States than any of our competitors' consoles," he continued. "Demand was so great that we nearly made our full-fiscal-year console target six months ahead of schedule."

In terms of future projections, Microsoft expects to hit 21 to 22 million installed units of the Xbox by the end of its financial year in June, with Xbox Live subscription numbers of 1.6 to 1.8 million users in the same timescale - an estimate which has been raised from the original target of 1.5 million.

Clicar para expandir...

Microsoft Profit Higher on PC, Xbox Sales

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news), the world's largest software maker, on Thursday reported that its quarterly profit doubled on stronger demand for personal computers and video games as well as lower costs.

.................................

"Home and entertainment was also a highlight for us.... We're very pleased with 'Halo 2' results and Xbox Live (online game service)," Connors said.

Analysts had been looking for such an improvement, as it could raise prospects for its next generation of Xbox video game consoles, expected by the 2005 holiday season.

.................................

"The question is sustainability," said Di Bona, referring to the Xbox business's strong performance in the last three months of 2004.

Clicar para expandir...

The latest financial results from Sony Corporation reveal that revenues in its videogames division dropped by 23 per cent year on year in the third quarter, with a slide in hardware sales only partially offset by improved software sales.

The division recorded revenues of 282.6 billion Yen (2.1 billion Euro) in the three months ended December 31st, while operating income fell by 36.8 per cent in the same period - down to 44.6 billion Yen (331 million Euro).

The decline was attributed to lower PS2 sales in all territories, which came about as a result of the severe hardware shortages which afflicted the markets in the months after the launch of the new slimline PS2.

However, the company's production shipments figure for the quarter was actually up over last year's, increasing by around 560,000 units to 7.39 million - with the problem presumably being that many of these units only shipped at the tail end of the quarter, and didn't get into retail in time for Christmas.

Software shipments, however, remained healthy, with 109 million units of PlayStation 2 software shipped during the three month period, an increase of five million units over the same period last year.

Clicar para expandir...

Rudzer disse:

Grandes noticias sem duvida, isto vai tornar a MS certamente ainda mais interessada neste mercado e "agressiva"

Clicar para expandir...

AwakE disse:

É.....vamos ver se não fica demasiado agressiva, para depois não estarem aqui fazer posts como os anti-EA.

Clicar para expandir...

Rudzer disse:

Olha para o mercado actual, pensa um bocado e dps diz qualquer coisa...

Clicar para expandir...

AwakE disse:

Sim....dá-lhe tempo.

Clicar para expandir...

Rudzer disse:

Tens acções da Sony ou queres trabalhar para a Concentra?

Clicar para expandir...

Rudzer disse:

Não é preciso ser um genio para perceber que concorrencia à SONY no mercado das consolas é mais que benvinda visto a Nintendo estar meio "frouxa"...

Clicar para expandir...

Rudzer disse:

eu percebi-te, mas o problema é que a "MS" actual das consolas é a Sony...e a dita cuja precisa de um "empurrão"

Clicar para expandir...

AwakE disse:

E estes ao contrario das bombas da XBox nunca chegarão aos PCs.

Clicar para expandir...

Rudzer disse:

até parece que a maior parte dos jogos A+ da xbox acabam sempre no pc...

eu queria era ver a Sega a voltar em força so que isso é mais que impossivel

Clicar para expandir...

AwakE disse:

Jogos que eu quisesse mesmo, acho que só mesmo o Ninja Gaiden ou talvez o Fable. De resto....pelo menos não me lembro de mais nenhum. Lembra-me ai de grandes jogos XBOX.

Clicar para expandir...

edias disse:

HALO2. por exemplo.

Cumps,
edias

Clicar para expandir...

Rudzer disse:

eu queria era ver a Sega a voltar em força so que isso é mais que impossivel

Clicar para expandir...

AwakE disse:

Dá-lhe tempo....tou a falar de jogos que não vao mesmo sair para PC. Por exemplo o San Andreas tb vai demorar, mas há de sair pa PC.

Clicar para expandir...