Microsoft Entertainment and Devices division Q3 losses at $ 315M, sales slips 21%
Microsoft announced that for their Xbox operations for the Entertainment and Devices division has posted a US$ 315M loss, while sales has slipped down 21% to US$ 929 million. This doesn’t account for their performance in the other divisions, including the division encompassing Microsoft’s Windows Vista and Office 2007.
The losses were down by 22% from last year’s Q3 losses of US$ 402 million, giving the Redmond giant a climbing edge for the division. If the Xbox 360 continues to keep its lead in the hardware sales point, Microsoft may actually be able to break even by the next financial year.
The sales slip was highly attributed by representatives of the company to the drop in sales of Xbox 360 hardware. In contrast to the 1.7 million shipped in Q3 of 2006, the next-gen console shipped only half a million this quarter. But overall, Microsoft claims Xbox 360 sales performance has picked up, thus reducing the quarter loss for this year.
Microsoft also claimed that sales of Xbox and PC games dropped by 44% over the three quarters of this financial year, saying that it could be the cause of why the console sales performance has been lackluster of late. They blamed much of the losses for the launch of the Zune media player, and include coverage costs for extending the Xbox 360’s warranties.
But Microsoft is still gearing itself to push forward with their 12 million Xbox 360 units shipped by June, but since actual sales cannot be quantified this early, there’s no telling what this could mean for the giant. Come the fourth quarter report, we shall all find out.
Via Gamasutra
Microsoft announced that for their Xbox operations for the Entertainment and Devices division has posted a US$ 315M loss, while sales has slipped down 21% to US$ 929 million. This doesn’t account for their performance in the other divisions, including the division encompassing Microsoft’s Windows Vista and Office 2007.
The losses were down by 22% from last year’s Q3 losses of US$ 402 million, giving the Redmond giant a climbing edge for the division. If the Xbox 360 continues to keep its lead in the hardware sales point, Microsoft may actually be able to break even by the next financial year.
The sales slip was highly attributed by representatives of the company to the drop in sales of Xbox 360 hardware. In contrast to the 1.7 million shipped in Q3 of 2006, the next-gen console shipped only half a million this quarter. But overall, Microsoft claims Xbox 360 sales performance has picked up, thus reducing the quarter loss for this year.
Microsoft also claimed that sales of Xbox and PC games dropped by 44% over the three quarters of this financial year, saying that it could be the cause of why the console sales performance has been lackluster of late. They blamed much of the losses for the launch of the Zune media player, and include coverage costs for extending the Xbox 360’s warranties.
But Microsoft is still gearing itself to push forward with their 12 million Xbox 360 units shipped by June, but since actual sales cannot be quantified this early, there’s no telling what this could mean for the giant. Come the fourth quarter report, we shall all find out.
Via Gamasutra