Xbox Division Slips Back into Loss
Despite general news that Microsoft's revenues were up last quarter, the Xbox division slipped back into the red with a $164 million operating loss. From the article: "The operating loss in the division also dropped year on year, falling to $164 million from $204 million, which could be seen as very positive - but can equally be interpreted in light of the fact that the previous quarter, ended on December 31st, saw the division post its first quarterly profit since the launch of Xbox."
Recent sales are low because everyone is anticipating XBOX2. Why not?
I guess they have priced themselves out of any profits. I bought my XBOX for $300 back in November '01 when it was first launched. At that time, those $300 got you the console and one controller. These days (last time I checked), for $150, you can get an XBOX, two controllers, and one or two games. The console wars have driven down the price from what used to be an arm and a leg to something much more affordable in an attempt to sell more and more units.
Regardless, Microsoft will keep fielding consoles for as long as Billy says they can, while Nintendo seems flimsy, with barely any support, and Sega sits in the corner, having no fucking clue what they're doing.
Thus, I am now reminded of how violated I feel.
Sales are low because everybody already bought Halo 2.
But not everybody's buying Turf and the other new map for said game.
Two Roommates and a Boyfriend, updates Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
Okay, let me explain this to you. Christmas is the biggest, baddest ass time of year when it comes to retail business. I want to say like 35% of all retail business takes place in the month of December.
Game publishers try to get their best games out around Christmas seaons, because they know it's a great way to have a block buster game.
If X-Box has equalled the quarter that had Christmas during any quarter that doesn't have Christmas in it. Either they did something incredibly wrong during Christmas, or they did something incredibly right during the non-Christmas quarter.
There's a reason they seasonally adjust all retail numbers when doing economic analysis. It's because not all quarters are equal.
Kirby
PS I thought the Xbox was supposed to be the key to Bill's wet dream, convergence. What ever happened with that?
nintendo also has better games and a better system overall, IMO. If they didn't miss the boat completely on internet gaming, they would be well ahead of the xbox for US sales. From what I've seen and played, the only way xbox has such a high amount of market share is xbox live. even if xbox is just decentralized internet play like the ps2 online, it wouldn't have nearly as many consoles in use as it does with live. Even though I'm not a fan of the box, xbox live does have it's strong points.
Nothing here to see, ladies and gentlemen, please move on...
This late in the product cycle the Xbox should be a cash cow throwing off the money needed to fund future consoles, repay the investment in the first console, etc.
Instead it is just a big old rathole into which money continues to flow.
... but at least they make a profit! Sure Microsoft has huge pockets and could lose money like this forever if they wanted to, but a company can only do this so long before stockholders want to see some improvement. Remember that hardware sales equal a loss, software sales equal a profit.
Look to see Microsoft try to make more games and sell cheaper hardware with 360.
I think MS has already given up on the current Xbox, it was merely their practice system before they really knew how to dominate the industry. Does anyone else smell a new anti-trust suit headed their way in about 5-10 years???
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
Don't be too surprised when they release a WoW for the Xbox 360, and Sony puts EQ2 on the PS3... Counterstrike 1 already came out for the orignal Xbox, so part 2 will probably be a launch title, or soon after, for the 360 too.
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
we'll just have to wait and see...
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
Probably not. But if it does happen, it'll be because of Xbox Live. There's a few big reasons that MS has stayed so strong in the PC world that don't exist when it comes to consoles. The most significant is Businesses/Governments. The majority of businesses and governments get their day to day work done on MS software, and that represents a huge investment in software, related hardware, support, and training. You're talking about lots of organizations with thousands and thousands of workstations, none of which are in any rush to switch away from something that, while certainly not perfect and foolproof, has worked well enough for years.
/. article about a MMORPG will reflect. As Xbox live starts to track those sorts of things more throughly, there will be plenty of people who invest enough time building up their numbers online that they'll be loathe to just walk away, regardless of what hardware MS asks them to buy in the future, just to keep their accounts.
Consoles don't have that sort of market. They just go in people's houses. If I decide to switch from Xbox to Gamecube, I just have to convince myself, and go spend a couple hundred bucks for a system and some games. Learning the controls for a gamecube game isn't going to be any harder than learning the controls for a new Xbox game. Beyond that irrational fanaticism of some fanboys, a console is not that big of an investment. And when I get a new game system, I generally don't throw out the previous one, in case I feel like replaying some of the older stuff.
Another issue is file formats and compatibility and whatnot. This has helped MS keep such a good hold on the home consumer market, as well as tightened their grasp on the businesses/governments. Keeping compatibility with other people forces some conformity. Backwards compatibility is not as huge a deal in consoles as some people pretend, because most people don't throw out their old consoles when they get a new one, and I doubt the average casual gamer goes back to their older games all that much.
Xbox live is a chance for MS to lock people in, by storing data remotely. People can get pretty obsessive over their statistics and whatnot, as the comments in any
Nintendo had the big monopoly in the past, and they did some pretty anti-competitive things to solidify it. It didn't work for them when they hardly had any competitors. MS is strong, but they've got two well established opponents in their market, which would make all out domination quite unlikely.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
As the people hear more and more news about the Xbox360, PS3 and revolution, the amount earned by ALL companies will go down, it's just that microsoft are making a loss because of the expense of producing the xbox
I'm sure sony and nintendo are also experiencing lower profits in the run up to the next generation
Business Voyeur
They should just release Halo 3: the Rest of Halo 2. That was pretty much the only reason XBox really did well. Heck, that's why I bought the XBox. I still haven't found another game that I would want to buy for it.
This is the beginning of the big gaming decline ver. 2. Having lived through the first gaming implosion in the 80's all of the stars are aligned for a second one. And isn't it amazing how cycles always go in 25 year increments... almost to the day this will again.
Nintendo is the only one staying out of the hardware arms race and will smartly stay alive and strong through this one. The sheer costs of R&D of Sony and MS's continual losses as well as their R&D costs are going to be the downfalls along with rehashed games and themes ad nauseum. Hopefully nintendo will really bring gaming back to accessibility and fun as they are claiming and get this industry back on track.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Nintendo has better games? Are you on crack?