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Microsoft Games Losses Down, Still Substantial

Posted by Zonk on from the a-little-bit-lossy dept.

Even though sales are up on the operating system side of things, Microsoft's games division is still struggling. The Entertainment and Devices division lost $315 million, with sales slipping some 21 percent. That's 22 percent down from last year. The quarter overall saw $929 million, down 21 percent over last year during the same quarter. "Microsoft says the drop in sales came primarily because of decreases in the sale of Xbox 360s. During the quarter, the company shipped a half million consoles, as compared to 1.7 in the third quarter of 2006, that being the first full quarter in which Xbox 360s became available. Sales of Xbox and PC games decreased 44 percent over the company's first three quarters to $393 million, which the company puts hand in hand with the decrease in console sales."

4 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. stop the presses! by Judinous · · Score: 2, Informative

    So, the branch that just released a new major product this year is reporting an increase in sales, and the branch that released a new major product last year is reporting a decrease? That's not news, it's common sense.

  2. Re:War of Attrition by hansamurai · · Score: 5, Informative

    The difference between Nintendo and the other two, is that Nintendo is a games only company. They rely solely on their hardware and software sales. On the other hand, Sony and Microsoft's consoles are just one division of a much larger conglomerate. And that conglomerate can support the other gaming divisions until they finally do get out of the red, or the stock holders, whatever, demand that division to be sold off or folded. Microsoft's gaming/Zune divsion might have lost 300 million dollars, but the company as a whole took in over 14 billion dollars in revenue. I know it can't go on forever, but Microsoft at least, is committed to this industry, for better or worse.

    --
    Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
  3. Re:Umm. by fotbr · · Score: 3, Informative

    Fiscal year, not calendar year.

  4. Re:Umm. by peaworth · · Score: 2, Informative

    Uh, yes it does. Micrsoft's fiscal year is defined to run from July 1 - June 30. Therefore, fiscal year 2007 started July 2006 and is July, August, September. For an example of this, see this link:

    tp:wwwmicrosoftmonitorcomarchives200610microsoftfi sca6html
    From the linked article:
    "This afternoon, Microsoft announced results for its fiscal 2007 first quarter, ended September 30."

    So January 1 - March 31, 2006 was their third fiscal quarter for fiscal year 2006.