Good for MS. I haven't bought much Xbox stuff this year, other than Rare Replay (Which I ended up getting for free through the mixer promotion anyway!) and I got a digital game (Catherine) for $5.
Nice to see them doing well. They've been doing a good number of things that I have found to be quite beneficial to me as a consumer so I wish them continued success and will continue to support them.
Probably because they no longer make games exclusive to the console. It's a win-win for MS since they also own the PC gaming OS. They know it would be a bad move to try and secure exclusive deals since it would eat into their other revenue sources.
...Only Sony has to make dirty exclusive deals to ensure revenue. No one would buy a multi-platform game for PS4 if they have a PC (Or X1X, which I am thinking will be more of a PC alternative).
Game Pass is going to be great for them. Already got me to spend $10. If someone is new to Xbox it's a no brainer. EA access is going to be another $5 in September for Titanfall 2 and BF1.
Xbox Live is always rocksteady, and have met awesome people from all over the world and had some great laughs and amazing times. Mixer is best streaming experience I have seen as a streamer or as a viewer, and it's growing like crazy!
The services they offer are great and only getting better. You don't need any of them but the options are great to have to maximize the experience.
I hope they finally open up the old Microsoft checkbook and start doing some Real advertising.
@kuu2: revenue =/= net income. For a company MS' size, margins matter most. And for years MS has hid the actual numbers of the Xbox division within the "More Personal Computing" category; the profit contribution of the Xbox division is obfuscated in MS' reporting. Overall, the category results in a 15% net margin when it's all said and done, which includes Windows OEM, patent licensing, along with Surface, Windows Phone, and search advertising ($40b in revenue in 2016 with $6b in operating income). Meanwhile, cloud services and productivity divisions are near 30% and 45% margins, respectively. It's not a matter of whether gaming is profitable, but profitable enough and worth the opportunity cost.
It's more viable to argue that Xbox represents growth and is inherent in MS' overall strategy for its platforms moving forward. The problem is, how Xbox fits in with and compliments MS' other divisions has been questioned for quite some time.
Personally, I think MS is wise to remain a player in the market due to steep barriers of entry and their capital advantage, but it is not out of the question to assess whether Xbox is worth more being sold than it is remaining in MS' stable.
Xbox Live continues to be the best paid service, so it's no surprise to see the growth. Between GWG and EA Access, I have more games than I know what to do with. Thanks M$!
@Basinboy: Dude it adds over 9-11 billion in Revenue a Year! What stock owner in their right mind would say I am invested in the biggest Software company in the world and I don't want them involved in a 100s of billions of dollars industry that they belong in? They are Making Billions! Billions!
@the-a-baum: revenue =/= operating profit. For a company MS' size, they're looking for margins and when you mix in Xbox with Window OEM licensing, Patent Licensing, Bing, plus others, they managed 15% for the division. How much is attributable to Xbox is unclear and has been since MS began obfuscating their financials several years ago.
Probably because they no longer make games exclusive to the console. It's a win-win for MS since they also own the PC gaming OS. They know it would be a bad move to try and secure exclusive deals since it would eat into their other revenue sources.
...Only Sony has to make dirty exclusive deals to ensure revenue. No one would buy a multi-platform game for PS4 if they have a PC (Or X1X, which I am thinking will be more of a PC alternative).
Xbox's original plan was 1st party Windows PC for the living room. Microsoft is fully engaged in selling 1st and 3rd party PC hardware from their store.
@the-a-baum: revenue =/= operating profit. For a company MS' size, they're looking for margins and when you mix in Xbox with Window OEM licensing, Patent Licensing, Bing, plus others, they managed 15% for the division. How much is attributable to Xbox is unclear and has been since MS began obfuscating their financials several years ago.
In Q4 2015, Microsoft's Xbox gaming revenue has reached the number 2 position after "Server products, Cloud Services" products.
From http://www.zdnet.com/article/google-microsoft-apple-where-does-the-money-come-from/
Microsoft's Xbox gaming revenue has passed the other two core products such as Windows OEM and Office Commercial.
@the-a-baum: revenue =/= operating profit.For a company MS' size, they're looking for margins and when you mix in Xbox with Window OEM licensing, Patent Licensing, Bing, plus others, they managed 15% for the division. How much is attributable to Xbox is unclear and has been since MS began obfuscating their financials several years ago.
In Q4 2015, Microsoft's Xbox gaming revenue has reached the number 2 position after "Server products, Cloud Services" products.
From http://www.zdnet.com/article/google-microsoft-apple-where-does-the-money-come-from/
Microsoft's Xbox gaming revenue has passed the other two core products such as Windows OEM and Office Commercial.
See bold above, attempt to process
Also the author doesn't detail his methodology, just that he dug around the 10-Q and to take his word for it. Be mindful as well that Q4 is supposed to be the biggest revenue month for videogames - how it contributes to the overall revenue of the division for the fiscal year, meanwhile, requires crunching the data from their public disclosures and filling the spaces with guesswork. Be mindful that Q4 2016 saw revenue drop $152 million (9%) from Q4 2015 (price drop partially to blame, but I have a hard time imagining that Halo 5 bumped Q4 2015 considerably).
Taking a stab at it, Xbox essentially generates somewhere in the realm of $5 billion in revenue (160m is roughly 10%, so 1.6 billion for Q4 2015 and, hypothesizing, the other quarters probably make twice that combined, so overall $5b for the year). Minus expenses, the 15% margin for the division calculated (again, not knowing the exact margin due to reporting), Xbox approximately earns $750m for the company before taxes. MS reported 18.2 billion in operating income (27.9 in 2016), or in other words, Xbox accounts for less than 5% of MS' operating income.
@drlostrib: There is that and looking at my last quarterlies, Xbox movie rentals and sales outpace PSN. Both do respectable but the MS digital movies sales have that across all Windows devices advantage. The only stock i own outperforming MSFT currently is NTDOY albeit i bought Nintendo cheap during the wiiu time.
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