Microsoft loses $400 million on the XBox One

[dlevere]

By Jack Simpson

Microsoft has announced that its latest games console, the Xbox One, has lost the company over $400 million since its release in November.

Posted in their annual earnings report for 2014, figures from Microsoft show that an increase in production and advertising costs brought about by the launch of the Xbox One had been responsible for the company’s losses.

According to the report, company said that they had sold a total of 11.7 million consoles in the 2014 fiscal year, compared to just 9.8 million sold last year and this had led to the company’s revenue increasing to $1.7 billion.

Nevertheless, this was set against the $2.1 billion they had to spend on the production and launching of the Xbox One.

The Report read: “Xbox Platform revenue increased $1.7 billion or 34%, due mainly to sales of Xbox One, which was released in November 2013, offset in part by a decrease in sales of Xbox 360.”

“Xbox Platform cost of revenue increased $2.1 billion or 72%, due mainly to higher volumes of consoles sold and higher costs associated with Xbox One.”

The latest figures will be yet another piece of bad news for the gaming arm of the software giant.

Earlier this year, it was reported that Microsoft were flagging well behind market leader Playstation when it came to sales figures for both company's latest consoles.

Figures in February showed that Sony had sold six million Playstation 4 units in 2013, while only 3 million Xbox One consoles had been sold during the same period.

[Demonic722]

They should have seen this coming since they launched that shit at $499.99.

[Helder]

I own the system and it's not a bad system but yea the price tag and all the restrictions they initially had made loyal customers not want to buy it. I'm sure that in time it will be a close match to the P$4 since the prices are the same, it all comes down to the games now (anyone have an XboxOne and Dead Rising 3? hit me up for some co-op).

[bungholio]

With their launch advertising? Not even a little surprising. I remember my long rant of when they were starting:

I'm slowly becoming more baffled all the time as more news about Xbox One becomes available. Do they even know what they are saying when they release info? Every time I hear something new about it I hate it more because it just keeps getting worse.


"It will always be on sucking up a little electricity so we can make sure you don't need to wait to download updates before you do things"
I can see that being useful, but I like keeping my electricity bill as low as I can. I also see that all console still force you to wait and watch the decade long updates occur. How come I still can't play a god damned game while I'm waiting for the update of some other game? How hard is that to pull off? Just keep playing something until that game update has finished downloading and then it asks you if you want to quit to install the update for that game. If I'm playing a different game than what I am updating, how about it not even asking and just do all of that in the background with maybe a pop up message saying it's finished downloading and installing. If it's a console update, tell me it's done downloading and if possible it can install whatever little thing without quitting whatever I'm doing, and tell me it needs me to stop what I'm doing. Nobody likes waiting forever for updates but I don't really see any options my consoles give me. Do I ALWAYS need to sit and watch that 5GB update for a game? Can't I play another game while I'm waiting or watch something on Netflix, or pop in a DVD? Nope, I'm always forced to watch a slow download progress bar, and everyone hates that.

"You can't play pre-owned and pawned off copies because blah blah check system so no buying used games"
I know it's robbing game makers, but really? Have you guys attempted negotiating with many different places that offer used games? Have you tried striking a deal with Amazon or other places like Gamestop that give them a good enough chunk of profit to still make it worth it while still giving game makers some chunk of the profit?

"TV, TV, Sports, Call Of Duty, Call Of Duty (If you've seen the joke video on youtube)"
I want games. I'm not all about graphics even though they are nice. "TV" & "Sports"? I don't care, and we already have some good options for TV. I haven't checked out sports, they bore me. It's a game console, so I'm hoping games are the biggest priority and everything else comes last.

"It will have a motion tracker to detect your reaction to things, can see in the dark, and will reward you for watching advertisements"
Recording peoples' reactions to things while awarding people for watching advertisements translates in my brain into ad revenue being a huge priority. I think you guys should get a mandatory thing of your own where employees get special TV access. It'll be like the rest, but a 50 minute show should take 5 hours because it will be interrupted with 5 minutes of retarded ads every 2 minutes of the show. Everyone hates ads, you're trying to get us to watch more of them, I hate you.

"You will always need to connect online after 24 hours or you can't play games"
Not everybody has high speed internet. What crimes do you think we'll even do if we play games offline? It doesn't sound like there is a way to commit an offline crime, this just sounds dumb. What is the reasoning? Afraid a person will buy a game, not register it online by never going online or not having internet, and then selling it to a game store where somebody with internet will buy it causing game makers to lose more money?


Seriously, what the f@ck is up with Microsoft? Who reads any of this crap and likes what they are reading? Do they even know what they are saying or even how people will react to any of this? Is this all some kind of joke? Somebody needs to metaphorically do a "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" style intervention with the guys behind the next Xbox by going to their grave with guns and shout "Stop digging, put the shovel down, and GTFO of your grave, time for an intervention! Intervention! Intervention!"

I don't even want to hear the next thing Microsoft has to say about their Xbox. Every time I read something I think it's horrible and I think that they aren't going to top it. Then somebody posts more new info about it, and it just keeps amazing me. Anybody have any guess as to how they can top it at this point? I keep thinking they aren't going to top the last thing but they just keep doing it. I can't think of consumers responding well to anything. We won't let you buy pre-owned games, we'll try to make you watch more advertisements, and you can't play games without online. Sounds like "Screw customers" to me. Ad revenue gets us more money and we are trying to maximize the game maker's profits. I can live with the game maker's side, but ads? Ads are a declaration of war for me, I will not have ads, you can leave that to cable TV and satellite which die more every day.

Then there was the price compared to the PS3, and the pain in the butt Kinect forced upon all people and ruining games like Need For Speed, and we don't really care about much of the exclusives even though I'm sure Dead Rising 3 is fun compared to a lot of boring games on the PS4 at the moment while we wait for better things, and the absurd paywall for Netflix and Hulu and whatever else that was a complete load of greedy crap, wanting to blast us with ads and more stuff that I no longer remember. I feel nothing for them. I look at them as greedy idiots pushing things you don't want at you and demanding you pay for all of it, along with extra retarded things to pay for like online and then more to get through the barrier for Netflix and Hulu. I hope this is their last console and Microsoft stays out of consoles forever. They've got PCs and that's good enough. I'll settle for choosing between Sony or Nintendo. Less exclusive gerrymandering crap so we don't need to see Dead Rising 3 stuck on a console made by those greedy fools. I in no way support them and hope the worst for them. They need to disappear permanently. People will miss a few of their games, but other than that everybody will be happier in life without them trying to muscle their way into the market and change it entirely in the worst ways attempting to financially force others to do the same as them, they are a disease.

[dlevere]

Amazon Slashes XBox One Prices Before Gamescom

By Foxi4

Moments before the beginning of Gamescom Amazon slashes the prices of Xbox One bundles with the Kinect 2.0 to aprox. €/£399 in Europe! Should we expect a permanent price cut announced at Gamescom? It's entirely possible - only time will tell. The Xbox One does have some catching up to do, it still lags behind the PS4 and the Wii U in terms of sales - perhaps a price cut like this would make it more competitive.

Amazon.it

Amazon.co.uk

[bungholio]

I still hope nobody buys their stuff. Every console they make they will try to conquer the market and change the norms to be like everything quoted and said. They'll try to make it diskless, give you brownie points for watching ads, no buying used games, force you to be online, and all of that crap and probably more with the intent to milk your wallet. They are an evil entity. I don't know why anybody ever needed to tell them to remove the paywall for Netflix and Hulu. If they were the dominant console, they wouldn't, they'd just make you pay for them and internet to rob you. They're greedy crooks.