Microsoft Loses $177m on Xbox in Three Months

Albanach writes "The BBC News are reporting in this story that Microsoft's Home Entertainment Division has filed a submission to the Securities and Exchange Commission reporting a loss of $177 million for the three months to 30 September 2002. The loss comes on revenues of $505m for the division that manufactures the Xbox games console. Microsoft are said to be prepared to spend $2 billion funding Xbox live over the next five years, suggesting it will be some time before the home entertainment division break into the black."

Only $177m? Who cares?

[turambar386]

That's probably less than billg's annual pizza budget.

Big Deal

[Anonymous Coward]

$177 million, that's what, about four seconds worth of profits on Office and Windows. Why's this news?

Reminds me of a line form Citizen Kane

[foistboinder]

You're right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars *next* year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I'll have to close this place in... 60 years.
-- Charles Foster Kane

I knew I should've got another!

[teamhasnoi]

I was trying for 200 mill, by pouring Pepsi in the boxes at Walmart. Now I'll never get my 'Corporate Killer Anarchist' badge.

Billy Henderson always wins, 'cause his dad's the scout leader.

Business Plan...

[Cap'n Canuck]

1) Create Gaming platform
2) ???
3) Losses
4) ???
5) Profit!

Re:500lbs Gorilla ...

[Rader]

Yea, I'm waiting for them to go into fast food. Give McDonald's a run for their money.

Just think, a free 2-day Serial Key to MS-Office with every BillyBurger sold!

Re:The reason...

[rampant mac]

"If you want to run Itunes you have to buy a 3,000$ computer."

That's odd...

The $300 iMac I bought off eBay plays iTunes. :)

Re:500lbs Gorilla ...

[cygnus]

Yea, I'm waiting for them to go into fast food. Give McDonald's a run for their money.

Just think, a free 2-day Serial Key to MS-Office with every BillyBurger sold!

or maybe they'll pull some sort of hailstorm "food rental" service. you'll have to log into passport to unlock your mouth, and then puke up your food if you don't pay the recurring fees.

Fair's Fair

[GMFTatsujin]

I have no idea how much money has evaporated due to lost productivity by businesses using MS products that crash left and right.

Hell, the value of man-hours consumed by Solitaire alone must be close to the GNP of your average South American country...
GMFTatsujin

Re:How Sad

[Anonymous Coward]

I love the Xbox too! It's like a PC, but more X-treme! And the way that it's black and green, and it makes that "X"? That doesn't make it look like it was designed by a balding 35-yr-old who reads too much Maxim! Nope, it's edgy and hip, and as an 18-34 yr old white male, that's what I love and that's what I buy!

The controllers are "X to the maxx" too! I didn't think a console company would cater to me (my genes actually got spliced with elephant DNA, so I have huge, flat palms and tiny, curvy fingers). Thanks microsoft for showing me the small demographics count too! They normal handed controllers are $10 more, but normal people can hold a job, so they probably can afford it!

Oh yeah, and I love the games!!! Like Halo ,and all those ones that are on the Playstation 2 also, except they come out later and there framerate isn't as good...but that's b/c the lazy developers are Dev'''ing for PS2 first and Xbox second.

And it really is the more powerful console, so it wold win any benchmarkers against the PS/2 or the kiddie Gamecube. My freind said he was getting one of those for Metroid, and I was like, seeya sucker, my xbox will have Doom3! And you know that's gonna need a high framerate!

Linux is the target ....

[devleopard]

It's obvious that Microsoft is trying to adopt the business philosophies of Linux-based companies in order to better compete with Linux. The idea of losing millions with a slim chance of attaining profitability in the distant future is something that companies like VA Software, Lineo, etc have been very good at.

My heart is breaking.

[talks_to_birds]

Despite the losses Microsoft will not have to rein in its marketing and promotional efforts any time soon. The company has a cash pile of more than $30 billion to fund expansion.

Even if it did not have this huge amount of cash on hand the $3.5 billion profits from its operating system and software divisions in the quarter more than offset any loss.

I imagine billg broke into a cold sweat when he heard the news of this financial catastrophe...

t_t_b

Re:Region Coding is irrelevant

[Kuroyi]

Automobiles sold in the U.S. have the steering wheel on the left side of the dashboard, because roads in North America require you to drive on the right hand side of the road. The same cars have the steering wheel on the right hand side of the dashboard in the Japanese models. Clearly, a Mitsubishi Eclipse is a Mitsubishi Eclipse, regardless of where the steering wheel is located.

Except that the Eclipse is left-hand drive in Japan as well since it was designed and built in America.