XBOX 360 profitability - an analysis

[Lord N]

EaglesEye379 said:

dbot said:

I'm not sure of the numbers in the original thread but the amount would definitely be over $2 billion.  I mean the 10 million consoles alone (assuming that they weren't all arcades sold in the United States which would be ridiculous) would be over $2 billion.  Then licensing fees for every game on the Xbox 360, Xbox Live subscriptions, first and second-party game sales, Xbox 360 peripherals, PC game sales, other revenue generated by Xbox Live (movies, Xbox Live Arcade, ad revenue, etc), Xbox Live Casual web games, Games for Windows Live, Microsoft gaming keyboards and mice, etc.

 

I don't think MS sold 10 million 360's in the nine months these numbers discuss.  

 

Yes they did. They shipped 10m 360s from June 2008 to March 2009.

 

Okay, if we're talking about the number they shipped to retail, then that's true, but still.....

I think the one thing that everyone is forgetting is that the 360 is not in a division by itself. It's in a division with a bunch of other products and services. That being said, no matter how you try to analyze it, there simply is no way to tell for sure whether the 360 or the other products are losing or making money. There is actually more evidence to support that the 360 is not a "cash cow" considering that MS posted a 31 million dollar loss last quarter.

The fact that there is no conclusive evidence to support the 360 being consistently profitable renders this whole thread moot.