| thx1139 said: Why does anyone think MS can pick and choose what qtr to show R&D for the Xbox One. It is an expense to the division in whatever quarter the work/money is done in. Otherwise it would show up in other ways. |
exactly.
Microsoft has to follow US GAAP accounting standards. For actual R&D that means it has to be expensed in the period it's conducted. They would have to expense the cost when it's incurred by law. There is no way they would hide that as it would be criminal (think Enron) - although pinpointing to a division can be tricky as those division numbers aren't required as far as I'm aware so they could assign certain costs across divisions for example that maybe aren't really equally shared.
Sony would be following Japanese GAAP. I have no idea what Japan requires. It's possible they depreciate R&D which would spread those costs out over a number of years (probably 5) in which case the PS4 costs would be spread over a longer period of time. If not then it could be equally "lumpy" if either company has a spike in R&D for 1 or more periods. Typically I'd imagine that R&D is fairly linear over multiple years - a dedicated team dedicated to Next Gen that starts around launch of the previous gen - with some ramp up in the last year or 2.
