Microsoft made a profit again!

[rocketpig]

TheBigFatJ said:

WiiStation360 said:

Think of the $1B RROD charge for MS like a $1B charge for PS3 Cell/hardware R&D. They take a one time charge and do not average it out over the life of the console.

 

But Sony isn't doing Cell/hardware R&D for the PS3. Microsoft is still repairing tons of Xbox 360s all of the time. And they're still selling Xbox 360s that break/rrod.

 

So what? MS already took the hit on their Entertainment division, knowing that the money would last much longer than one year.

Think of it this way: A console gets produced on March 1st. It gets sold to retailer (meaning MS gets their money) on April 1st. The cost was in a previous quarter but the profit was in the next quarter.

Is that profit "fake" somehow? No, the money was put aside or spent with the expectation that the sale would happen down the line. Overall, at the end of the console's lifetime, you add it all up and see whether there was true profit on the unit or not. You don't just call it fake or try to count that loss or profit twice.

Edit: I see you added to your post. No, that's not the reason MS did it. MS did it so they could take a huge loss on something right at the end of the fiscal year to write off the division for huge losses in one year. They probably had a reason for it. They may have had a bumper year in other divisions and wanted some tax breaks.

Of course, looking good for investors never hurts but I guarantee that wasn't the main reason for taking a massive loss like that in one year.