Microsoft’s Xbox 360 sinking quickly in face of opposition from PS3 and Wii

[LordTheNightKnight]

Alby_da_Wolf said:

LordTheNightKnight said:
"The 360 was MOVED for accounting purposes into the 'Entertainment and Devices" division starting FY08."

It was there well before, at least as early as the of '06, when the Zune launched.

Yes, but don't forget that MS calculates, totally or in part, some expenses like “broad-based sales and marketing, product support services, human resources, legal, finance, information technology, corporate development and procurement activities, research and development and other costs, and legal settlements and contingencies” for some divisions, including Entertainment and Devices, in another mishmash report item that years ago was named "Other" and now, judging by where losses are reported, should be "Corporate-Level Activity".

Putting lots of differents losses together makes more difficult for external observers to distinguish clearly what produces profits and what not, except for divisions that despite the accounting trick report losses anyway or for division like those of Windows and Office, that undoubtedly are cash cows that produce gargantuan profits.

In this case, I'm going to have to say that may not be our business, in terms of such specifics. Nintendo and Sony don't give us that much information anyway. And besides Microsoft can't fudge too much, or else they risk getting audited by the IRS.

Basically, this seems to be just sifting around to try to make it look as though the 360 is in trouble.