And that doesn't count the $4bn was it that was bled on the original Xbox establishing themselves. If MS was an independent manufacturer, they'd have been bankrupt too. There is a reason Nintendo doesn't release epic wonder boxes of power.

Sony got burned badly this gen and MS outplayed them at the game they invented. (The losses on hardware I think Sony pioneered in the ps1 days to be far more competitive than the Saturn in pricing). No other company before that had the balls to do it and even now Nintendo refuse to do it. The only exception being the 3DS price drop but somehow I don't think that was part of their original business plan.

That's revenue, not profit. The ED division made only $32,000,000 profit last year based on $1,490,000,000 of revenue.

That equated to around 2% of Microsofts profit even though it brough in 10% of its overall revenue. So the division is really nowhere near making back the costs from earlier in the gen anymore then Sony.

Not according to this article:

http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-microsoft-losses-on-xbox-2012-6

"Overall, the Xbox group has lost $4 billion for Microsoft. However, since 2007 it has made $1 billion. (Note, this chart doesn't include 2002-2004 when it piled up losses getting the business off the ground.)"

So PS3 still lost a few billion more this gen

ED division includes a lot of heavy loss leading products which mask the 360 profits.  That figure was indeed revenue but given it was 2 years ago its not unfeasible that they have made over a billion dollars profit in Xbox Live in total at least.  Hardware has been profitable for Microsoft since 2010 also so it has been making profit even if the division hasnt been showing its full worth.  The 360 is already profitable, the question now is how much of last gens losses it will recoup.

Not denying that, just pointing out that Microsofts foray into the console business isn't as rosy as some people think it is. A lot of other companies would be in major trouble if they did what Microsoft did in the last two gens (and we can see that Sony has been in trouble for the last few years with the losses they've taken).

I really wonder what kind of schooling some of these authors have.

When your writing something you should really try and never talk in the first person.  There shoudl be no "I's" in your paper.

Also as you mention just reading this title made me go "WTF"  the title and "forbes" together really sound strange.  It screams opinion paper, and yet its in Forbes?  I R CONFUSED

What other loss products though? I only know of Zune and that was discontinued a few years ago. Other then that, surely Windows Mobile and Phone 7 haven't been that bad? I assume they get money from Phone manufacturers and all the PC/360 peripherals are pure profit.

I also doubt X-box Live has brought in that much profit. The running costs for these networks is massive. I think the last loss for Sony (the goroup that Playstation is in) was blamed on the huge costs of running PSN. Even with subscriptions it'd be difficult to profit by $1 billion. It's also worth remembering that some R&D costs for next gen may also be factored in.

Either way, according to the article I posted above, Microsoft still have to recoup this gens losses, let alone last gen.

Don't feed the trolls. MS even stated (I think a year ago) that all parts of ED were profitable at that time. In any case, there is/was the hugely profitable Devices section in ED, the hugely profitable Mac and software section, even the surface part was profitable. Also note that over $1.5b RROD losses were not accounted to the ED division. And the huge $$ that went into marketing Kinect and other stuff - not accounted to ED. If everything would have been accounted to ED, that division would be very seriously in debt.

why the fuck do microsoft fans always talk about "profitability" anyway? when did any gamer ever care about that? is it because ps3 outsells 360 every week without even trying so they have to try and counteract that somehow. more talk about the sales on the front page and less about profits. it makes it worse that most of you dont even know what your talking about when it comes to financials and profits and all that crap, you read one article on the internet and you think you know everything?