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Forums - Microsoft - Former MS executive: Microsoft doesn't make very much on videogames

dallas on 07 February 2013

Actually, there are a some fair criticisms that you can bring forth over Microsoft with respect to its financial viability, off the top of my head, its lack of growth, its stock price going absolutely nowhere in the last ten years, huge dividend payout was just increased ( 45%) which will lead to less growth in the future as almost half of their profits are leaving them, and tough competition (well Chromebooks are starting to be a thorn in MSFT's side, android gaming consoles are expected to grow, etc) all should be considered when evaluating the company and certainly when recomending MSFT as a stock.

 

Just because the ones given in the article are absurd, doesn't mean that the company doesn't have other problematic issues.



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Mr Puggsly on 07 February 2013
VGKing said:
Mr Puggsly said:
VGKing said:
Nothing really new but it should open some of these people's eyes. The Xbox business isn't this immensely profitable division for Microsoft like some make it out to be.

Well even early on it seemed like MS was primarily looking to diversify. Its clear MS didn't step in expecting big profits and continued on even after huge losses on the original Xbox. It was probably the biggest financial disaster in the industry... until PS3 rolled around.

I think most of us knew Sony before the Playstation, but putting out a game console gave them a cult following. MS accomplished the same thing with gamers via the Xbox.

Either way, it looks like the Xbox brand really has become a financially worthwhile endeavor. I presume the most profitable aspect of Xbox is those Live memberships. I've heard guesstimates as high as 20 million Gold members. If that's true, that's a nice chunk of change.

Those Xbox lIve Gold subs are extremely optimistic. I believe the last actual number we had was like 12million, and that doesn't mean these people are paying $60 a year, they could be finding sales for these, they could be paying for the 3month Gold subs. It's end-gen and I expect Gold subs to be no more than 15m.(being a bit optimistic)

The userbase was under 40 million when 12 million Gold members was presumed. The userbase is almost double now, so 20 million seems reasonable to me.

Not everyone is paying $60 and some people are paying over $60 because they buy 1 month or 3 month subscriptions.



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Mr Khan on 07 February 2013
Soleron said:
dsgrue3 said:
So MS fans should be thanking Sony for getting MS into the console business. That's what I gathered from this.

Without MS, we'd still have had Halo, and all the third party games would be on a much stronger PS3 platform. So only Gears of War and Xbox Live Gold wouldn't exist, really.

And Halo would've been the flagship game for Mac gaming. An interesting alternate reality



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Kasz216 on 08 February 2013
Soleron said:
dsgrue3 said:
So MS fans should be thanking Sony for getting MS into the console business. That's what I gathered from this.

Without MS, we'd still have had Halo, and all the third party games would be on a much stronger PS3 platform. So only Gears of War and Xbox Live Gold wouldn't exist, really.

Eh, we'd still have Halo but it wouldn't be the same.   Halo was originally an RTS like Halo Wars and was only changed to a FPS after Microsoft aquired them and changed it.



sethnintendo on 08 February 2013

Just what I thought. Microsoft doesn't care about the video games. They only care about penetrating the market with a multi media hub in every home.  Support Nintendo and Sony if you care about video game consoles.



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sethnintendo on 08 February 2013
KungKras said:

Making Age of Empires is ignoring gamers as much as possible?....

....dude

Age of Empires is alright but Empire Earth is just as good.



tonymarraffa on 08 February 2013
sethnintendo said:

Just what I thought. Microsoft doesn't care about the video games. They only care about penetrating the market with a multi media hub in every home.  Support Nintendo and Sony if you care about video game consoles.


I'm proud to own all the majors consoles and I can admit they each have there plues and minus. I can also sy that I don't hold a pathetic allegence to any one gaming company.



sethnintendo on 08 February 2013
tonymarraffa said:
sethnintendo said:

Just what I thought. Microsoft doesn't care about the video games. They only care about penetrating the market with a multi media hub in every home.  Support Nintendo and Sony if you care about video game consoles.


I'm proud to own all the majors consoles and I can admit they each have there plues and minus. I can also sy that I don't hold a pathetic allegence to any one gaming company.


I don't think Microsoft really gives a damn about the video game market.  They are more concerned with putting a box in everyone's home and have them pay for Live.



tonymarraffa on 08 February 2013
sethnintendo said:
tonymarraffa said:
sethnintendo said:

Just what I thought. Microsoft doesn't care about the video games. They only care about penetrating the market with a multi media hub in every home.  Support Nintendo and Sony if you care about video game consoles.


I'm proud to own all the majors consoles and I can admit they each have there plues and minus. I can also sy that I don't hold a pathetic allegence to any one gaming company.


I don't think Microsoft really gives a damn about the video game market.  They are more concerned with putting a box in everyone's home and have them pay for Live.


Maybe that's true, maybe it's not but if they didn't have games I liked I wouldn't have bought the system. Really though all of the current systems have great games so I couldn't care less.



Stinky on 08 February 2013
sethnintendo said:

I don't think Microsoft really gives a damn about the video game market.  They are more concerned with putting a box in everyone's home and have them pay for Live.


At the end of the day, that's the business for all involved.