Those investors are idiots then. Microsoft is in the best position of the big three right now. Nintendo was bound to suffer sell-through problems with the Wii U and now they are fighting desperately to stabalize themselves. Sony is leaking money all over the place... If they don't perform with the PS4, they could very well go belly up this generation. Microsoft may not have made any money last gen, but they didn't lose any either, and this gen they are easily in the best and most stable position. Now is the time to throw money at it and get things done right. If they can do it properly, it wouldn't be surprising for them to take the whole generation by storm.

Has Microsoft made any profit from Xbox since 2001? I thought they bled $4bn on the original Xbox and setting up Xbox Live, and since then it seems hit and miss as to whether they made profit from quarter to quarter on the 360.

I guess the investor sees it more as a vanity project with no potential for serious returns due to the heavy R&D costs etc inflicted at the start of each generational cycle.

edit: don't take that as I want MS out of the gaming market. I think their presense has greatly pushed Sony and Nintendo on more than they would have bothered with if left to their own devices.

Doesn't matter,they can keep dreaming

They can turn it into reality easily, by firing any CEO not wanting to sell xbox brand until one make it either profitable or accept.

Exactly. With an average revenue per user of 3$ and ten times more users for free to play than AAA titles of similar quality, that's a hundred percent win.

Still they need their AAA games to keep a reputation that pushes their install base on mobile.

Square did not exactly succeed in in app purchase/free tough. 

They can try

Xbox brand isn't about gaming anymore,isn't about hardware division only anymore

They're even thinking about Xbox One version office

They wouldn't be bleeding so badly if they hadn't started their next generation....  If they stuck to this generation and the PS3 which had FINALLY gathered traction in this generation they would be alright for awhile.  However a new console's development is expensive as hell.  Usually they lose a massive amount of money on its research and development which normally wouldn't be that bad because console developers only start their next generation after their previous generation raked in a healthy amount of money.  So basically they went from bad to worse, and now they threw their hat into a ring that's riskier for them than ever before.  They are sweating bullets right now hoping they do well this generation and I don't think microsofts DRM stunt did that much damage really.  

Yea, probably from a very silly person.

Balmer is leaving, and I would say probably has many, many, many, more shares of Microsoft that this guy. Microsoft is a very healthy company, and Xbox is part of that.

Separating Xbox from Microsoft would not be a good idea. They are in so many was part of the same thing. Same research, drivers, operating systems, DirectX, development, publishing, entertainment, media, New User Interface (NUI) - which Kinect is part of, etc.

I would say about as logical as separating the two's M's in M&M Candies.

I don't disagree with you.  However they are definitely in a horrible position because of it. Nintendo could make a come-back, Nintendo takes all kinds of risks and a lot of them pay off.  Sony however has always been a low-risk company, the only real risk they have ever taken was the PS3, and that blew up in their faces.  Now they are probably playing it safe this generation in every way that they can play it safe.  

1% stake? laughable, they won't get anywhere with this.