Hi everyone, Microsoft financials and business tactics are fair game. And, for the most part, this conversation has been civil and constructive. So thank you.

Just be careful not to veer into trolling territory.

@OP: I wouldn't worry too much about this. All companies cherry pick numbers to look as good as possible. What concerns me is that Microsoft might be moving away from dedicated video game platforms toward a unified Windows ecosystem. I want Xbox to be gaming first and foremost.

Active Accounts is far more accurate to us gamers then sales figures which includes Faulty Systems, Horders, Multi-buyers, Returns etc. My friend owns 4 PS3s, but on the sales charts it makes the gaming community believe there are 4 customers. Active accounts tell us whos actually using there consoles and there wont be many paying for more then 1 subscription per average house hold. Its a far better method which benefits everyone then simple sales figures which is mislead in so many ways.

That lol :)
It looks like you are really spending all of your days finding bad articles/news about Microsoft and linking them here and then always find what Microsoft is doing bad or unacceptable. No surprise there.

Now related to what Microsoft does... It is more than acceptable. It is a business... And like Sony or any other businesses out there, their goal is simple: increase shareholders money and make sure their investment is a good one. And Microsoft is quite good at that actually. I would even add that Microsoft is pretty much on fire lately...

Knowing their position vs their main competitor (Playstation Four), it is a very fair tactic :) And it is not like they are lying or anything, they are just exposing a different set of data/numbers than the one you seem to be interrested of (or the one that fits better your agenda)... Like it or not 

Active Accounts means nothing... sorry to tell you buddy.

They increased active accounts on PC, Phone, 360 or Xbone?
These accounts are Silver or Gold?

I can go aead...

So active accounts for you tells whos is actually using the consoles... so can you share with us how much are using Xbone? Or PR? Or Phone? Or 360?

THIS!

But it makes platform usage indishtingable, we don't know if its 360, X1, or PC, which makes popularity even more inflated than customers who've purchased more than one of the same console. Not to mention, that group is small, even RROD which was probably the worst case faulty hw leading console repurchases couldn't have accounted for more than 20% of 360's LTD, (I need the figures on this though)

Your not making much sense. There talking about ACTIVE accounts, meaning accounts that dont sit there for years unused. You really prefer to read up on millions of console sales? How do you know how many bad batches there are? Have you ever been to a retailer, go ask how many machines get returned, exchanged or refunded. Active accounts isnt a perfect way either but its much more accurate because accounts cannot be faulty, returned or refunded. And MS normally tell us how many Gold Members there are so if you really want to know how many gamers are playing Xbox, then those figures nail it down.

I have an "active" account..where I haven't spent any money on for like 7 years.

They are talking about Active Accounts shared between PC, Phones, Xbone and 360.

So no... these figures give us nothing about how many gamers are playing Xbox lol