EaglesEye379 said: prosugno360 said: Entertainment and Devices revenue for the quarter grew 68% over the comparable period last year driven by robust demand for Xbox 360 consoles. Cumulative console sales surpassed 19 million during the quarter, up 74% from a year ago. Server and Tools revenue growth of 18% added to its string of consecutive double-digit revenue growth quarters, which now stands at 23. http://www.microsoft.com/msft/earnings/FY08/earn_rel_q3_08.mspx Does this mean 19m as at March 31 2008? Does this mean VGChartz is slightly undertracking? They announced at GDC 18m, does that mean they sold 1m in the last month?

 that 19m figure is shipped, the 18.35m is sold, i'd say vgchartz is dead on since the 360 isn't selling out.

BCNR34 said: EaglesEye379 said: prosugno360 said: Entertainment and Devices revenue for the quarter grew 68% over the comparable period last year driven by robust demand for Xbox 360 consoles. Cumulative console sales surpassed 19 million during the quarter, up 74% from a year ago. Server and Tools revenue growth of 18% added to its string of consecutive double-digit revenue growth quarters, which now stands at 23. http://www.microsoft.com/msft/earnings/FY08/earn_rel_q3_08.mspx Does this mean 19m as at March 31 2008? Does this mean VGChartz is slightly undertracking? They announced at GDC 18m, does that mean they sold 1m in the last month? that 19m figure is shipped, the 18.35m is sold, i'd say vgchartz is dead on since the 360 isn't selling out.

 It will be interesting to see how many Sony sold to retail, consider there are alot more 360 units at stores then the PS3.

ZenfoldorVGI said: Well, all I'm saying is that this is Microsoft Big Global Corporation. One way or another, they are trying to trick us into believing they performed better than they actually did.

  Fixed that for you...  Every big company does everything they can to make things look as peachy as they can on their income statements, balance sheets, and statements of cashflow.  Note Sony selling off some pretty hefty assets during the height of their losses on the PS3.  Take a look at all companies who have been caught fudging the numbers on wall street... those are just the ones that got caught...  Though MS did take the one time charge to improve appearances going forward, they did it out in the open at least and didn't break any laws...  I hope.

 

kn said: ZenfoldorVGI said: Well, all I'm saying is that this is Microsoft Big Global Corporation. One way or another, they are trying to trick us into believing they performed better than they actually did. Fixed that for you... Every big company does everything they can to make things look as peachy as they can on their income statements, balance sheets, and statements of cashflow. Note Sony selling off some pretty hefty assets during the height of their losses on the PS3. Take a look at all companies who have been caught fudging the numbers on wall street... those are just the ones that got caught... Though MS did take the one time charge to improve appearances going forward, they did it out in the open at least and didn't break any laws... I hope.

Not every company. Nintendo is notoriously conservative with its financial statements.

What should interest everyone more then the profits is the number of units in the channel. Profitability on the division was very likely for various reasons. I suppose we know one thing for sure now. There is no massive money pit in there anymore. The division will probably post profits for the rest of the year unless Microsoft rolls the dice in a big way.

What we should pay more attention to is the channel. I said it a couple weeks back that Microsoft would only have about a million units available in the channel for Grand Theft Auto IV. We know they cannot be as high as nineteen and a half otherwise Microsoft said nineteen and a half. So even if the numbers were worked out last week. The number may be as high as an additional one hundred and fifty thousand. So factor in another week and you have perhaps a million.

Spread across three markets that might be just under half a million units available for both North America and Europe. Given that Halo 3 moved one hundred and fifty thousand units during launch week, and followed that tempo for four weeks solid, and saw a real plateau. We can see that Microsoft might suffer real supply constraints near the tail end of next month.

That is what should interest whether Microsoft will be able to keep up with the demand, and that might say a lot for the month of June which will have to be a rebuilding month. Microsoft would have been better served with two million in the channel.

So, Microsoft shipped 1.3m* 360s last quarter Vs 4.32m Wiis shipped by Nintendo. Now we wait for Sony.

*They say over 19m, but they normally give it to the nearest 100k, so it's probably only just over 19m.

Dodece, MS sold 19m 360s to retailers by March 31. You cannot use this as an indication as to how many will be available for GTA IV.

Yay for MS. Chug a Chug a Chug chooo choo

TheBigFatJ said: I do. Look at the something awful forums "my xbox broked" thread and you'll see a lot of people still reporting failures from falcon consoles. Right around Christmas time, several people reported that they got forza/marvel bundled consoles that were broken out of the box. Further, the failure rate for refurbished consoles from Microsoft is insane -- people there report that their console broke, then they're sending it to MS, and they provide a timeline. If their refurb brakes on short order or is broken out of the box, they report that as well. The numbers are absolutely insane, and this is in a very pro-xbox forum. Yesterday, a local guy was selling his Falcon refurb on Craigslist because he replaced it with a DVD player. He barely played it, but his falcon (which he got as a Christmas present) got an RROD. I don't have great satistics, and neither do you. MS is the only company with great statistics, and all they've been telling us is that the RROD isn't a problem and that the failure rate for the 360 is not out of the ordinary. Until, of course, they had to announce the 3 year RROD program.

Link?

I'm yet to find a single Rrod report on a console manufactured after October. 

 

FishyJoe said: kn said: ZenfoldorVGI said: Well, all I'm saying is that this is Microsoft Big Global Corporation. One way or another, they are trying to trick us into believing they performed better than they actually did. Fixed that for you... Every big company does everything they can to make things look as peachy as they can on their income statements, balance sheets, and statements of cashflow. Note Sony selling off some pretty hefty assets during the height of their losses on the PS3. Take a look at all companies who have been caught fudging the numbers on wall street... those are just the ones that got caught... Though MS did take the one time charge to improve appearances going forward, they did it out in the open at least and didn't break any laws... I hope.   Not every company. Nintendo is notoriously conservative with its financial statements.

 

To some degree, even Nintendo does.  Stockholders want to see consistent long-term growth.  I don't recall when it was (March of last year?) but there was some pretty solid evidence that Nintendo had met their (increased) quarterly sales estimates and held back inventory for a couple of weeks to push it into the next quarter.  No matter what, there is some level of manipulation to keep things always rosy.  Clearly Nintendo is making a buttload of cash right now and that means they don't have to do anything -- their books look great regardless -- but at some level there are always decisions to move a large expenditure or income forward or pull it in to keep "growth" on a smooth curve.

Services companies do it extensively... They recognize small percentages of ongoing projects to keep revenue in "reserve" for slower months ahead or perhaps recognize revenue more quickly than they should to not show a shortage.  It's just business 101 and EVERY company, to some degree, is doing it -- both out of necessity and out of the interest of maintaining a positive image for stockholders...