• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Xbox calendar Q4 2015 financial results: MAUs soar 30% to record 48 million

Blanquito

Member
Quarter after quarter MS releases results that the market likes and reacts to positively (shares are up 3% after the news) yet you wouldn't know it by reading the gaming side of NeoGAF.

Nothing but negative spin and whining about not getting exact numbers. Let it go people. How long have they been doing this now? And why should they change? Just to provide fodder for angry internet warriors?

Billions of dollars in profit. Oh shit, the end is near!

This may seem crazy, but I've heard rumors that NeoGAF is an enthusiast form for... video games? So when we talk about quarterly/yearly results, we focus on the... video game divisions? In a thread specifically about the video game division?

I dunno, that's just crazy talk to me.
 
Quarter after quarter MS releases results that the market likes and reacts to positively (shares are up 3% after the news) yet you wouldn't know it by reading the gaming side of NeoGAF.

Did you see how big a boost they got from their Office 365 business? Of course shares are up.

Things aren't looking so good on the gaming side, where while things are up on the whole they're still struggling to sell their platform without eroding their hardware revenue. That they're leaking more money from lost Xbox 360 sales than they are gaining from new (more expensive) Xbox One sales doesn't bode well; that they're only able to increase Xbox One unit sales by cutting prices and shrinking hardware revenues isn't a good sign either.
 

Yoday

Member
I'm just happy to see gaming divisions for both companies being profitable very early on this generation. Both companies are in a position to keep supporting gaming in a big way.
 
CZ1of-UWEAA6QgB.jpg:large


According to this graph it's actually 9 million new users from q3 2015 or q1 2016 in MS financial calendar. Win 10 results were delayed to this quarter so it does look like Win10 is the main reason.
My fault, the YOY comparison I referenced was the "up 32%" number. The 9m MAU jump is indeed from September 30 to December 31 (as I'd posted earlier in the thread). Sorry for the confusion.
 
Did you see how big a boost they got from their Office 365 business? Of course shares are up.

Things aren't looking so good on the gaming side, where while things are up on the whole they're still struggling to sell their platform without eroding their hardware revenue. That they're leaking more money from lost Xbox 360 sales than they are gaining from new (more expensive) Xbox One sales doesn't bode well; that they're only able to increase Xbox One unit sales by cutting prices and shrinking hardware revenues isn't a good sign either.

But they are growing Live users and making revenue there with pretty good increase. That's the goal that they've now set weather we like it or not.
 

Sydle

Member
This may seem crazy, but I've heard rumors that NeoGAF is an enthusiast form for... video games? So when we talk about quarterly/yearly results, we focus on the... video game divisions? In a thread specifically about the video game division?

I dunno, that's just crazy talk to me.

The video game division of MS is a sub-group under the OS group now that spans across all Windows 10 devices. Console sales are just a part of it all now, so they really don't make sense to focus on going forward as a health metric. MAU and revenue are the two major metrics that are all encompassing of the Xbox as a multi-device service.

Even using the new metrics MS has a long way to go to catch up to the active user base on Steam and PSN.
 
Typical MAU thread shitting by people who want hard numbers.
Halo 5 has the best MP since Halo 2. That's where all these active users are coming from.
 

qirex

Member
I don't really get how anyone could interpret the vast majority of that user increase not being from Windows. They didn't sell nine million Xboxes One last quarter, or even 4.5 million.
 

Sydle

Member
I don't really get how anyone could interpret the vast majority of that user increase not being from Windows. They didn't sell nine million Xboxes One last quarter, or even 4.5 million.

Could have been people turning on their Xbox Ones or 360's after a hiatus. Maybe because they got a new game for Christmas?
 

Chris1

Member
What if I told you it's more likely coming from Cod and Battlefront, would you believe me?

Halo 5 is above Battlefront on the most played charts right now on xbox, so I wouldn't agree with Battlefront :p Definitely CoD/GTA/FIFA though.
 

hawk2025

Member
Typical MAU thread shitting by people who want hard numbers.
Halo 5 has the best MP since Halo 2. That's where all these active users are coming from.

I love how you call posts relevant to the topic "thread shitting", and proceed to post a completely nonsensical explanation.

No, all those 10 million users aren't coming from Halo 5. Don't be ridiculous.
 
Mau this, mau that:

hqdefault.jpg



Are you referring to $299 v. $329?
Because δ$30 adds up to a boatload when you sell a couple million Bone Zones.

They had gift cards and an expensive 3rd party game they were almost giving away in 2014. 2015 was not nearly as much of fire sale. Main bundle was a first party game that cost them nothing to bundle and deals/promotions were not as prevalent.
 

Shin-Ra

Junior Member
Yeah but people putting the effort to make a Xbox Live account out of their MS account or otherwise is impressive. If they login and keep logging in is what's important for retention, making them long-term MAU.
The funny thing is I'm not sure if this post is serious.

Having 48 million users in their game ecossystem is a good number if you are working on integrate all the platforms (PC/Mobile/Console).
What if they convert console MAU to PC MAU with lower RPU?
 

qirex

Member
A couple other questions:

  • How does a "monthly" user work across a 3 month window? Is 48 million an average, the peak or a sum? [too low to be a sum, too high to be an average IMO]
  • Have they retired the "selling faster than the 360 at this point in its lifespan" line? Haven't seen it on anything yet.
 

Welfare

Member
For reference, The Xbox Family sold 6.6m units in FYQ2 2014.

Why is the thread for the calendar quarter? This is fiscal!
 

Pif

Banned
I am 30% more impressed at the ammount of PR spin from Microsoft.
My enjoyment of Microsoft-related sales threads also is at a record high.
MAU is a great unit of measurement since it explains numbers behind the reasons.
 

Three

Member
Their total gaming revenue was higher for the quarter though. Software made up for their lower hardware revenue.

Oh absolutely but that wasn't what Anthony was referring to. I would be more surprised if software revenue was down YoY with Halo 5 and "the biggest lineup in xbox history" for that quarter.
 

Rembrandt

Banned
Console is a failure.

At least you're saying what some people here want to.


"Playstation Family" or not at least they gave us some kind of numbers.

Because it would be pointless to release MAU for a free service that could be inflated by the multiple accounts, whereas it makes some sense here since they're pushing Xbox across multiple items. We still don't know how much Destiny has sold, do we?
 

etta

my hard graphic balls
Is this stuff really necessary? Come on. It is at nearly 20 million. That is not that bad at all.
No he's right. Microsoft should pack up the Xbox division and sell it to Burger King. They already gave Larry a new office closer to a Burger King joint.
He's joking.
 
Top Bottom