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Microsoft Reports Fourth-Quarter Results

AirBrian

Member
Technosteve said:
according to the earnings report they are deferring 175 million dollars in revenue due to giving away bumpers. So you were right, that's a lot of money from just bumpers. Poor kin they should of just marketed it as a Zune HD plus Friends type phone.
OK, that makes much more sense. I hadn't seen that yet. Thanks.
 

deepbrown

Member
jling84 said:
Hmm the difference between the PS3 and 360 worldwide seems pretty reasonable. From the mediacreate sales numbers the PS3 pretty consistently outsells the 360 by about 25k/week, so about 100k per month. With the exception of this past month, the 360 and PS3 sales in the US are usually pretty neck and neck.

I have no idea about the EU as a whole, but PS3 outsells the 360 there as well right?
Well considering the difference is going to be over 3 million units when lining up Microsoft's fiscal year...that'd have to come from more than just Japan.
 

Jomjom

Banned
deepbrown said:
Well considering the difference is going to be over 3 million units when lining up Microsoft's fiscal year...that'd have to come from more than just Japan.

We also have to factor in the fact that these are shipped numbers and there wasn't a shortage in Japan. Again don't know about the EU.

Also I know quite some people who bought PS3s in Taiwan, Korea and Hong Kong where the 360 basically doesn't exist. So whatever those shipped numbers are also contribute.
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
deepbrown said:
Well considering the difference is going to be over 3 million units when lining up Microsoft's fiscal year...that'd have to come from more than just Japan.
Japan makes for almost half of these 3 million difference.
 

deepbrown

Member
jling84 said:
We also have to factor in the fact that these are shipped numbers and there wasn't a shortage in Japan. Again don't know about the EU.

Also I know quite some people who bought PS3s in Taiwan, Korea and Hong Kong where the 360 basically doesn't exist. So whatever those shipped numbers are also contribute.
Irrelevant really...they're both on even playing fields...so if they're both shipped, you don't expect one to be shipping more than is needed in comparison to the other.
 

deepbrown

Member
Anerythristic said:
Wow I honestly had no idea people still worry about the PS3/360 sales race? We are like into year five of the generation right?
What's the point of caring in year one if you're not going to follow through? :)
 

Serenity

Member
Chris1964 said:
Japan makes for almost half of these 3 million difference.

So exactly what he said. Is it still contraversial to say the Ps3 outsells the 360 in Europe even though we don't all the numbers from the region? The difference can't be coming from America.
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
Serenity said:
So exactly what he said. Is it still contraversial to say the Ps3 outsells the 360 in Europe even though we don't all the numbers from the region? The difference can't be coming from America.
With the exception of UK PS3 outsells 360 easily at every other big European country.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
deepbrown said:
Irrelevant really...they're both on even playing fields...so if they're both shipped, you don't expect one to be shipping more than is needed in comparison to the other.

I'm not sure if you're actually interested, but this actually isn't true on a quarter-per-quarter basis. If one stuffs during Christmas and one doesn't (for example, MS channel stuffed bigtime in Calendar Q4 2007), you'll see the stuffer "catch up" or "pull ahead" before being yanked back the next quarter.
 
Satoru Iwata revealed European sales at Nintendo Investor Briefing.

28l.jpg


19l.jpg
 

Jomjom

Banned
deepbrown said:
Irrelevant really...they're both on even playing fields...so if they're both shipped, you don't expect one to be shipping more than is needed in comparison to the other.

While proportionally you're right, numbers wise you're not. Both MS and Sony probably ship the same percentage above the actual numbers sold, but in actual units that's a big difference.

Say for example, MS Japan estimates they'll sell 10,000 units in a month, and say they ship double that number out that's 20,000 shipped. Sony Japan estimates they'll sell 100,000 units that month and ship double that number that's 200,000 shipped.
 
Anerythristic said:
Wow I honestly had no idea people still worry about the PS3/360 sales race? We are like into year five of the generation right?

Yes, which is now when things are really getting interesting (Xbox division actually making a profit! holy moly!)

These are extremely disappointing sales, especially in net income. I trust that they will do very well this next quarter, though, thanks to Halo: Reach, Slim, and a probably influx of Xbox Live membership and downloads. Crackdown 2 could help a little, as well.
 

Baki

Member
TTP said:
I was basing my assumption by looking at the NPD sales.

NPD numbers only paint a very small part of the picture. If you look at Japan and PAL territories, the PS3 does a lot better than the Xbox 360.



PS3 has been outselling the Xbox 360 on a WW basis ever since the the Slim inception. Before then, the only FY that Xbox 360 outsold the PS3 was FY08 (March 08 to March 09) and even then it was by a slim margin (pun not intended).
 

deepbrown

Member
Stumpokapow said:
I'm not sure if you're actually interested, but this actually isn't true on a quarter-per-quarter basis. If one stuffs during Christmas and one doesn't (for example, MS channel stuffed bigtime in Calendar Q4 2007), you'll see the stuffer "catch up" or "pull ahead" before being yanked back the next quarter.
Well yes...but we can't know who the channel stuffer is...and as you said 'it's yanked back' - so in the end it evens out. The point is - you can't argue either way, as both are shipped - and we don't know who's exaggerating through shipped numbers more than the other. I'd expect this year, that Sony's been struggling, so you might want to think (if it makes you feel better) that a higher percentage of those PS3s are in people's hands than Xbox 360s.
 
deepbrown said:
What's the point of caring in year one if you're not going to follow through? :)

If the PS3 overtook the 360 in year one or two it would have been impressive. Even in year three it would have been somewhat interesting. But 4 years on, it's really who cares. This gen is set in stone and any game of any importance will be made for both systems and next gen MS and Sony will be starting on equal footing with third parties no matter who finishes in second place at the end of the this gen.

I think the main question is and always has been from me is... even if Sony does outsell MS, what does it change from our current state besides a PR statement? It won't change anything and I think that's the point of why does it matter anymore?
 

deepbrown

Member
jling84 said:
While proportionally you're right, numbers wise you're not. Both MS and Sony probably ship the same percentage above the actual numbers sold, but in actual units that's a big difference.

Say for example, MS Japan estimates they'll sell 10,000 units in a month, and say they ship double that number out that's 20,000 shipped. Sony Japan estimates they'll sell 100,000 units that month and ship double that number that's 200,000 shipped.
And companies ship the same proportion as the other since when? What if both companies always shipped 10,000 more than they needed? The fact is we don't really know - except that Sony hasn't been able to ship enough for much of the year (under control now)
 

deepbrown

Member
OldJadedGamer said:
If the PS3 overtook the 360 in year one or two it would have been impressive. Even in year three it would have been somewhat interesting. But 4 years on, it's really who cares. This gen is set in stone and any game of any importance will be made for both systems and next gen MS and Sony will be starting on equal footing with third parties no matter who finishes in second place at the end of the this gen.

I think the main question is and always has been from me is... even if Sony does outsell MS, what does it change from our current state besides a PR statement? It won't change anything and I think that's the point of why does it matter anymore?
Set in stone? The gap was 8 million at one point - it's now 4 million - and much of that was done in just one year...(since Slim launched). So don't count yer chickens.
 

J-Rzez

Member
The new Slim will surely give MS a nice boost, but by the end of the gen MS will be in third. Still though, impressive of them to boost their overall sales so much compared to their last xbox.
 

Redbeard

Banned
TTP said:
I was basing my assumption by looking at the NPD sales.

Microsoft's margin of victory this year in the US has been very minor on a month by month basis.

Japan alone has more than made up for any deficit the PS3 has seen vs. the 360 in the US, for all months barring last month (when 360 got a price drop and a new Slim), I believe. And even then, PS3 was only outsold by about 150k or so.

Taking into consideration world wide sales outside of US and Japan and that puts PS3 over the 360 by a good margin WW.

This of course shows in the shipment figures of the past few quarters. PS3 has definitely been catching up a lot.
 

lockload

Member
People seem obsessed with shipment figures where the reality is every 360 sold for the last 3.5 years has contributed profit is Microsoft the same cant be said for Sony
 

Cruzader

Banned
OldJadedGamer said:
If the PS3 overtook the 360 in year one or two it would have been impressive. Even in year three it would have been somewhat interesting. But 4 years on, it's really who cares. This gen is set in stone and any game of any importance will be made for both systems and next gen MS and Sony will be starting on equal footing with third parties no matter who finishes in second place at the end of the this gen.

I think the main question is and always has been from me is... even if Sony does outsell MS, what does it change from our current state besides a PR statement? It won't change anything and I think that's the point of why does it matter anymore?

Not saying this to you but this is how I see it from the fanboys:

2006-2008: "LOL sony 3rd place loser! Gonna bomb!!! Goodbye PS3, join Sega!!"

2009-20XX: "Hmm gap closing!!11!!!...ah who cares guys, its about games! *whispers* 360 still number 1!!!(or 2)"
 
deepbrown said:
Set in stone? The gap was 8 million at one point - it's now 4 million - and much of that was done in just one year...(since Slim launched). So don't count yer chickens.

In the US where I live and where publishers and developers make games that I buy, it's set in stone. Any small gain Sony made with the slim here has since disappeared in 2010.

MS will always be third place in Japan. That is set in stone. Sony will always be third place in the US. That is set in stone. The Wii will always be in first place, that is set in stone.

Cruzader said:
Not saying this to you but this is how I see it from the fanboys:

2006-2008: "LOL sony 3rd place loser! Gonna bomb!!! Goodbye PS3, join Sega!!"

2009-20XX: "Hmm gap closing!!11!!!...ah who cares guys, its about games! *whispers* 360 still number 1!!!(or 2)"

Again, it would have only been impressive for the first two years. Like when the Wii overtook the 360 so fast. That was impressive. But at almost at 4 years at what point does it stop to matter? Let's be honest, for every 1 "gonna bomb" post there was 14,000 "instant win" posts for the system pre-launch.

All the same games are going to get made for both systems. It's a serious question that hasn't been answered yet. What changes for us gamers by Sony finishing in second place after 5-6 years on the market? Seriously.
 

Brimstone

my reputation is Shadowruined
OldJadedGamer said:
If the PS3 overtook the 360 in year one or two it would have been impressive. Even in year three it would have been somewhat interesting. But 4 years on, it's really who cares. This gen is set in stone and any game of any importance will be made for both systems and next gen MS and Sony will be starting on equal footing with third parties no matter who finishes in second place at the end of the this gen.

I think the main question is and always has been from me is... even if Sony does outsell MS, what does it change from our current state besides a PR statement? It won't change anything and I think that's the point of why does it matter anymore?



It matters a lot.


Sony is establishing stereoscopic 3d (via games and Blu-Ray) and motion controls. When the average consummer "thinks 3d" Sony will come to mind first.
 

Elios83

Member
OldJadedGamer said:
All the same games are going to get made for both systems. It's a serious question that hasn't been answered yet. What changes for us gamers by Sony finishing in second place after 5-6 years on the market? Seriously.


I think that you have a point because sales might still be interesting to track but are not relevant to the future of those systems which actually has been set a couple of years ago when Sony was able to put PS3 on the right track and avoid a colossal failure.
Installed base difference between 360 and PS3 at this point is irrelevant no matter who will finish in second or third place at the end of the game. Both consoles are equally supported and considered by publishers and they both have their own share of important exclusives.
And unfortunately for Nintendo it's not like being first in hardware sales has fixed the issues they had with third party support and software sales so that has been set too long time ago.
The most important outcome for the future is that in the next generation all the three manufacturers will be considered with equal importance at least at the beginning of the life cycle, then of course things could change depending of how the three future products will perform.
 
Brimstone said:
It matters a lot.


Sony is establishing stereoscopic 3d (via games and Blu-Ray) and motion controls. When the average consummer "thinks 3d" Sony will come to mind first.

I'd say they will think 3DS.
 

donny2112

Member
Brimstone said:
It matters a lot.

That Sony doesn't end up with a Dreamcast level bomb matters a lot.
That Sony uses the PS3 to push its other initiatives could matter a lot.
That Sony finishes second when second and third could be nearly equal doesn't matter a lot.

That's the point.
 

DMeisterJ

Banned
OldJadedGamer said:
If the PS3 overtook the 360 in year one or two it would have been impressive. Even in year three it would have been somewhat interesting. But 4 years on, it's really who cares. This gen is set in stone and any game of any importance will be made for both systems and next gen MS and Sony will be starting on equal footing with third parties no matter who finishes in second place at the end of the this gen.

I think the main question is and always has been from me is... even if Sony does outsell MS, what does it change from our current state besides a PR statement? It won't change anything and I think that's the point of why does it matter anymore?
I agree.

Sony has done well selling units and making sure that third-party support didn't leave. Its irrelevant which system is in which place because the games are platform agnostic (for the most part) and that's good enough for now.

Sales really don't matter anymore aside from a conversation piece.
 
DMeisterJ said:
I agree.

Sony has done well selling units and making sure that third-party support didn't leave. Its irrelevant which system is in which place because the games are platform agnostic (for the most part) and that's good enough for now.

Sales really don't matter anymore aside from a conversation piece.

If it happens, it will matter to fanboys.

Hell there are still people who gloat over the SNES beating the Genesis in, what, 1995 it overtook them? 1995 was 7 years into the start of that generation.

At this rate, they will catch 360 when roughly?
 

Redbeard

Banned
Arpharmd B said:
If it happens, it will matter to fanboys.

Hell there are still people who gloat over the SNES beating the Genesis in, what, 1995 it overtook them? 1995 was 7 years into the start of that generation.

At this rate, they will catch 360 when roughly?

Depends on how Microsoft does vs. Sony this fall but if it keeps the same sort of pace then it'll happen sometime next year.

Sony projects 15 million PS3 sales this year, 2 million more than last and I believe 5 million more than the 360 has ever sold in a year, so that's quite a lot of PS3s they expect to sell.

IS there anything stopping Sony from releasing, say, a PS3 arcade at this point?

Flash drives have gone down in price considerably, and Microsoft has a 4 GB arcade for $199.

What would theoretically stop Sony from having a $250 PS3 with perhaps 8-16 GB of flash memory instead of a HDD? I would assume that the HDD is a rather large fixed cost and that they should be able to get 8-16 GB drives for much cheaper.

8-16 GB should be able to cover basic cache functions that are required of the PS3.
 

wizword

Banned
Redbeard said:
Depends on how Microsoft does vs. Sony this fall but if it keeps the same sort of pace then it'll happen sometime next year.

Sony projects 15 million PS3 sales this year, 2 million more than last and I believe 5 million more than the 360 has ever sold in a year, so that's quite a lot of PS3s they expect to sell.

IS there anything stopping Sony from releasing, say, a PS3 arcade at this point?

Flash drives have gone down in price considerably, and Microsoft has a 4 GB arcade for $199.

What would theoretically stop Sony from having a $250 PS3 with perhaps 8-16 GB of flash memory instead of a HDD? I would assume that the HDD is a rather large fixed cost and that they should be able to get 8-16 GB drives for much cheaper.

8-16 GB should be able to cover basic cache functions that are required of the PS3.
Yes. The fact that a playstation 3 arcade can't play 50% of the games. Also arcade version of playstation 3 is stupid. The hardrive costs like 15 $.
 

Redbeard

Banned
wizword said:
Yes. The fact that a playstation 3 arcade can't play 50% of the games. Also arcade version of playstation 3 is stupid. The hardrive costs like 15 $.

What? You'd still be able to install some games with 8-16 GBs, just not a whole lot, and it's not like every game requires installs, and if it does the installs tend to not be that big. Some are huge though but those are outliers.

I'm just speaking hypothetically, is there anything stopping them either from a cost standpoint or technical standpoint.

15 million seems rather ambitious, but who knows, maybe GT5 could push them that far without a price drop this year.
 

wizword

Banned
Redbeard said:
What? You'd still be able to install some games with 8-16 GBs, just not a whole lot, and it's not like every game requires installs, and if it does the installs tend to not be that big. Some are huge though but those are outliers.

I'm just speaking hypothetically, is there anything stopping them either from a cost standpoint or technical standpoint.

15 million seems rather ambitious, but who knows, maybe GT5 could push them that far without a price drop this year.
cost standpoint. The reason why I am still shocked that a xbox 360 arcade model still exists is that they are making less marginal profit on that model than the other models simply because the harddrive costs are miniscule. Sony is just going to bundle games and blu-rays into the playstation 3 model for holiday season. Microsoft will do the same with call of duty black ops and halo reach bundles to boost xbox 360. Everything else (kinect/move) will be miniscule. Doubt either will reach 3 million ytd this holiday season.
 

Redbeard

Banned
wizword said:
cost standpoint. The reason why I am still shocked that a xbox 360 arcade model still exists is that they are making less marginal profit on that model than the other models simply because the harddrive costs are miniscule. Sony is just going to bundle games and blu-rays into the playstation 3 model for holiday season. Microsoft will do the same with call of duty black ops and halo reach bundles to boost xbox 360. Everything else (kinect/move) will be miniscule. Doubt either will reach 3 million ytd this holiday season.

I was under the assumption that hard drive costs are rather large and fixed.

For instance, a 250 GB HDD, purchased in bulk by Microsoft or Sony, could cost them $30-50 dollars, and instead of prices getting cheaper they stay the same throughout the generation -- they simply get more hard drive space.

But with Flash, isn't it really inexpensive? Like 4 GB is next to nothing, maybe a few bucks at most.
 
OldJadedGamer said:
Again, it would have only been impressive for the first two years. Like when the Wii overtook the 360 so fast. That was impressive. But at almost at 4 years at what point does it stop to matter? ...All the same games are going to get made for both systems. It's a serious question that hasn't been answered yet. What changes for us gamers by Sony finishing in second place after 5-6 years on the market? Seriously.
It depends on how Sony is planning to handle the PS4 launch positioning. If they're going to go the cutting-edge/boutique route again, their gains now won't matter. But if--as everyone expects--they're going to be a bit more sensible, gains now could be sold to third parties as a plausible narrative. "Sure, we couldn't do much at $599 lol, but at $299 we beat their pants off." That would help Sony convince partners that they're going to follow that model, rather than the Kutaragi "It's the Matrix!" approach.
 

jcm

Member
wizword said:
Yes. The fact that a playstation 3 arcade can't play 50% of the games. Also arcade version of playstation 3 is stupid. The hardrive costs like 15 $.

Hard drives don't cost $15, and they have a price floor that is much higher than flash.

Redbeard said:
I was under the assumption that hard drive costs are rather large and fixed.

For instance, a $250 GB HDD, purchased in bulk by Microsoft or Sony, could cost them $30-50 dollars, and instead of prices getting cheaper they stay the same throughout the generation -- they simply get more hard drive space.

But with Flash, isn't it really inexpensive? Like 4 GB is next to nothing, maybe a few bucks at most.

Yes, you're correct. According to iSupply's iPhone 4 teardown, Apple pays $27 for 16GB of flash. They estimate that Sony pays $38 for a 120GB HDD. Hard drives don;t get any cheaper than that, though.

Sony probably needs more than 20GB of flash, though, since that was the lowest spec machine they sold and tested for. So maybe next year they can release a model with no HDD and save a few bucks. The trouble is, $10 in parts cost doesn't buy you much retail price flexibilty. It's really only useful if you're trying to reduce your losses on below cost hardware, and I think they've lost their taste for hardware losses this gen. Maybe a very, very late revision to try to get to $150 or something, but that's a ways off.
 

jcm

Member
Vic said:
Saw this in the OT, Microsoft 09-10 income statement:

The operating income of the E&D division went up from $108M to $679M this past financial year.

Nothing to do with video games, but MSs Online division may be the worst business I've ever seen.
 

jvm

Gamasutra.
Jtyettis said:
Don't see it. The US rate is either 8.9/9.0( I saw two figures on this when NPD reported so not sure) as of May iirc.
Just to clarify that discrepancy. Microsoft keeps reporting 8.9 (they did this for May and June NPD PR, as I recall), but the Xbox 360 LTD tie ratio I was given by NPD directly as of May 2010 was 9.0.
 

Redbeard

Banned
jcm said:
Hard drives don't cost $15, and they have a price floor that is much higher than flash.

Yes, you're correct. According to iSupply's iPhone 4 teardown, Apple pays $27 for 16GB of flash. They estimate that Sony pays $38 for a 120GB HDD. Hard drives don;t get any cheaper than that, though.

Sony probably needs more than 20GB of flash, though, since that was the lowest spec machine they sold and tested for. So maybe next year they can release a model with no HDD and save a few bucks. The trouble is, $10 in parts cost doesn't buy you much retail price flexibilty. It's really only useful if you're trying to reduce your losses on below cost hardware, and I think they've lost their taste for hardware losses this gen. Maybe a very, very late revision to try to get to $150 or something, but that's a ways off.

$10 is actually a decent savings.

Right now the PS3 is profitable @ $299, so let's assume for a moment that they make $15 in profit on the PS3, and that the PS3's true cost of manufacturing is $285

Subtract the $11 in savings and this reduces the cost to $274.

Sony could offer a 16 GB solution for $250, with a 250 GB solution for $300, estimating a split of 40/60 in favor of the larger hard drive in terms of sales.

In the end they could manage to balance out the losses incurred by the 16 GB model with the profit gained by the 250 GB model.

Microsoft does this, or at least they make a LOT less on the arcade than they do on the elite.

And to the person that DOES want storage, the extra money is worth it.
 

FrankT

Member
jvm said:
Just to clarify that discrepancy. Microsoft keeps reporting 8.9 (they did this for May and June NPD PR, as I recall), but the Xbox 360 LTD tie ratio I was given by NPD directly as of May 2010 was 9.0.

I see. That is what I was confused on. Thanks.

Ash Sparrow said:
but the gap is 5.3 million and going up since slim launched

VGC retail estimates are not too hot around here fyi. 4.5 million shipped difference as of last quarter. May decrease a bit for this one, but likely back up after that. Still they are well due a price drop (2 years now) and I will be really surprised if there is not one sometime by early Nov. Maybe, $179(this and any BF bundle would be very big with the new model)/ $249 since the bundle is at $300. They will not go $149 yet since the bundle wouldn't really be any savings although I've said it before it would have a similar effect $199 has had.
 

Rat Salad

Banned
Microsoft seem like a well oiled machine and I would not want to mess with them,then you have Nintendo,which should scare the shit out of Sony even moreso.
This gen. was written along time ago so I dunno why some of you are counting your pennies with a hopeful 2nd place finish for Sony,it won't mean much in the end.

The bigger picture is much more important. Will Sony have recouped enough money after the disaster this gen? Enough money to say possibly suffer through another possible cluterfuck launch? Even if they launch well they have major competition starring them in the eyes. At this point Sony are just trying to look respectable but theyre wallet is majorly sore from the losses this gen. And I think its going to effect them greatly going up against Nintendo and Microsoft next time around.
 

AniHawk

Member
jvm said:
Just to clarify that discrepancy. Microsoft keeps reporting 8.9 (they did this for May and June NPD PR, as I recall), but the Xbox 360 LTD tie ratio I was given by NPD directly as of May 2010 was 9.0.

Microsoft's is probably the correct one then.
 
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