All purpose sales and sales rumors/anecdotes thread next gen+

[Shortbread]

Rymuth post @GAF...

Xbox hardware revenue decreased 17%, mainly due to lower volumes of Xbox 360 consoles sold. Video games revenue grew 66%, driven by sales of Minecraft.

Xbox Live monthly active users (MAU) grew 28% to 39 million during Microsoft’s last financial quarter, the company reported today; however, due to a decrease in Xbox 360 sales, revenue from consoles sales declined.

Microsoft said for the quarter ending September 30, net income came in at $4.62 billion compared to $4.54 billion year-over-year.

Revenue fell $20.38 billion from $23.20 billion year-over-year.

source VG247

Edit: Earnings Release FY16 Q1

 

[Rangers]

Looks like Microsoft may not even be giving a shipped number anymore (on top of Sony reducing to only a PS4 number last quarter). I give up.

Video games revenue grew 66%, driven by sales of Minecraft.

Geesh, really?

 

[DieH@rd]

Xbox hardware revenue decreased 17%, mainly due to lower volumes of Xbox 360 consoles sold. V

Actually it looks like 17% decrease is for the entire "More Personal Computing" section of the company. They gave us NOTHING about Xbox hardware this quarter.

 

[Shortbread]

Looks like Microsoft may not even be giving a shipped number anymore

Must be bad... worldwide sales must be suffering.

Geesh, really?

Also, does the MAU (increase) include all the XBL family (PC and mobile users as well)?

 

[DieH@rd]

• Gaming revenue increased slightly, as growth in revenue from Xbox Live and video games was offset in part by lower Xbox hardware revenue. Xbox Live revenue increased 17%, driven by both higher volumes of transactions and revenue per transaction. Video games revenue grew 66%, driven by sales of Minecraft. We acquired Mojang AB, the Swedish video game developer of the Minecraft gaming franchise, in November 2014. Xbox hardware revenue decreased 17%, mainly due to lower volumes of Xbox 360 consoles sold.

 

[Shortbread]

Xbox hardware revenue decreased 17%, mainly due to lower volumes of Xbox 360 consoles sold.

Not enough XB1s being sold to cover the decline in XB360 sales... I mean, we saw this coming a mile away.

Anyhow, what in the hell is MS waiting for, on dumping the phone division???

 

[ZhugeEX]

Yup. Microsoft are no longer reporting on hardware shipments. Instead they'll be reporting on number of active Xbox Live members.

 

[London Geezer]

OUCH

 

[Rangers]

Microsoft's statement

The second metric that's changing is the addition of Xbox Live active users that replaces the Xbox console unit metric. Console sales will continue to be provided in other earnings materials when they are a driver of changes and revenue and operating income.

Probably just a matter of time or a bad sales spell until Sony follows suit.

Truly the worst time in history for sales info.

 

[Shortbread]

The second metric that's changing is the addition of Xbox Live active users that replaces the Xbox console unit metric. Console sales will continue to be provided in other earnings materials when they are a driver of changes and revenue and operating income.

 

[zed]

I was wondering what MS would say when xb1 lifetime to date shipments would drop below xb360's 13.4 million at the same stage

 

[Rangers]

There's no way of knowing that. The data we do have after 23 months (USA NPD) has Xbox One still well ahead of 360 (8.14 million vs 6.72).

But as I always point out, 360's sales were quite strong later in it's life relative to earlier. The Kinect bump in 2010-11 IIRC.

 

[Entropy]

There's no way of knowing that. The data we do have after 23 months (USA NPD) has Xbox One still well ahead of 360 (8.14 million vs 6.72).

But as I always point out, 360's sales were quite strong later in it's life relative to earlier. The Kinect bump in 2010-11 IIRC.

Sales outside US+UK seems to be incredibly weak. EU, Asia - nary a console sold. Impressions from either side of that divide will be misleading. From where I stand, the XB1 doesn't sell even with desperate deals being offered. I guess if I were in US+UK, I would have the impression that it was competitive.

 

[Lager]

Xbox hardware sales must be truly abysmal outside of the US.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

The second metric that's changing is the addition of Xbox Live active users that replaces the Xbox console unit metric. Console sales will continue to be provided in other earnings materials when they are a driver of changes and revenue and operating income.

This is no help for sales numbers but I think this is an interesting and actually useful metric as long as they clearly define "active users" and report it consistently in the future. Apple and Google report such numbers for iOS and Google Play ecosystems.

Over the long haul of a consoles lifetime, knowing how many consoles have been sold is interesting but it gives no sense for how many people are actively using their consoles, compared to them sitting there gathering dust. You get a sense of this from software relative software sales of multiplatform games but this is better. I hope Sony also do this.

 

[Parrish]

Sorry for the stupid question, but what exactly is considered an "active Xbox live member" and does this include PC player on the Microsoft platform?

 

[Entropy]

This is no help for sales numbers but I think this is an interesting and actually useful metric as long as they clearly define "active users" and report it consistently in the future. Apple and Google report such numbers for iOS and Google Play ecosystems.

Over the long haul of a consoles lifetime, knowing how many consoles have been sold is interesting but it gives no sense for how many people are actively using their consoles, compared to them sitting there gathering dust. You get a sense of this from software relative software sales of multiplatform games but this is better. I hope Sony also do this.

That is a valid point in favour of the metric. It is not an argument for ceasing to report hardware sales. The two are orthogonal, and actually complement each other. So there are obviously other reasons to stop reporting hardware sales.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

It is not an argument for ceasing to report hardware sales.

I fully agree. There a few good reasons not (or to cease) to publish sales figures and the usual reason is that the figures are not good. If I were to put on my tinfoil hat I might conclude that Microsoft made this move so as to make it even more difficult for the media and analysts to form comparisons with Sony's published figures. If Sony also conclude this, and are feeling mischievous, they could report similiar metrics in addition to sales so as to make comparisons easier, i.e. underminding Microsoft.

Taking my tinfoil hat off, I actually hope Sony do this - although not for the purpose for being asshats! As I said above, I genuinely believe it will be an interesting metric over the life of the generation.

 

[iroboto]

This is no help for sales numbers but I think this is an interesting and actually useful metric as long as they clearly define "active users" and report it consistently in the future. Apple and Google report such numbers for iOS and Google Play ecosystems.

Yes, this is a method of indirectly reporting total contract value for each person that buys into the ecosystem. You can sell lots of hardware but getting customers to spend more is the key in the long run. At least from a business stakeholder perspective.

From a user perspective it also highlights user satisfaction with the product. More subscriptions means that they are doing better in keeping their customer base satisfied.

This is probably the metric both companies should be focused on, if they are looking to align customer surveys about their product with sales data. In particular, for Microsoft, this aligns with their new model of a focus on services.

It ideally won't be too long until the MS store is up there reporting revenue.

Unfortunately I can't say more, but expect more announcements that focus on software and services sides of things and not hardware.

 

[ArcticCircle]

Sorry for the stupid question, but what exactly is considered an "active Xbox live member" and does this include PC player on the Microsoft platform?

Really hard to say. It's probably ALL Windows 10 systems, including Xbox consoles, Windows phones / tablets and PCs with Windows 10 that use some kind of Xbox Live thing (app or whatever). Note that they don't say active Xbox Live Gold member (as in payed subscription).

But like everyone has already said, we currently don't have any idea of Xbox worldwide shipments. Could be close to zero or really high boost waiting for those juicy black friday and holiday sales. I still expect Xbox to win NA region combined next three months. Worldwide... yeah... I'm not sure if we'll ever find out how low the sales are.