Xbox lost Microsoft $4 billion over 4 years

[Carl B]

Sony is in red no doubt. The head ceo (some aussie) said (on CNN) that he would fire more people (than 10000) but he can not `cause of japan culture or something.

Ok, well my friend I guess you decided to post without taking the advice of looking up Sony's financials.

Anyway here you are:

Link

Profit year after year - this year will be the first in a while that they will be 'red,' and that will be due to the implementaion of the cost-reducing measures you are alluding to. Some people don't seem to know that cutting costs costs money to begin with. It does my friends, it does. But if they weren't restructuring, then they would have made a profit this year - see how that works?

Sony's predicament of late has been an unprofitable consumer electronics division and diminished margins. What Stringers mission is is to put that back on track (if he can).

 

[Carl B]

Someone suggested that, given the context of Sony domination, and if Sony makes no mistake à la Nintendo, you may have to loose billions to enter the market. So this only a few rich companies can enter.

So, if this context evolves, if Microsoft becomes the new leader, will it be possible to a newcomer to enter the market at all ?

If Microsoft happens to earn somewhat of a monopoly, what will prevent them from milking the customers and the publishers ? (after all, they'll want to recoup their initial investment and make much more money, they didn't bet as much as 4 billions if they are not willing to make much more than you bet).

I think Samsung, if they ever chose to, would make a great console competitor.

A little more far out - but a company with plenty of billions to toss around - ExxonMobile. How about that for a dark horse!

 

[Lysander]

Sony is in red because of cost cutting? I thought they did not even start with laying off.

 

[Carl B]

Sony is in red because of cost cutting? I thought they did not even start with laying off.

Lysander I swear dude - did you even read the articles you are referencing? Sony estmated a $90 million profit this year. Now, since they will commence restructuring, they are estimating a $90 million loss. It's all estimates right now. Nothing's actually been done and no one's lost their job. Who knows, Sony could make a profit anyway or end up losing much more. Sony's fiscal year ends in March so this is what will be happening between now and March 2006.

 

[Lysander]

report does not separate between entertainment and eletronic device section, sony is covering loss of eletronic section with profit from enertainment section (movies, music)

 

[Carl B]

report does not separate between entertainment and eletronic device section, sony is covering loss of eletronic section with profit from enertainment section (movies, music)

What are we talking about here? I'm talking about Sony group - the umbrella corporate body of which Sir Howard Stringer is CEO. Are you talking about the electronics division alone? Yes, the electronics division has been a drag on earnings for a while now. Is that what you meant when you said 'Sony is definitely in the red,' because Sony as in 'Sony' is *not* in the red. If you meant their electronics division, you should have specified. And Stringer isn't Australian by the way, he's Welsh.

So we're clear, the electronics division doesn't report earnings separate from that of Sony itself - Sony breaks down for investors how it's different divisions are performing during it's investor day. Also, these restructuring moves effect the whole company - it's not limited to electronics, even if they were the original inspiration.

 

[Lysander]

cool down destroyer, no harm done :smile:

 

[Vince]

cool down destroyer, no harm done :smile:

In his defense it is extremely annoying when someone repeatedly posts wrongful information because they are too lazy to do the proper 'due diligence,' if you will, necessary to enter the topic. This is universally applicable, although it seems to happen alot more in this forum.

 

[Carl B]

cool down destroyer, no harm done :smile:

LOL, indeed.

Vince does echo my thoughts though.

 

[Lysander]

what wrongful info did I post vince

 

[Carl B]

I think it's best at this point for us to just walk away from this wholething. Besides being derailed (though the tangent is related), it's just turning into one of those back-and-forth things.

Lysander, the 'Sony in the red' info was your 'wrong info,' and the frustrating lack of clarification given in your ensuing posts didn't help. Also if English is your first language, I would ask that you please write in complete sentences. It's kind of like the dress code for 'Club B3D' as it were. (refer to 'posting rules' for more info)

Anyway I admit maybe I was overly worked up/hard on you. 'Corporate America' being my background I just tend to get worked up about 'fast-and-loose' posting when it comes to matters financial.

 

[expletive]

I don't expect MS to lose 4B this gen. Actually, I would be shocked if in 5 years they have not at least broken even on Xbox 360. That is my expectation. 50-55M units and breaking even. Sony 90M. Nintendo? Depends on their games... about a solid 2nd console for those with money or a primary console for children or those wanting something offbeat.

MS said they plan to be breaking even ont he hardware within 2 years. Once you start doing that, profitibaility shouldnt be far behind. Whether they can be profitiable overall for this this gen, i'm not sure but by 2007 they should be showing a profit on a quarterly basis.

How do these console sales numbers compare to this Gen? Based on the numbers here it seems like you have the 360 at about 30%?

If you expect the revolution to be 3rd, i'm going to put them at 30M units.
Given those Numbers:

PS3 = 51%
360 = 31%
Revo = 17%

How do these compare to this current gen?

J

 

[Lysander]

Ok,destroyer, mea culpa and peace!

 

[Shifty Geezer]

And Stringer isn't Australian by the way, he's Welsh.

Though he is dual nationality US too.

totaly off topic it's interesting hearing people talk of people's nationalities. I remember an American mentioned to me that the American's invented the telephone. To which I say no, it was Alexander Graham Bell. And they respond that yes it was, and he was American. But over here we're taught he was Scottish with kids educational programmes showing him in Scotland with his experiments and thick scottish accent. All pointlessly lopsided takes on the same facts; Mr. Bell was Scottish born and bred and emigrated to the US. And besides the telephone was first invented by an Italian.

We now return you to your normal programme scheduling...

 

[Tahir2]

Imagine what you could do with $4 billion dollars...

People talk about how that money doesn't mean anything to MS or how MS make that much in a second but come on.. $4 billion smackeroonies would do me alright.

 

[NRP]

Though he is dual nationality US too.

totaly off topic it's interesting hearing people talk of people's nationalities. I remember an American mentioned to me that the American's invented the telephone. To which I say no, it was Alexander Graham Bell. And they respond that yes it was, and he was American. But over here we're taught he was Scottish with kids educational programmes showing him in Scotland with his experiments and thick scottish accent. All pointlessly lopsided takes on the same facts; Mr. Bell was Scottish born and bred and emigrated to the US. And besides the telephone was first invented by an Italian.

We now return you to your normal programme scheduling...

"American" isn't a nationality. It's a citizenship. We are multinational.

 

[wildcardx]

Sure the xbox division has cost MS 4 billion dollars, but have they lost that much? If I recall correctly, they spent almost half of that on there xboxlive service. I would think they have at least come away with assests which could be used in other divisions if the xbox turned out to be a failure for MS. I find it silly that people equate the the cost of making the xbox to throwing 4 billion dollars down the drain.

 

[BTOA]

MS has a OS monopoly, they can bleed as much money as they want because $4 Billion is nothing to them.

 

[Acert93]

Sure the xbox division has cost MS 4 billion dollars, but have they lost that much? If I recall correctly, they spent almost half of that on there xboxlive service. I would think they have at least come away with assests which could be used in other divisions if the xbox turned out to be a failure for MS. I find it silly that people equate the the cost of making the xbox to throwing 4 billion dollars down the drain.

True. One thing I see MS doing is really creating a PC<>360 bridge. This is especially important to developers. For PC-centric devs this gives them an outlet to get additional sales. Having 20M console units dedicated to gaming is nice. For console developers this means getting a leg up on new technologies (thus gen shifts are not as tough). Similar it means the continued development of GPU technology and new game engines (like UE3).

There is significant over lap, but where they are different those strengths can be pushed to benefit both markets. Obviously MS's efforts into Xbox Live can help with future versions of Windows, PC gaming, and interactice marketplaces. If you put your mind to it you can see a lot of different ways they can benefit eachother (e.g. video conferencing and VoIP, set top boxes, etc).

 

[ondaedg]

Though he is dual nationality US too.

totaly off topic it's interesting hearing people talk of people's nationalities. I remember an American mentioned to me that the American's invented the telephone. To which I say no, it was Alexander Graham Bell. And they respond that yes it was, and he was American. But over here we're taught he was Scottish with kids educational programmes showing him in Scotland with his experiments and thick scottish accent. All pointlessly lopsided takes on the same facts; Mr. Bell was Scottish born and bred and emigrated to the US. And besides the telephone was first invented by an Italian.

We now return you to your normal programme scheduling...

All your inventions are belong to us!