When Microsoft unveiled its second quarter financial results on Thursday, it said that although it had suffered from shortages of some components, it had shipped 1.5 million Xbox 360 games consoles: 900,000 in the US, 500,000 in Europe and 100,000 in Japan. This pushed turnover of the Home and Entertainment division up to $1.56 billion from $1.34 billion, but it made an operating loss of $293 million compared to a $55 million profit in the same quarter last year.
I was amused by the GamesIndustry.biz idea that "The continued impact of component shortages for its Xbox 360 console have been cited as the main reason for the loss in profits, though MS officials have stated that the manufacturing troubles are now being resolved." Actually, the Xbox 360 is selling at a loss (or a negative margin, as Microsoft puts it), so if Microsoft had been able to make and therefore sell more, the division would probably have lost even more money....
Overall, Microsoft reported Q2 revenues of $11.84 billion (up by 9%) and profits of $3.65 billion (up 5%). Joe Wilcox of Jupiter Research has a round up here.
