Microsoft Xbox No Longer A Money Pit, Now Making A Billion Annually

CHART OF THE DAY:

Jay Yarow|January 28, 2011|

4,697|14

(Business Insider)

While Microsoft's online division remains a money pit, the gaming division is starting to make a lot of money for Microsoft. Last night the company reported $679 million in operating income giving it a trailing-four-quarter profit just over $1 billion.

Considering the company lost money for years on the Xbox (we're only showing part of the money burn), this is great news for shareholders, and it provides a sliver of a reason for optimism about the online division. Maybe it too will get turned around some day.

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The Water Cooler14 comments

ObaMao on Jan 28, 12:22 PM said:

Why start the graph at Q4 2005 Jay? I mean how much did pour in since 1999 when Xbox was conceived to 2010? Bet MS lost tons between 1999 and 2008. Now why does Xbox play accounting shell games when it comes to Xbox anyway by burying into different P&L since 1999 and even inside E&D division where now where MS Mobile clusterfxck is buried with Xbox #s?

nothankswp7 on Jan 28, 12:43 PM said:

Xbox... Making A Billion Annually... something that will never ever happen with windows phone

Rich Miles on Jan 28, 12:59 PM said:

"Xbox... Making A Billion Annually... something that will never ever happen with windows phone" Doesn't that sound exactly like something they would have said about the xBox?

Chemcounter on Jan 28, 1:35 PM said:

I believe it is the XBOX 360 console recalls that were beating the crap out of it until 2009. Then COD MW2 came out in 4Q09 and everyone wanted to play online. I understand quality of the console has been resolved. I really credit that game with people actually signing up and renewing the LIVE subscriptions.

qka on Jan 28, 3:15 PM said:

My rough eyeball integration tells me that the area of the graph that is negative is greater than the area that is positive. In other words, MS may be making a billion annually, but they have recouped the many billions invested to get them to the point where they started to make a profit. They are still in the hole on this one.

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