Wait, they what?
Bing and Surface I can understand to a degree, but they want Microsoft to kill Xbox, one of their strongest brands, and one of Microsoft's only hopes for differentiation? For what, to chase the smartphone game or something?
Bing and Surface I can understand to a degree, but they want Microsoft to kill Xbox, one of their strongest brands, and one of Microsoft's only hopes for differentiation? For what, to chase the smartphone game or something?
Some sources say the 360 lost about 3 billion[1] while others that it lost 2.5 billion PER year[2].
The Xbone lost about 1 billion dollars so far (was expected to lose 2)[3]
And it's not just Microsoft that is losing money on these consoles, Sony is in the read as well. [4]
[1]: http://www.neowin.net/news/report-microsofts-xbox-division-h...
[2]: http://www.destructoid.com/analyst-microsoft-losing-2-billio...
[3]: http://bgr.com/2013/11/26/xbox-one-profit-estimate/
[4]: http://www.vg247.com/2013/01/07/xbox-360-and-ps3-losses-tota...
Most likely in the future, MS will do something similar to steam - just sell software for so called "consoles", and have hardware partners. That will help with the losses issues.
MS don't need to make the consumer device everyone has they just have to force OEMs to not make piles of crap. In a way I think intel kind of own how well MS can perform with hardware. If they didn't push utlrabooks I don't know if we would have gotten anything in the pc space as well built as some apple kit.
$3 billion in losses over eight or nine years is irrelevant, literally, to Microsoft's fiscal picture. They have $84 billion in cash, and are compiling another $25 billion every year. Their ability to stay in the game financially, has helped result in the death of Nintendo when it comes to hardware, eliminating a big competitor. Microsoft can fund these losses forever so long as there is a good strategic reason for it (Sony on the other hand cannot).