Microsoft Claims Xbox Sales Are On Target

Officials from Microsoft have announced the company’s results for the quarter ended December 31st, where overall results for the company showed a record revenue of $10.5 billion, against a drop in profits of 17%. Revenues at the Home and Entertainment division of the company, which includes Xbox and Microsoft Game Studios, was $1.27 billion – down 5% from the same time last year. The company has blamed lower sales of PC games for the downturn, although it also admitted that Xbox sales were down 6% for the quarter. Xbox Live subscriptions, not including free subscriptions, are put at 750,000 – with a target of 1 million by the end of June 2004. With the world-wide installed user base of the console put at 13.7 million units this means that a mere 5% of Xbox owners have so far decided to pay for the online service. The company’s main target now is to reach its sales target of 14.5 to 16 million units in June, a task which it should be more than capable of given these results. Source: Forbes