Microsoft released its FY14 Q4 earnings yesterday. The Redmond giant put a spotlight on the revenue it made in the fiscal fourth quarter, and the number of mobile handsets it shipped. The company also announced that it sold 1.1 million Xbox One and Xbox 360 consoles.
The company won’t be happy with the reports, as it was able to sell 2 million consoles — out of which 1.2 million were Xbox Ones — in the quarter before. Microsoft mentioned that it “drew down channel inventory” during the last quarter in a move to make sure that retailers were able to sell the consoles they already have on the store shelves.
It should be pointed out that by “sold”, Microsoft means the number of consoles that were shipped to the retailers as opposed to consumers.
It is noteworthy to mention that the sales of Xbox One doubled in June, thanks to the company’s recent announcement of making a Kinect-free Xbox One bundle — which costs $100 less, incidentally aligning with rival PlayStation 4 prices.
Microsoft also used the earnings call to rebrand the Devices & Consumer Hardware group to Computing and Gaming Hardware group. Though, it will still be dealing with the same devices — Surface and Xbox consoles.
The Xbox division mostly remains unaffected by the recent layoff announcement by CEO Satya Nadella. Development of a number of projects — including Halo; Nightfall and the Halo TV series, and Quantum Break will continue as before. Though Xbox Entertainment Studios is being shut down.
“With our decision to specifically focus on gaming, we expect to close Xbox Entertainment Studios and streamline our investments in Music and Video,” said Nadella. “We will invest in our core console gaming and Xbox Live with a view towards the broader PC and mobile opportunity. I hope you can see that we have bold ambitions and we have made a lot of progress.”
