Microsoft revealed last night in their Q4 earnings report that 1.1 million Xbox 360 consoles were shipped worldwide during the quarter ended June 30, 2012. While this doesn’t compare favorably to the 1.7 million consoles that were shipped during the same quarter last year, it does put them in the leadership position of the dying current-generation console market in the US.
Xbox Live sales helped to counter the decline in console sales, and saw a healthy 15% increase year over year. Sadly, for every silver lining there is a bit of tarnish, and the higher operating expenses associated with Microsoft’s Skype acquisition dragged the Entertainment and Devices Division down to a $263 million loss for the quarter.
For the full fiscal year Microsoft’s EDD added $364 million in operating income to the company. That may sound impressive at first, but ultimately all of Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Windows Phone, Skype (and whatever else goes on in the EDD) efforts, barely represent a drop in the company’s $21.76 billion operating income bucket.
Kind of puts things in perspective, huh?
Source: Microsoft