Xbox 360 sales down 13% year-on-year

By Ellie Gibson Published 29 January, 2010

But MS's operating income is on the up.

Microsoft has announced its financial results for the last three months of 2009, revealing a drop in sales of Xbox 360 units.

The company shifted 5.2 million machines during the quarter, down 13 per cent year-on-year. Revenues for the Entertainment and Devices Division dropped from $3.26 billion to $2.9 billion.

However, more Elite and special edition Xbox 360s were shifted than in previous years, according to Kotaku. That helped the division enjoy a whopping rise in operating income from $130 million in 2008 to $375 million.

There was a 35 per cent rise in the number of Xbox Live account holders, bringing the number of people subscribed to the service to 23 million. The software attach rate for Xbox 360 was down, though.

Microsoft's probably not too worried, having racked up overall revenues of $19.02 billion - a new record. It might be something to do with the fact 60 million licences for Windows 7 were sold during the quarter, making it the fastest-selling operating system in history.

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About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • harzo #1 2 years ago

    Everytime I think of Bill Gates I also have the image in my head of Scrooge McDuck, diving into his big money pit. As a kid watching Duck Tales, this was my ambition in life!

  • stuarty_2003 #2 2 years ago

    Are they still looking for a Chairman?

  • Carlo #3 2 years ago

    The drop in arcade sales is probably due to the console being more reliable and people are not buying them to replace their 'broken' 360.

  • JohnnyWashnGo #4 2 years ago

    Are we seeing something similar to the situation the Wii finds itself in?
    Most people who want to own a Wii already have one and those who don't want one are not likely to buy one.
    The same could be said the the Xbox360 no?
    The core gamer who would be their target audience for the machine has already bought one, or maybe more, already and isn't looking to get another one, unless their current machine breaks.

    Thats probably why they are pinning their hopes on Natal. They are looking to expand their audience to those people who have no interest in hardcore games but fancy a nice new games machine?

  • altitude2k #5 2 years ago

    @JohnnyWashnGo

    That's probably right. Whilst not at the limit yet, they must be quite near market saturation for the people who would want a 360. Opening up the 360 to a casual audience is what will boost sales, nothing more, nothing less.

  • aphexstwin #6 2 years ago

    the sales are nice, but i wonder how many people own 360's? i have had two, traded the first for ps3 fundage, and i thought it was going to die (making very strange noises), but then i missed bf2mc so had to get another one. and 23 million live accounts? again i've had many, the one ive got now, a previous one on the old machine and some more set up when i was out of live sub? will we ever truly know how many people own these consoles?

  • Darren #7 2 years ago

    I'm sure Xbox 360 sales will surge when everyone's own console exceeds the three year warranty for the RROD and they realise they'll have to buy a new one! ;)

    (Kidding, kidding...)

  • 52pickup #8 2 years ago

    While this is nice, just post the "it's official" GTA IV DLC coming to PS3 news :D

  • mcmonkeyplc #9 2 years ago

    Oh noes teh endgame is afoot!

  • lunnytoon #10 2 years ago

    If by 'subscribed' they mean full gold account holders then that aint bad, however if it just counts active account holders including silver, then it aint so good.

    The numbers can easily be manipulated because people who use PC's are also being forced into making LIVE accounts for the Games for Windows LIVE games that have been released which will also include the upcoming Bioshock 2. Also i believe the Zune marketplace also requires an account, so it's a case of till we know their definition of 'subscribed' i don't think we will know the true figures for this.

  • BabyJesus #11 2 years ago

    Software sales are where the real money is, if I was Steve Balmer I'd be more worried with the drop in software attach rates than the drop in console sales.

    Kudos to Sony though, they seem to be pushing in the right direction now, but they really need to work on their attach rates. They need to stop pushing on the machine so much and get some good marketing muscle behind games like UC2 GOW3 etc

  • Drpwnage #12 2 years ago

    The full year figures from MS show an increase in 360's 'shipped' from 8.7m in 2008 to 11.2m in 2009. Revenue and OI were down for 2009 vs 2008 in the part Entertainment & Devices Division (EDD).

  • woodnotes #13 2 years ago

    Not too surprising given their price drop in 2008, their lack of big exclusives in 2009 and more competition from the PS3. I think they'll be up again this year, what with the big guns on the way and Natal etc. But Nintendo and Sony aren't exactly standing still either.

  • metalangel #14 2 years ago

    @Darren: Heh. My 360 dates back to 2006 and just failed for the second time. Annoying but it does see heavy use (my PSX packed in in less than a year) so fair enough. Anyway, I do have a point, and that is that it's cheaper to pay for an out of warranty repair (£80) than to buy a new Arcade (£120) and refit your hard drive to it. But yes, ba dum tish.

  • penhalion #15 2 years ago

    @Harzo

    You do know that Bill Gates stepped down from running Microsoft over a year ago now right?

  • FogHeart #16 2 years ago

    Who is Slim Valhalla and why is he in the closet :)

    Seriously, if this is, as I suspect, a chipset, such things pass beneath the notice of a good 95% of consumers. Let's not assume that all purchasers of consoles thhink like we do, hm?

  • metalmike25 #17 2 years ago

    Slim Valhalla is a new film coming out this year about a cowboy who travels back in time to help some vikings. Not sure how this helps Microsoft

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #18 2 years ago

    Well what do they expect when they remove the middle SKU, up the price of the arcade to almost the price of that now defunct great middle SKU and their top SKU is at a price that puts it in direct competition with their main competitor who had just happened to have released a slim & price dropped console.

    What with the excusives debacle at MS and that terrible pricing/SKU decision I'm amazed these £200k a year managers have kept their jobs!

    Seems like Sony made all their idiot decisions at the beginning of this gen and MS are making theres now! ;)

  • Kerome #19 2 years ago

    Sales down is par for the course since the recession started to bite the games industry last year... Actually it's a bit surprising they managed to push profit up by that much just by optimising the business. Then again, they did have Halo: ODST last year, which did pretty well.

  • Stomp224 #20 2 years ago

    Sales are down? but surely all those people replacing their RROD machines? are they.... NOT replacing????? :o

  • dirk_aircool #21 2 years ago

    windows 7 ? I've only recently got Vista. If 360 sales are down its probably more to do with MS raising the price last year and SOny Lowering the PS3 price.
    Edited by 1 at 29/01/10 @ 12:12

  • IneptPercy #22 2 years ago

    As mentioned it did strike me as odd when the arcade price went up and that really couldn't have helped.

    I recently sold my old out of warrenty machine and got an arcade in one of the pre xmas deals and basically got a new warranty for £25 which was nice.

  • LiamK #23 2 years ago

    @Crez

    While that's true, I can't see anyone here who's actually slammed Bill Gates. Are you not, ironically, overreacting to a perceived act of overreaction that hasn't actually happened ironically in an ironic fashion?

  • LiamK #24 2 years ago

    Fair enough. Although Scrooge McDuck also had a heart of gold. I will not stand slurs against his name!

  • kangarootoo #25 2 years ago

    @Anthony_Daniels

    "Ouch!

    sales down by 13 percent?"

    All sales decline eventually. A number itself out of context means nothing.

    It may shock you to discover that sales of the Commodore 64 are down 100% over 1988.

  • kangarootoo #26 2 years ago

    "Are you not, ironically, overreacting to a perceived act of overreaction that hasn't actually happened ironically in an ironic fashion?"

    I think there is blood coming out of my ears :)

  • monkeywithnoeyes #27 2 years ago

    what was all that about MS being up on sales of units year in year out..werent microsoft boasting about such last month?

    Anyway, the Elite no doubt sold more because microsoft stopped production of the 60gig model..making the elite the introductory console with a HDD attached.

    Live probably saw a bigger attach rate because people are starting to realise just how much they get cheated out of their £50 games if they dont invest in it. You can't even access leaderboards ffs

  • ronuds #28 2 years ago

    This was probably the slowest year software wise for the 360 - and I still had too many games to buy by the end of the year!

    Next year looks to be 10 times better. I can see 2010 being a huge year for the 360, indeed.

  • cyber_nicco #29 2 years ago

    I don't get the RROD jokes anymore. I've had a PS3 for ages now and have had very little fun with it. Why make fun of the 360, are you just not into gaming?

    Seems like you should be on another site then...

  • cyber_nicco #30 2 years ago

    "Everytime I think of Bill Gates I also have the image in my head of Scrooge McDuck, diving into his big money pit. "

    Only to dig it out and give it away. Now they're giving 10 fecking billion away for vaccinations or something...

  • yakamu #31 2 years ago


    Must say that I am rather surprised by this. Even I bought an xbox during this period to keep my sanity and distract myself from having to study for Online PhD Degree Programs . On the other hand not too surprised about the lack of sales for arcade, with the proper one around why would anyone go for arcade ?

  • dirk_aircool #32 2 years ago

    @Kangarootoo.
    Thank god the spectrum is still ok.