Xbox 360 revenues soar in Q1

The days of Xbox 360 being a red smudge on the otherwise robust financials of Microsoft are nothing but a distant memory now as once again the company’s Xbox 360 operations have reported strong numbers in the quarter ending September 30th 2010.

Revenues at Microsoft’s console business climbed 33 per cent year-on-year to $1.2bn. Of that number Halo Reach alone raked in $350m of revenue.

2.8m Xbox 360 consoles were shipped in the period – that’s a 38 per cent increase on the 2.1m units shipped in the same period in 2009.

Revenues for Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division, which encapsulates Xbox, Zune and Windows Phone 7, hit $1.8bn – a yea-on-year gain of 27 per cent. Profit reached $382m, a 46 per cent increase.

Microsoft expects a 30 per cent improvement in its next Q1 by which time both Kinect and Windows Phone 7 will be fully established on the market.

Overall Microsoft revenues reached $16.2bn – up 25 per cent year-on-year – with its Windows operations seeing a 66 per cent annual improvement. Net income hit $5.4bn, which is up 59 per cent.

This was an exceptional quarter, combining solid enterprise growth and continued strong consumer demand for Office 2010, Windows 7, and Xbox 360 consoles and games,” chief financial officer Peter Klein stated.

Our ability to grow revenue while continuing to control costs allowed us to deliver another quarter of year-over-year margin expansion.”