Xbox One and Xbox 360 Ship 1.1 Million Consoles Combined From April-June
Microsoft sold in a total of 1.1 million Xbox One and Xbox 360 consoles during its fiscal fourth quarter (April 1 - June 30), the company announced today as part of its quarterly earnings report.
As has been common with the sales numbers Microsoft has provided for its gaming consoles this year, it's important to note that "sold in" refers to the number of consoles shipped to retailers. This is as opposed to the number of consoles actually sold through to consumers--a figure we haven't been updated on since Microsoft announced 3 million Xbox One consoles had been sold to consumers as of December 31.
The 1.1 million consoles shipped is a steep drop compared to the prior three months, when Microsoft shipped 2 million consoles (1.2 million of which were Xbox Ones). The company noted that it "drew down channel inventory" during this most recent quarter, referencing plans it announced in April to slow shipments in order to allow retailers to sell the consoles they already have on store shelves.
Without providing any specific figures, Microsoft announced last week that Xbox One sales had "more than double[d]" in June (as compared with May) following the release of the $400 Kinect-less model. That system went on sale on June 9 and brought the system's price down to that of Sony's PlayStation 4, which has outsold the Xbox One to date. As of April 6, the PS4 had sold 7 million units worldwide.
As part of its earnings report, Microsoft renamed its Devices & Consumer Hardware group, which will now be known as the Computing and Gaming Hardware group. Despite the name change, it will continue to include both Xbox and Surface. During Q4, the group posted revenue of $1.44 billion, a 23-percent year-over-year increase. That was thanks in part to a 14-percent increase in revenue for the Xbox platform (which accounts for the Xbox One and Xbox 360). Revenue for Microsoft as a whole was up 18 percent to $23.4 billion.
CEO Satya Nadella recently offered a showing of support for Xbox, though the platform was not completely unaffected by the layoffs outlined last week. Most notably, Xbox Entertainment Studios--the group responsible for developing original TV programming for Xbox--is being shut down. A select number of its projects (including Halo: Nightfall, the Halo TV series, and Quantum Break) will be unaffected.
In a formal statement today, Nadella briefly discussed the decision to refocus on gaming with Xbox One. "With our decision to specifically focus on gaming, we expect to close Xbox Entertainment Studios and streamline our investments in Music and Video," he said. "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."
| Chris Pereira is a freelance writer for GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @TheSmokingManX |
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Source: GameSpot.com 
