Microsoft misses 360 target by 400K

Software colossus admits its annual goal of shipping 12 million consoles was a little too optimistic.

Earlier today, Microsoft announced it would suffer a $1.05 billion blow to its second quarter by extending Xbox 360 warranties to three years. Just hours later, the software giant conceded that it had also fallen short of its annual sales target for the console.

In a conference call covered by GameSpot sibling site News.com, Microsoft chief financial officer Chris Liddell told reporters that the company had fallen "slightly shy" of its oft-stated goal of shipping 12 million 360s during its 2007 fiscal year, which ended on June 30.

Luckily for the Redmond-based firm, it only barely missed its goal. According to Liddell, over 11.6 million 360s were shipped worldwide during the 12-month period, which includes the four and a half months when the 360 was the sole next-generation console on the US market. The PlayStation 3 went on sale in North America on November 17, with the Wii following suit two days later.

The relatively small size of the shortfall left Liddell unfazed. "We're happy with that number," he told listeners during the call.

252 Comments

  • dale22x

    Posted Jul 10, 2007 6:51 pm PT

    okay, ...=/ as long as good games keep comming out for it i'm happy. i'm kinda wondering how long this gen of consoles is goign to last. because yesterday i came to the realisation that my PC easiliy surpases both the ps3 and the 360. I know that this always happens every generation, where the consoles come and are far better than the PCs, but then towards the end the PC catches up. but now. THe PC was beating the 360 and the ps3 even before they came out. i know that there arn't too many good pc game comming out, but the few developers that still make them. and...by 2010 =S there is going to be a crazy gap.....

    and..i jsut realized.....this comment totally doens' t belong here.........

    too bad...

  • Sirbball31

    Posted Jul 10, 2007 5:37 pm PT

    yea i saw this happening

  • Ryo_Kensen

    Posted Jul 10, 2007 4:14 pm PT

    "Microsoft announced it would suffer a $1.05 billion blow"

    That's a "Oh.." for the people that say Bill Gates wants more money.

  • FiddleStick

    Posted Jul 10, 2007 2:24 pm PT

    heres a notion for all the fanboys and fangirls out there: FREAKIN GET OVER IT!!! each system has its ups and downs. why cant we all game on and enjoy each system for what they have to offer us as gamers???? what the f**k???? i own a 360, a PSP, and will own a PS3 and Wii soon enough. its about the gaming. grow up. nuff said.

  • Warom

    Posted Jul 10, 2007 2:14 pm PT

    This is shipped, not sold. Just so everyone knows

  • Kahuna_1

    Posted Jul 10, 2007 2:11 pm PT

    so have they sold 10 million yet?

  • crck

    Posted Jul 10, 2007 2:03 pm PT

    MS fanboys are funny. Sony misses their target by 500k and PS3 is a failure. MS misses by 400k from a 12 million number already lowered from 13-15 million (yes they originally said 13-15 mill) and its all good. Funny....

  • Tranceplant

    Posted Jul 10, 2007 11:48 am PT

    400k? OH NOES!!! Lol.. I mean, that's not bad. Come on.

  • Holden1985

    Posted Jul 10, 2007 6:32 am PT

    stricker6 every one of your points is flawed

  • VolcanoMan001

    Posted Jul 9, 2007 10:41 pm PT

    Hmm, only missed it by 400k? Hah, I am sure that Microsoft can definately live with that. I think one of the three consoles will miss their target by much more than that amount.

  • DredWulf

    Posted Jul 9, 2007 8:37 pm PT

    strickers being a fanboy doesn't help..also I have read the figures your 5.5 shipped only had less than 1 million sold within the first launch months. Wii beating it out respectively as the fastest selling launching console in history. Also they fired Ken Kutaragi because they finally proved he couldn't prove all the claims he made. Also Fact 360 is far easier to code and port than PS3 the 360's architecture is used on high end pc's while PS3 is a totally different architecture also 360's dev kits are far simpler than on ps3 hence the plethora of Xbox Live Arcade games. Also the 360 exclusives are user base..or are you claiming that Halo 3 and Gears of War are absolutely worthless?? Oh and if you read the reviews of not only gamespot but 1up and gamespy usually rate ps3 games lower than xbox simply due to Sony's admittedly inferior online component sure it's free but you get what you pay for. I own both systems and to be honest I am thus far not impressed with PS3's library I have hope but to say the PS3 is a better system and blaming everything on MS's money is ludicrous.

  • delcidanddarth

    Posted Jul 9, 2007 5:10 pm PT

    Maybe the reason that the next gen consoles (360 and PS3... Wii is not next gen, at least in terms of graphics) aren't selling up to standards is because most people don't have an HDTV. And only an idiot would drop $400-$600 dollars on a next gen console without an HDTV, but once they can afford one, it's a no-brainer. Now that a perfectly adequate HDTV goes for less than $1000, we'll see consistent increases in sales of both consoles (probably not a huge spike, though). Once most people have HDTVs (also being coincident with better looking games), we'll see the Wii sales drop off as people will be unimpressed with Gamecube graphics on their HD screens. If developers are able to utilize Wii controls much better, then Wii will keep selling, and if one of the next-gen dvd formats wins, then we'll see a huge spike in their respective console.

  • DouglasBuffone

    Posted Jul 9, 2007 2:49 pm PT

    I think that it was a bit too optimistic to say they were going to ship that many, especially with all the hardware problems.

  • cosmostein77

    Posted Jul 9, 2007 1:57 pm PT

    Missing the target by 400k? Meh.

  • soldier1993

    Posted Jul 9, 2007 12:17 pm PT

    and, after this three years....???

  • strickers6

    Posted Jul 9, 2007 12:07 pm PT

    Let's clear up some facts here.
    1.Sony aimed a 6 million "shipped" figure by March end.They did 5.5 "shipped"according to the boss,stringer from sony's financials.

    2.MS original "shipping"figure(MS sold = Sony shipped in MS language-look it up)was 15 million but was scaled back to 12 million due to lower than expected sales so 400000 short is really 3.4 million short.

    3.The 360 exclusives are a result of cash not user base.Sony do not pay for exclusives but super rich MS are so hard to compete with because they have huge cash reserves and are happy to use them eg.$50 million for 2 download episodes of GTA and Splinter Cell exclusive was a cash deal too(I know an Ubi employee who told me before the last Cell was out).

    4.MS has lost about $6 billion on Xbox and 360,maybe more with another billion.They only compete with Sony/Nintendo because of money,not quality.Any other company would have quit/died after the failure of Xbox(4 billion in losses and sales below N64).

    5.PS3 is becoming lead platform for more games(partially because it's easier to port dwon to 360 than up to PS3).Haze,Dark Sector and Burnout are leading the charge and games like Destroy All Humans are starting to recode to use faster physics/AI of the Cell(quote from PSM3 dev interview)
    I own both 360 and PS3 since their respective euro launches and have to say that at the moment 360 wins on software but as hardware/user interface/home hub the PS3 is by far the better machine.IF the games do become superior then only a fool would choose 360,and games like Lair,Heavenly Sword,Uncharted,Rachet and Clank and,even now,Motorstorm suggest the PS3 does have the power.

    I like my 360 but I'm getting bored of the biased nonsense about PS3 from illinformed people that are unwilling to read some more detailed truths.

  • s0njas0n

    Posted Jul 9, 2007 11:05 am PT

    now that is a pity, microsoft didn't make as much money as they wanted this year.

  • bmanva

    Posted Jul 9, 2007 7:52 am PT

    "Waa we are losing 1.05B dollars because we riped people off by selling them a broken system."
    Wow, way to make yourself out to be the victims here M$. At least they are shipping back the same system you ship them now. None of that refurbished and have to connect to Live for your dled content BS.

  • TTDog

    Posted Jul 9, 2007 6:09 am PT

    "sanjt: Remember, shipped does not mean sold. "

    Just remember that next time Sony come out with BS about how many PS3's they've "Shipped" to the Warehouses.

    And whilst Microsoft feel disappointed at falling short by 400,000 bear in mind that Sony will kill just to get there sales up to 400,000 in the same timespan.

  • Daytona_178

    Posted Jul 9, 2007 6:03 am PT

    horay for Microsoft!

  • atomD21

    Posted Jul 8, 2007 11:06 pm PT

    Milias-Colds
    "the only logical conclusion for the exclusivity is that MS paid the developer a reasonable large sum of money."

    Umm..no. MS owns Bungie, so they're a first party dev for the XBox line.

  • mach1haven

    Posted Jul 8, 2007 9:54 pm PT

    smoothn00dle you shuold check your math. 400k is NOT 2 and a half months of xbox sales. If MS wanted to sell 12million in 12months, thats 1 million a month right...? so by missing 400k they missed there mark by less than half a month, so its not a huge upset like you make it sound.

  • Milias-Colds

    Posted Jul 8, 2007 3:43 pm PT

    in my opinion the reason that so many 3rd party developers have released for the 360 is not that is it superior in any way, but that the system was available first and they had more time to work on it = more titles. and the fact that MS put considerable muscle behind it. look at the example of Halo and Halo 2. the games are good, but catered to the limited owners of x boxes, and could easily have been ported to at least the Ps2. if the game had been a cross platform release the amount of units sold would have very likely exceeded the number sold to those x box owners out there. the only logical conclusion for the exclusivity is that MS paid the developer a reasonable large sum of money. this in turn led to the increased sales for x box systems due to the fact that people bought the system for the games Halo and Halo 2. i believe the same thing is happening again. Ms is looking at a bigger picture than simply make a better console, they are trying to get sales any way they can, because they know that if it was a straight up competition with same games, or very comparable games at least, and same time on the market they would lose hands down.

  • smoothn00dle

    Posted Jul 8, 2007 10:03 am PT

    400K is not small number. That is total of two and half months of Xbox360 sales. What worry M$ is the declining sales dropped by 20 percent for the last few months. ============================================
    I think PS3 is doing better than Xbox360. Yes, their sales drop below 100k in US(all over the news) but outsold Xbox360 in Japan 4 to 1(little news) and Australia even outsold Wii(some news). Europe is where PS3 shine best, released on March 2007, already sold over 1.5 million unit. I firmly believe PS3 sold more than Xbox360 in Europe(no news). This show through Blu-Ray market share.
    =================================================
    Sony other console likes PS2 and PSP are doing great. 44.7 percent software market domination in UK and Xbox360 is 27. All this, Sony haven't take off yet. When the second wave of PS3 AAA exclusive games arrived, it will be the test for everyone.

  • robinson_chase

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 10:07 pm PT

    well, i'll say this. the 360 has the big sales lead because it came out first and when a product is the only thing available for a whole year, people will buy it, and it is a good system despite a lot of problems. the wii was and still is hot stuff because a lot of non-gamers bought it as a new toy but i think that will die off. the ps3 is selling decently because of the sony fanatics and people who wanna invest in a high end system, not to mention it's the #1 selling high def disk player (Blu-ray or HD-DVD). i think the ps3 will do the best this holiday season because of the price drop, the new game titles (finally!!!), and the fact that blu-ray is curb stomping HD-DVD. this console war is far from over and i dont know if one system will ever truly dominate, but i personally think it would be the 360 or ps3, sorry but the wii has terrible graphics and doesnt display in HD, not to mention it has a bunch of kids games

  • nemiseswes426

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 7:19 pm PT

    even if they didnt meet the goal, they got close and the 360 is the best game system out right now and ps3 really needs more games and by games i mean exclusives cause i'm really getting bored of playing motorstorm and resistance.

  • megamega777

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 4:58 pm PT

    The real battle from all this "console battle" is Wii and Xbox 360
    PS3 is just a $600 Blu-ray player with nifty functions. Blu-ray has been wipped out too early this console generation.

    *THIS JUST IN* Canada now has $600 Blu-ray players at FutureShop.ca! Do the math and it would be alot less in America money!

    P.S. I AM CANADAIN!!!! AND NO IT'S NOT COLD THIS TIME OF YEAR (unless you rrrreeeeaaallllly go up north)

  • Arcade_Legend

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 1:51 pm PT

    Xbox 360 is still by far the best videogame system this generation. I have to agree that it's cool the way Microsoft is willing to tell the truth about sales figures. Sony told nothing but lies about sales figures. When Sony had sold less than 3 million systems by March of 2007, rather than the 6 million they said they would sell, Sony lied and said they meant by March of 2008.

    Right now we really are living in the generation of the Wii60, because the Xbox 360 is the number one selling game system and the Wii isn't too far behind. There are about 8 million more Xbox 360 systems that have been sold to consumers than PS3 systems, and about 5 million more Wii systems that have been sold to consumers than PS3 systems.

    I think that is the reason why the Xbox 360 ends up with so many exclusive third-party games, while the PS3 ends up with a much smaller number of exclusive games from third-party game companies.

  • GrimBee

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 10:36 am PT

    Its cool to see a giant corporation tasting some humble pie, it shows to us that they actually ARE trying to make a good product.

  • gamst3r

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 10:21 am PT

    still is the best console for sure !

  • Tsunami_pt

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 10:17 am PT

    Still the best Console...

  • Kalex007

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 9:57 am PT

    "400,000 short on a 12 million estimate thats not to far off, thats only about 6% stop whining MS i bought ur system Sigh were all just numbers"

    Not to be a stickler, but it's actually closer to 3.33% or 96.67% of their goal which really is not bad.

  • mblsd8

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 9:36 am PT

    Well obviously the sales have gone down over the past 6 months. They'll pick up during the holiday. All those wii fans, the system sucks, unless you're still a kid. The PS3 will also sell. I will get if the price does drop. But for all you fanboys stop hating there is not much difference with 360 and PS3 except blue-ray, and that will definately have an impact by next year at the earliest, but give it two. Look at all the content that is being left off of games right now, FIFA, MADDEN, and thers. They can't fit it all on the present DVD'S. Which makes those versions better on the PS2 and XBOX. Try the games and see the content that's missing. This sucks, cause I can't go back to those graphics but miss some of the missing content.

  • mrpeternorth

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 7:21 am PT

    I'm sure they'll more than make up for it when Halo 3 and GTA 4 come out. Sony better pray the MGS 4 is ready for Christmas, or they are going to be in way worse shape than they are already in. By the way, if MGS 4 comes to 360 who wants to give the eulogy at the PS3's funeral?

  • ta1snake

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 6:09 am PT

    WOW 400000. That is alot.

  • Irve

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 5:28 am PT

    Wait .. they sold 10.4 million by end of December .. and in 6 months they've sold another 1.2 million units .... How is that not a disaster ? MS are mad they should be pushing hard into the market ... if they stay like this they are going to quickly throw away the lead they have

  • anamnawshad

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 3:03 am PT

    Improve the quality of 360s and drop $100 M$!

  • drangel_jam

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 2:35 am PT

    They should have them manufactured in Taiwan. There are just too many faulty 360's in the market.

    11.6M is quite modest compared to the quality of games. MS should advertise more in different ways. How? You may ask, I say, pay me!

  • clqtte

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 10:10 pm PT

    Microsoft lost a big money because XBOX360 made in China....

  • Dryker

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 9:38 pm PT

    Definition: Mucking-up, An electronics giant faces the cold hard fact of its product keeling-over for no apparent reason, turns to its business partner and says: "We need to market an anti-red-light disc and sell it cheaply. Further, next time we'll do this intentionally and make a killing!"

    Definition: Not Mucking-up: Microsoft's behavior.

  • nynthninja

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 8:59 pm PT

    400,000 short on a 12 million estimate thats not to far off, thats only about 6% stop whining MS i bought ur system Sigh were all just numbers

  • randy120

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 6:31 pm PT

    Microsoft fell 400,000 consoles short of their estimate. Nintendo sells over 400,000 consoles in the last few months.

    Coincidence? Perhaps...

    Good for Nintendo though.

  • HXCDEW posted Jul 6, 2007 5:07 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)

    HXCDEW

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 5:07 pm PT (hide)

    Micro$oft lost over $1billion in broken 360s alone, and people blame Sony for mucking up. Bunch of hypocrites.

  • JoeSmith34

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 4:12 pm PT

    It has now been confirmed that the Xbox 360 version of Virtua Fighter 5 has Online Play!!!!!!

    That is the BEST news EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • thomas10soa

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 3:35 pm PT

    wow nice
    well done xbo, fan boys are gonna have a field day, i only have a ps3, i **** hate it, i played gow it is by far the best game on the planet

  • digi_dragon324

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 3:08 pm PT

    haha good one JBBJR

    it will pick up again during the winter, theres no way 360's aren't gonna sell with GTA4!! Halo 3!! Bioshock!! and a bunch of others taht are really good! Assasigns Creed!! umm... Naruto!?? and others...

  • MuscleCarMan

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 3:06 pm PT

    360 is a great system no doubt, thats why i bought one. But each system has their gems. PS3 has FF and MGS, Wii has Zelda, mario, etc. Its just whichever has more of the ones you like that you lean to. That was to all the fanboys. As for the article, keep going strong MS.

  • JBBJR

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 2:55 pm PT

    96.7% is great news for MS. Great system no matter what the fanboy haters say! Our 360 is running all day and nt now that the kids are out for the summer and performs amazingly well. Love XBOX Live. We have the Wii and the PS3 but my sons and I play the 360 about 96.7% of the time......how ironic.

  • ebookerd1

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 2:49 pm PT

    Oh well if more good games come out this year they should make it up in no time.

  • cosmothehound

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 2:41 pm PT

    poor people=fanboy.

    everyone knows it too.

    i have a 360 plan on getting a wii if i can find one. and will buy a ps3 if a few more good games come out for it.

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