It seems that Microsoft’s finally starting to feel the sting from its decision to not court, or actively develop many first-party exclusive titles. According the latest report by the company, revenues from the sales of Xbox hardware is down 24% from last year’s figures.
Those poor bastards have made $418 million this quarter, nearly a a fourth less than the previous year. That equates to just 1.7 million consoles sold in the last 3 months, down from 2.3 million in the same period last year.
Microsoft seems to realise why as well; the blame it all on the release of Gears of War 3 in fiscal Q1 2012, with "no comparable major releases" this year. They do have Forza Horizon and Halo coming up soon – but beyond those, and Gears of War, the Xbox is left with very little in the way of system-selling exclusives.
There’s no good reason for it either; they own Rare – one of the most celebrated studios in existence, and I’m sure if they just let those guys make what they wanted instead of relegating them to a 2nd rate Kinect studio, we’d have some more stellar exclusive on the old box.
Last Updated: October 19, 2012
