Master Chief Helps To Push Microsoft In Q2’05 News

Microsoft today announced its second quarter results for the fiscal year 2005 ending December 31st 2004, and also confirms a strong few months for its Xbox division. Whilst Microsoft Corporation enjoyed an increase in operating income for the second quarter by $3.27 billion, up to $4.75 billion (this due to the $2.21 billion compensation package that Microsoft paid out in the second quarter 2004 as a result of the Employee Stock Option Transfer Program), the companyâ??s net income stood at $3.46 billion.

Away from the Corporationâ??s results, it seems that Microsoft have also been pleased with the Xbox, and has announced that 6.3 million units of Halo 2 have been sold so far, not a bad figure when you consider that 20 million Xbox consoles have been sold.

Vice President of Microsoftâ??s Home and Entertainment Group, Robbie Bach, said "Our Xbox business fired on all cylinders and provided a strong ending to what was a great year for the platform and our partnersâ?¦Not only did we achieve record software sales with our strongest games lineup to date, but we also sold more consoles than our competitors during the critical holiday sales season in the United States, and increased Xbox Live! membership to over 1.4 million members."

Halo 2 appears to be helping to push Live! forward, as we reported in December when the release of the game helped to quadruple network traffic, something that weâ??ve contributed to over the past couple of months as we try to increase our Clan Level in the game (with only limited yo-yo like success.)

Weâ??ll have more shortlyâ?¦