Xbox 360 Division In Yearly Profit News

Microsoft has today published its full fiscal year earnings, which includes the news that the Entertainment and Devices Division, which houses both the Xbox 360 and Zune, has turned an operating profit over the past twelve months.

The 2008 fiscal year, which ended on June 30th, has seen the corporation recover from the $1 billion warranty extension introduced in 2007 to deal with the slew of 'Red Ring of Death' issues. The past twelve months was also the year that the Master Chief finally ended the war with the Covenant.

Revenues for the division during the past twelve months rose by a third, from $6.07 billion to $8.14 billion, whilst operating income reversed the mammoth loss of 2007 (which totalled $1.97 billion) to record the key figure of $426 million in the black.

Fourth quarter results didn't quite see the E&DD record an operating profit, falling just short with a loss of $188 million - although it too was a huge turnaround on the same three month period in the previous fiscal year, which thanks to the warranty extension, stood at $1.22 billion.

The fiscal year also saw sales of Xbox 360 hardware topping 8.7 million units, up on the previous year's total of 6.6 million units.