Microsoft results beat estimates; Xbox revenues climb

Software giant Microsoft has announced slightly better than expected results for the first quarter of its financial year, ended September 30, with the figures revealing a 20 per cent climb in revenues from the Xbox.

The company announced revenues of $8.22 billion for the September quarter, a six per cent climb over the $7.75 billion recorded last year, and had net income of $2.61 billion - up from $2.04 billion last year.

However, despite the positive results - which beat the average of analyst expectations by a small margin - shares in the company slid backwards on the news that fewer large corporate contracts for software had been agreed than expected, following serious security scares over Microsoft's products over the past months.

The majority of Microsoft's boosted results, then, came from consumer sales - a sector which is also expected to perform strongly in the coming quarter, as products such as the Xbox hit their busiest sales season of the year. This quarter, the Home and Entertainment division, which houses the Xbox project and Microsoft Game Studios, realised some $581 million in revenue; this is expected to be substantially higher next quarter.