Is the Xbox One a failure?

[DanneSandin]

Mr Khan said:
Failure is a question of expectations, which in turn is a tricky question due to the change of leadership at Microsoft. Ballmer clearly had more passion for Xbox than Nadella, but i think that, originally conceived, the X1 was designed to be the center of a Microsoft multimedia push that has since come undone for reasons partially related to the X1 (the resounding rejection of Microsoft's original DRM scheme, which was a critical part of their larger strategy and why they invested so much PR capital in trying to defend it before surrendering), and since come undone partly due to the regime transition which casts a weather eye on all of the side businesses.

Short story, under Nadella, i think victory over the competitors has become the success condition. They need to win, or Microsoft will quit, because even if it is profitable, the money spent on Xbox could be better spent elsewhere in more relevant sectors.

Or, if Nadella simply doesn't give a fuck about the Xbox division (meaning he'll leave it alone as long as it's bringing in money, but not put focus on it as part of the corporate strategy) than mere profitability could be the success condition: as long as the X1 as a whole turns a handy profit, then it's a success.

So it all depends on the win condition, as it were, which is very hard to tell.

Wii U is the only clear failure amongst the consoles, but Nintendo's kind of behind the 8-ball on that. Coming off of a winning generation, you need another win of equal or greater magnitude or you're a failure by default. Not that Wii U's struggles have not been quite a spectacle...

Very well thought out post!