How many units does Xbox One need to sell to be considered a success?

[Normchacho]

Mr Puggsly said:

Normchacho said:

Bold: The problem I have with that is then you can say nothings a failure. I'm sure sales expectations were dropped dramitically for the Wii U after they say how it's sales dropped off after launch, but it still was a failure due to an inability to meet initial expectations. That's a much more dire scenario of course, but the principle stands.

I'm honestly not sure what you mean by "Its something they did because they could". It's a value added feature, but it costs them money to implement and it's not really something that's going to drive software sales in any significant way. If you have 360 games you don't need to buy software, and they keep giving out 360 games in bundles or they get remastered for the Xbox One anyways. They did it to give themselves good press and to drive Xbox One sales. The PS2 emulation on PS4 is a bad comparison because you have to buy those games. Trust me, as a consumer I'd rather they just let me put in my PS2 games (not that I actually still play PS2 games) but Sony doesn't need to, so they didn't.

I'm not pretending 4K Blu Ray is anything. If 4K Blu Ray is $10 more to implement per system than normal Blu Ray then that's millions of dollars in lost revenue every year to support what is really a niche format. Once again, it's a value added feature. It makes them look good, and they can use it in advertising to try and sell more Xbox Ones, but they wouldn't have needed it if the Xbox One were selling better.

I'll reiterate.

Between lower per-unit revenue, lower software sales, less Gold subscribers, and weaker than expected sales. The Xbox One is going to have an roi that's likely a fraction of Microsofts origional expectations. That's a failure.

Not meeting expectations isn't an, "failure overall." It failed to meet expectations, agreed.

Adding any feature costs money, making games costs money. X1 BC is a feature that brings in revenue because X1 BC = More 360 software sales.

Again, 4K Bluray is not an expensive addition to the console. Adding up the cost between every X1S and Scorpio sold is irrelevant. Per device, its not an expensive feature. I agree its niche, but it objectively adds great value considering 4K players are expensive.

I reiterate, lowered expectations isn't, "failure overall."

That is an overall failure. The definition of failure is litteraly "omission of occurrence or performance; specifically :  a failing to perform a duty or expected action"  Especially when it fails to meet them by alot. It did not perform as expected, it failed to perform as expected.

Yes, adding any features costs money, but it's money they wouldn't have had to spend if it were selling better. As I explained, the revenue brought in from BC is going to be miniscule because you don't have to buy 360 games to use it.

Of course adding up the cost of 4K Blu Ray is relevant. If it's $10 more per unit, then for every 100,000 systems they sell that's $1 million that they would have made if it weren't included.

 

You seem to be looking at this from the perspective of a consumer and sure, as a consumer, the Xbox One is great. But for Microsoft it's been a failure.