You're in charge of Xbox division. What would be your battle plan for Xbox Series X?

[freedquaker]

curl-6 said:

What would be your strategy for Xbox Series X in the upcoming console war if you were in charge?

1) Stop the confusing nonsensical naming scheme, and create a clear and easy one. The next Xbox should be called something like Xbox Gen 4, which people will simply call XB4. Cheaper versions could be called with a "core" subtext while more advanced versions may go with "pro" if need be....

2) Make Xbox Gen 4 (XB4 henceforth) and all variants %100 compatible with windows 10 machines so that any PC game should automatically work on XB4. If that's not feasible then create a very convincing and easy to implement platform to easily convince all PC games to XB4 so that all Xbox users will take the PC games for granted.

3) Create a significant number of platform exclusives only found on XB4, which will run all windows 10 games as well so that a PC user will still have a reason to buy an XB4.

4) Improve backward compatibility so that all Xbox, X360 and XB1 games will run on XB4, as well as all the windows 10 games going forward.

5) Do NOT focus on creating a machine but a viable platform. The machine should always be reasonably priced with several tiers. $399 for the mainstream, $299 for the price sensitive, and a $599 for the power hungry. Release them only when ready, without rush. Do not compete against Sony, compete against yourself, proceeding in your own trajectory. This way, it will both be affordable for the price-sensitive, and be considered as powerful due to the high end model. For instance, even though XB1 is far weaker than PS4, which is what MOST people experience, many people tend to think XB1 is superior due to the existence of XBX, which is noticeably stronger than PS4pro.

6) Create an UPGRADE CYCLE, for every 2 years, releasing another high-end model, which will cause the standard model to drop to "core" status, "pro" model to the standard status, while the "pro" will be replaced by the new high end version.

7) Create a system, where each version will be supported for at least 4 years, up to 8+ years. For instance, assuming the standard and core models are released in 2020, and upgraded with a "pro" model in 2022; here is the support schedule...

Core: 2020-2024; replaced by standard in 2022; phased out in 2024
Standard: 2020-2026; replaced by pro 2022; phased out in 2026
Pro: 2022-2028; replaced by the new high end in 2024; phased out in 2028
New high end: 2024-2030... and so on so forth.

Each pro model is released at $599, gets a $100 cut every two years and is pushed one tier below, and spends 4 years at the bottom tier before getting phased out.

Very simple and unambiguous, and pretty much the same as Apple's Ipad & Iphone strategy except the upgrade cycles are two years instead of one.

Last edited by freedquaker - on 30 December 2019