| Mummelmann said: I don't really understand MS' Xbox strategy right now; they sold us their new console on it being the most powerful one and thus superior to PS from a technical perspective. And then they proceed to announce and unveil a much weaker all-digital version which will hamper developers since they need to adjust their software to this rather large deficit. Higher CPU clock rates, 60% more system memory, and a significantly beefier GPU on the series X will be sort of wasted as long as developers have to factor in the much weaker Series S in development. Not to mention it punches holes in the whole "ease of development" factor for console gaming. Varying SKU's was expected, this is how the market works now, along with lots of revisions, but releasing two SKU's with such a large performance discrepancy seems rather dumb. |
MS biggest problem with the XBSX vs XBSS marketing strategy is that they should've announced the XBSS first, though not quite as early. While it would have put a sour taste in people's mouth's and would've took a big hit when PS5 was unveiled, they should've been ready to announce XBSX soon after to solve those problems and go for the KO punch. Imagine SNY (fans) bragging about how much better the PS5 is vs XBSS, then MS drop XBSX soon after. It would've created massive hype for XB. Way more so than what they had established in the way they decided to unveil XBSX so early. MS didn't know exactly what was coming from SNY though. This makes me wonder if MS was still unsure about whether they actually wanted to sell XBSS. I'd guess once PS5 was unveiled and they were aware of where it stood in terms of performance and potential price, they decided it was worth going ahead with XBSS.
The way they promoted XBSX early on wasn't smart overall. Way too much focus on power when they potentially were going to also have the weaker unit as well. I'd maybe guess that they probably didn't want SNY knowing for sure that XBSS was coming and a strong power message would help hide that. I mean, SNY did say they were thinking about a weaker unit as well, so MS didn't want to give SNY a heads up any sooner than they had to just in case. That would make it hard for MS to market the unit(s) by having a plan that was open to change. If XBSS was ready, though up in the air in terms of production, it would be tough to decide when to announce XBSX and how to promote it because you can't wait too late.
This should only be more of a concern for the hardcore casuals that are paying attention. For the hardcore crowd they know the deal, so the marketing shouldn't matter too much. The casual crowd likely isn't paying much attention until they get serious about buying one, which probably won't be until the holidays, where all the marketing will be out there as one package by then. The hardcore casual's who've been along for the ride but trying to figure out where MS stands, are the people most likely to be confused about the units. Starting out by saying you're the most hardcore, only to follow that up later by saying you're also the most casual, doesn't make sense in the traditional console world. With mid gen consoles and now two unique launch SKU's, it should be clear things are changing.
What MS is simply doing is offering options. They can't beat SNY if they try and go head to head, so they decided to do the next best thing and try to offer better price and performance. The average joe doesn't know or care how games are made. They just wanna know what the units can do with new games and what do they cost? If you want a cheaper unit next gen, you have to get XBSS. If you want the most powerful unit overall on paper for the best price, you have to get XBSX. The point is to play monkey in the middle with PS5. They want PS5 to seem like it doesn't fit. Like it's too expensive to be considered affordable, but also not as powerful and not worth it's price. Whether it works or not we'll see.
Last edited by EricHiggin - on 25 October 2020
