| RolStoppable said: If you aren't counting profits from Xbox Live, then how did you come to the conclusion that the Xbox One was more profitable? You've provided figures for the original Xbox and the Xbox 360, both apparently without the Xbox Live money included. You have yet to provide any figure for the Xbox One, but if you do, it would have to be without Xbox Live money as well. And in that case, the chances that the Xbox One was profitable are laughably low when you consider how aggressively the console was priced for the better part of its lifespan with all its price cuts, both permanent and temporary. By the way, it's not me who is caught up in console wars logic. It's you who is getting worked up way too much by the conclusion that the Xbox One wasn't a success. As if that would be a thing that is hard to admit when one is being objective in their analysis. You can talk about Phil, but even you have to acknowledge that Mattrick was the head of the conception of the Xbox One. Therefore it's only logical that Mattrick's goals and vision are the ones that the Xbox One's success or lack thereof gets measured by. Mattrick did care to have Xbox sell better than PS and Nintendo. That Mattrick got sacked so quickly after the Xbox One launch shows that it didn't take long for the upper executives of Microsoft to recognize that the Xbox One wasn't going to be a success. This whole topic can be approached from another angle: Just ask yourself the question if Microsoft would be pleased by having another console perform like the Xbox One. Try to answer that honestly. |
Compared to the other consoles, the XB1 would not have cost as much to make on top of all that, it did not have $1.6b worth of Red Ring consoles to replace so its already ahead in those terms. I can confidently say the XB1 lost less money than the OG and 360 consoles. Considering the XB1 would have had more paid subscribers than the OG Xbox and possibly not far behind the 360s sub base, i would say it is quite clear the XB1 was way more successful when it came to the bank. The reason Don was moved on was because of his failed marketing, he failed at relaying the message and gave the brand a bad name to the point MS had to change their model (did a 180) only to do another (180) years later to recover the image. I doubt the XB1 lost more money than the Original Xbox losing $7b and without the issues of the 360s hardware failures which a lot of that Live money would have gone towards. The XB1 would have pocketed more, as well as increasing digital sales which earns more profits than physical.
Microsoft pockets a HUGE '$28' on an Xbox One: But NOT REALLY • The Register
Is Microsoft losing money on Xbox 360? (macworld.com)
Don Mattrick was working for Xbox when Xbox's business model was about selling hardware. Xbox's model was very similar to PlayStation's and Nintendo's which is why they disclosed sales figures like the rest of them back than. The moment Xbox changed its lead to Phil and its model, hardware sales were not the prime focus of Xbox anymore, it become all about the services and software.
Phil was a man who walked into this industry, saw the childish nature and removed it. Hardware sales is only used to fuel console wars, something Phil is trying to move away from. He does not care for it, especially when the company he runs does not solely focus on it.
To answer your question, no they wouldn't mind, because Xbox is more about GP, Streaming and Live. Xbox games are on more platforms now than ever before, they want to see 100s of millions of gamers signing up. If the Series X/S sold as much as the XB1 which i believe they would do about the same, i don't think they will care, as long as their revenue goes up and they continue to rack in billions from GP.
| EricHiggin said: Well yes, once they finally officially announced XBSS, they clearly had decided to sell both. The article title below even shows that Lockhart hitting the market was in question. Also, if MS doesn't care like Apple about how different the products are, why market XBSS as 1440p when it's really a 1080p console? There's nothing wrong with 1080p, considering the next gen hardware is totally worth the $300 price tag for those who are ok with that resolution, which many still are. I would've bought one myself as a secondary console by now if it had a disc drive. "In a recent interview with The Verge, Xbox head Phil Spencer explained that the Xbox team had "a goal of having market success” with the next generation of consoles, and the cheaper Lockhart SKU may help with that." Sounds like Phil really cares/cared about the hardware and wants/wanted it to be successful, in which case if Phil and MS don't care about HW sales and have moved on, why are they saying hardware success is/was a goal? If MS doesn't want to show the numbers, even if they're combined, that's fine, but the public wanting to know the numbers, especially the more hardcore who want complete breakdowns, isn't surprising. If MS isn't willing to show the numbers after saying what they've said, then the public is entirely free to guess and have an opinion of what the reasons may be. It seems to me as well, that you're taking these posts as hardcore shots against MS. I don't think anyone part of these 'branch posts' is or was trying to say MS sucks right now, in fact, I believe it's been clearly suggested they've been improving and are on a better path, since the topic is about XB1 and how well it did or didn't do. It's pretty hard to say that the new consoles aren't doing better in comparison as of now. |
You do understand that the XSS was years in the making way before we even heard about it right? They didn't just make the Series S yesterday and wanted to hide it so the X can sell, the S was to support low income customers and it was meant to do well for them from the very beginning.
Hardware is still a part of Xbox, it doesn't have to be the main focus of the brand for them to still care to move units. Its that they don't want to disclose sales figures for fanboys to compare when one company focuses heavily on hardware while the other doesn't.
And don't worry i am not taking these posts as jabs to Xbox, i am just justifying misinterpretations, which happens a lot on this site.
