Has the Xbox Series Already had Their Peak Year?

[Shadow1980]

Norion said:

SKMBlake said:

I prepared a full long answer, but then decided to remove it, cause I know it won't change anything. I mean, MS explaining there were less demand for Q4, NPD and GameIndustry explaing there were less demand in January, with everybody agreeing on the fact that a lackluster year with no exclusives inevitably lead to sales going down, and Shadow being Shadow, saying "no that's definitly stock issue", I mean what do you want to answer to that. 

It's not an either or thing. The lack of first party output last year will have decreased demand but stock could also have played a part at the holiday season. He mentioned that the PS5 still fell short of the PS4's 2015 holiday season despite doing far better than 2021 so the stock issue while mostly resolved by then still impacted things for that. It's not wild to say it also impacted the Xbox Series to at least some degree. 

Speaking of things that don't have to be either-or, it could be both a supply and demand thing, i.e., not enough demand for the Series S even though it's cheaper and more readily available, but stronger demand for the Series X but not enough supply to meet that demand. There is a significant disparity between the two models. It's definitely a case of getting what you pay for. I know that nearly every store in my area has adequate supply of PS5s, and the Series S seems readily available as well, but the Series X is nowhere to be found and hasn't been available for quite some time. Kind of hard to sell a product if there's no supply for it. At the end of the day, something is causing the Xbox Series to have relatively lackluster holidays after doing well on average during the non-holiday months, and for that phenomenon to repeat itself two years in a row.

I'm looking further into it and asking around, but from what I've seen it's not as clear-cut as Blake says. I have found several articles talking about lack of Series X supply (EDIT: See below), but I can't seem to find the sources he's referring to. If and when they turn up and I'm 100% in the wrong, I'll accept that, but I do find it odd when I directly cited my sources 2+ years ago I was still being dismissed out of hand and flat-out insulted, which led to my invocation of site rules to be left alone regarding the subject at hand (which is still in effect, people; just because I reference it or because it's been 2 years doesn't mean you get to circumvent the rules). I got kind of sick of showing my work and my sources for months only to be treated like I was the dumbest person on the forum.

https://www.svg.com/1112958/xbox-fans-may-have-a-hard-time-getting-a-series-x-this-holiday-season/

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/xbox-boss-expects-console-demand-to-outstrip-supply-this-holiday/

https://www.theverge.com/23459189/phil-spencer-microsoft-activision-call-of-duty-xbox-playstation-candy-crush-apple-fortnite-vr (Phil Spencer interview where he addresses both supply and demand)

https://gettotext.com/the-xbox-series-x-will-still-be-in-short-supply-for-christmas-admits-microsoft-france/ (this one regards France, but still shows supply issues are a thing, and not likely to be limited to just that country)

Last edited by Shadow1980 - on 17 February 2023