Zippy6 said:
I understand that you're not talking about sales here but Xbox has been hammered with bad news and while a lot of it is blown out of proportion and people come to ridiculous conclusions I don't think it can be understated how poor the start of this year has been for Xbox hardware sales.
The lack of growth (rather decline) for Xbox Series this past quarter is unprecedented. No console tracked by VGC had a worse YoY decline at the equivalent quarter. 3 Weeks into the next quarter and Xbox Series X is still out of stock on Amazon.com. They're barely selling any and still can't stock the thing. How hard are they even trying to fix this situation, and if they are giving it sufficient effort why on earth is it taking so long to rectify? With the problem lasting this long and no communication acknowledging the situation it just gives the impression that it's not a priority. It boggles the mind. It's no surprise that negativity is everywhere right now when every month articles come out about how much sales are dropping. The last AAA game they released was 15 months ago and Halo Infinite had it's own fair share of negativity surrounding it and now after a very long wait their next AAA game has negative buzz again. It's far too easy to hate on Xbox atm. If Starfield is as big as it should be then it will hopefully pull Xbox out of the rut it's in, but until Forza+Starfield come it's going to be a very rough year for Xbox. The Xbox Series is a far better console than the Xbox One ever was and that Microsoft have started this generation so poorly has in my opinion really hurt it's potential and is a real shame. In 2021 I could have seen it reaching 360 levels. |
Yeah, I know Console sales aren't too hot right but I guess what makes me chill about that is that I don't really care that much, haha. I never expected Xbox Series to reach 360 levels in terms of hardware sales, Xbox fucked up in quite possibly the worst generation they could, the network effect was at its peak, it's a lot harder to convince people to swap when all their friends are already locked into the PS ecosystem now.
In order for Xbox 360 to even reach 80m, it needed PS3 to shoot itself in the foot multiple times, a year head start, and a Kinect fad boost as well.
The fact that we can claim to know the issue as a "lack of stock" also makes me less worried, if the issue is stock then the issue will be fixed eventually, and a console can still comeback with a strong stream of exclusives. However if Microsoft isn't worried then I'm not really worried, it ain't my business. Microsoft has made clear that Consoles aren't a priority anymore, now that is not to say that Consoles aren't important but it means the business has expanded more broadly to which Console sales aren't the only measure of success anymore.
As long as the business is still profitable, I anticipate Consoles will continue to exist, for starters, a large reason why the business is profitable is Xbox Live and the 30% transaction cut taken on every single digital purchase, without Xbox hardware they have no way to take money off 3rd party publishers, there is a reason why Fortnite/GTA, etc, are mentioned in almost every fiscal report, they are large drivers of revenue. Now with CoD they'll get 100% of that revenue from Xbox consoles at least, Lol.
Another reason why they won't go is that they are inherently linked to xCloud, the xCloud machines are Xbox hardware and that makes it easier for a developer to put something onto xCloud if it already exists on Xbox, it sets itself apart from other Cloud services, it has issues in that it takes stock away from consumers but it has benefits in that it's a lot easier to upgrade, it's a lot easier for developers, rather than Stadia which is custom hardware which required specific working to get a game working on it.
So all that being said: I never expected Xbox to come close to PlayStation to begin with, a business can still be beaten easily and still be profitable, I think even a 50m-60m can even be profitable, the stock issue will be temporary, I don't expect Xbox to leave the hardware market, so my only concern would be if stuff skips Xbox but (sorry to Japanese fans) that tends to be IPs that I don't give a damn about and even a 50m+ install base will be hard to ignore for most major developers.
If it makes it easier for Sony to moneyhat then fair does, Xbox just got Activision-Blizzard, Lol. I'm content with Xbox's future line-up and their current stable of studios for the most part now and anticipate myself having a very happy generation. I expect this gen to reach 360 levels in terms of exclusivity content, at minimum it should destroy Xbox One and if that happens I don't really care how much Xbox hardware sells as long as the business is profitable.
