| RolStoppable said: It was running the business at a loss that did the trick. Microsoft lost $4 billion on the Xbox over the course of four years. $4 billion is the equivalent of Nintendo hypothetically giving out 20 million $200 GC consoles for free. The original Xbox was a failure without question and also easily a bigger failure than the GC, so get off this train of rewritten history that pretends that Microsoft somehow did a better job than Nintendo during that generation. |
Microsoft sold more consoles and had more marketshare than Nintendo during the 6th gen.
Microsoft was trying to take marketshare and launch a new platform in a relatively mature market, so with that in mind... It was definitely a success.
In terms of financials, it was a massive failure, which is why they quickly scuttled the console and launched the Xbox 360 as nVidia didn't wish to renegotiate contracts.
The original Xbox paved the way for a lot of things, it established industry partnerships, technology, it established the Xbox as a brand.
In saying that... 22m consoles sold for the Gamecube verses 24m consoles for the Original Xbox is a pretty irrelevant difference in terms of units sold... The real winner of that generation was Sony by a country mile.
A platform can both be a success and a failure, we need to stop being so black and white with how we perceive things.
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