By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Hardstuck-Platinum on 19 July 2025
Edit Thread
Kyuu said:
Hardstuck-Platinum said:

Well, of course it's better to have console success and 30% taxable revenue streams on your platform. The thing is, to attempt that business model means your competing against Sony and Nintendo and Phil Spencer has said exactly these words. 

"we are not trying to out-console Sony or Nintendo"

"We are no longer trying to bring over players from other platforms to Xbox" 

The sales are getting worse and worse for Xbox and whilst they still have some third party revenue, with the sales they have that revenue is very quickly going to stop because the XBSS/X are now selling much worse than Xbone did in it's final year before it was discontinued. There is no way that developers are going to keep supporting a platform that is selling like XBSS/X is and MS know that. The only thing they can do is to make it work for them in a way where they are not dependant on hardware selling for Xbox App/Gamepass to be successful and that's what they're doing. Phil spencer has said himself they are finished with the standard console business models so why should we ignore him?

Phil and co's decisions are what kept damaging the Xbox brand. But the platform still does generate a respectable amount of money. As long as porting is easy, there would be no reason for most developers to stop supporting Xbox even if future hardware sells less than 20 million. Software revenue being under a third of what Playstation generates is not small money! Even 10% of that wouldn't be small enough to most 3rd party publishers who wish to maximize their software sales. Xbox's 3rd party support is arguably better than ever (ignoring the lack of exclusives, which is an industry wide thing).

Having "traditional" Xbox around also means that Xbox Game Studios will save 30% for every copy sold on Xbox, which is not insignificant. I just don't think traditional Xbox is weak enough to justify killing. Perhaps they were losing more money on hardware than I thought.

Look at how low MS had to drop the price just to get the 32 million it currently has. Holiday season 2023 the XBSS was reduced to 150$ and the XSSX reduced to 350$. Lets assume the XBSS/X sell 38 million lifetime, it means they only achieved 38 million with a console that was at one point only costing 150$. If 150$ won't get people to buy your console in the quantities you need then what's going to happen when your next one costs 600/700/ dollars.? 

Bold - They were losing a ton of money on the hardware. The 2TB XBSX is 730$ right now and I don't believe that's because of greed and price gauging. I believe the specs and sophisticated design of that box make it expensive to produce and 700$ is just close to what it costs to make. Also, manufacturing is a numbers game in the sense that, the more you manufacture the cheaper it is and the less you manufacture the more expensive it is.