Was this gen unwinnable for Xbox?

[curl-6]

Pemalite said:

curl-6 said:

Gonna disagree there, a platform is a success or not in and of itself, a game from it being remade like 20 years later isn't part of that console. 

Gamecube was outsold 8:1 by its chief competitor, saw Nintendo's marketshare at its lowest point up to that date, and I haven't seen any data to indicate it was profitable.

We're kinda going way off topic here though, as this is a thread about Xbox.

Correct. We haven't seen data that determined if the Gamecube was profitable or not. That wasn't my argument.

My argument (And this applies to ALL platforms) and why the OG Xbox is regarded as a failure is due to profitability.

If a company doesn't make money from a product, then the product is a failure, doesn't matter if it sells 1 million units or 100 million units.

Now we can quantify "success or failure" in other aspects, like the Original Xbox was a success in enabling Microsoft to enter the console market, but it was still a  failure, they lost billions... And companies ultimately exist to make money.

Xbox I would say is arguable as while it did lose money, as you say it did also manage to open up a new market to MS. At the same time though, it did get crushed by the elephant in the room.

On the flipside, even if Xbox Series turns a profit, it could be argued as having failed as it has effectively killed Xbox's console business.