https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/xbox/the-uk-and-other-regions-are-running-suspiciously-low-on-xbox-series-x-console

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https://www.resetera.com/threads/windowscentral-the-uk-and-other-regions-are-running-suspiciously-low-on-xbox-series-x-console-stocks.1082979/

"I was just saying this to someone. Took me a week to find one in stock."

"Makes me wonder (as the author mentioned) that maybe decreased sales in Europe are being caused, at least partially, by a lack of supply, rather than a lack of demand"

"Hint: it's both.  They don't bring supply because they have basically no demand for it."

"Or lack of supply is due to a lack of demand. Are people on forums and social media clamoring for the Series X but finding it unavailable?"

"En, we've had periods before where they were MIA for weeks."

"This isn't suspicious though right? We've been hearing about this happening for months."

"I struggle with the idea that they think anyone is going to invest in a new console if this is where we are at now."

"stock problem? serious? This is nothing more than a Demand problem, you will put what you are going to sell on the market and that is it."

"I will be honest, it feels like Xbox are scaling back massively. I have no idea why. I wonder if they a revision they haven't told us about yet."

"Someone should ask Phil why he's - or someone higher up at MS - is sabotaging Xbox hardware.  Between this and the baffling decision not to go with any hardware bundles over the holidays…"

"Next stage of winding down - not making anymore hardware."

"I wonder how that affects XB online in EU? At this rate the community for something like the upcoming MH won't exist?"

"Monster Hunter World on Xbox in Europe was awful."

"checked a big norwegian electronics retailer:

"No consoles availble in Poland either."

"I checked in France, it's available on Amazon and Fnac."

"WRT Ireland, I can't find any Xbox in stock across Smyths, Harvey Norman & Currys - not even a Series S."

"I can confirm. In Chile is out of stock on the majority retail stores and supermarkets.  This situation is since October 2024."

"My thinking is that production has dramatically decreased or near zero and they're simply shifting stock to regions where they actually sell."  -shinobi602

"Nothing in Ireland S or X. The Microsoft store has most of them available, just not the X with disc drive and 1tb."

"It's the same in Denmark, as I posted in the OT yesterday"

"I just checked the biggest three electronics retailers in Norway and none of them have the Series X in stock and it's even delisted from two of them. Surprised nobody noticed this sooner."

"Says everything lol." (nobody noticed sooner reply)

"Here in Brazil they are kinda disappearing too. You can still find them but they are double the price of a PS5. Even a the Series S is more expensive than a PS5. "

"In the nordics a giant retailer Elgiganten / Gigantti doesn't even sell Series X anymore.
The whole product is gone, can't backorder or anything."

"I noticed that in Greece too, during holidays the most known marketplace had only a few stores series x and the price had exploded to even 900+ €. Even now it's available for 687€, in just 3 sellers."

"I imagine at least some of this is due to the fact that retailers are just no longer interested in using the shelf space for them. Physical game sales for Xbox have got to be near zero due to game pass (I know I haven't bought a single physical Xbox game since signing up for GPU like 3 years ago), which means all the retailers get to do is stock bulky hardware they make minimal margin on and controllers. At some point it's just not worth the shelf or storage space when you can put PS5 or Switch stuff in the same place and sell it easily."

This is from a thread on Resetera, where in general they are the most positive about xbox of any forum around (I think).
The series X is just basically gone from most parts of europe or become really expensive (which leads to no one buying it).

How does xbox do better this gen? Start by having the console that competes against the performance of the PS5, available for purchase at same prices as PS5's, would be a good idea I think. The fact you have to almost go hunt for one, and get lucky to even see one your able to buy..... is not great for sales.

Hopefully 2025 gives it some use (games), otherwise I'd sell and recoup what I could.

Nothing went wrong with their strategy, they had no strategy to begin with.

It felt like they just released a console because they thought they had to do it to maintain a presence in the market. I think they see their future swinging back to being a software only company. Not sure I am happy about that either as most the acquisitions they made since the original xbox days has seen lackluster efforts to establish them franchise as mainstream and on going.

Reminds me of the Nokia days when Apple come in, they just kept doing their thing as they thought nothing would knock them out. If Nokia jumped on android as soon as that come out, they probably still be in the game as the leading phone maker.

I'm a bit older so take my statement for what its worth but:

Microsoft hasn't had a coherent, X-Box centric strategy since, basically, the Xbox 360. When they had the online-only debacle when the XBO was announced, that was, I think the key moment that resulted in continual decline because their strategy was value extraction, not console gaming.

Although being online is the core component of every system now, the real backbone are the games/exclusives that come out. In the Xbox 360 days, Microsoft made massive headway with that, partnering and purchasing many companies. Now? They did buy Bethsaida which is a huge get as of late, but other than that, the release schedule has been extremely anemic, and they aren't really a company known to develop the developers. Whereas Sony and Nintendo have had a much better track record on that for a very, very long time.

When Sony made its huge PS3 pricing blunder, Microsoft at that time took advantage. Since then, they really haven't been able to move the needle in basically a decade. Nintendo made huge strides by doing what it should to win: Making their console a handheld, which was always dominant against the long-forgotten Vita and other handhelds (and also a signal the mobile market was becoming a huge, emergent sector of gaming).

So now, Microsoft sits in a place that really doesn't give you much. Their online systems are great, which for some people is a very important thing. But when it just comes to game depth and volume, it really cannot comapre. And until Bethsaida can really churn out some huge, epic, console-defining games that could hold a candle to Sony, they're just going to keep languishing as the also-ran in the console wars. They're doing well from what I see on P&L statements so the sector makes sense for now, but its just something that is part of Microsoft, its not what Microsoft *is* and that's not really the case for Sony, and sure as heck isn't for Nintendo.

It really is as simple as worthwhile exclusives. They went over a decade scarcely having any truly great exclusives on their consoles. 2012-2023 was just abysmal for Xbox exclusives on the whole. That’s just insane to go that long dropping the ball there. Even timed-exclusives weren’t really any better. If they were just a gaming company like Sega or Nintendo, they would have never in a million years been able to stay in the console space this long with such little incentive to choose them over the competitor (Sony).

delete please

delete please

Wrong thread mate.

Or was it? Maybe getting Hungary to back down was part of Microsofts strategy.

True. Now it's only a matter of time till Xbox beats Playstation in Europe.