5 ms·
Xbox console sales continue to crater with 42% revenue drop
- lbhdc 2y agoWhy would someone want to buy the latest xbox? I own an xbox (previous generation), and pay for game pass. There hasn't been a game on game pass or that has come to the store (that I am interested in) that doesn't play on the previous generation. I _want_ a new one, but haven't bumped up against anything that I haven't been able to do with my older xbox, so I haven't had anything to look forward to or get access to with the new system. I also wonder how much their naming scheme hinders their sales. I find it so confusing, and the current and previous generations may as well have the same names as I can't disambiguate them.
- LazyMans 2y agoI also find it hard to understand the naming scheme. To anybody who follows closely, I'm sure it makes sense. For someone out of the loop. No clue.
- skywhopper 2y agoThere’s zero logic to the naming scheme, so the only way to know it is to memorize it. I’m not sure it ever “makes sense”.
- robotnikman 2y agoSame here. It's like how the Wii-U was confusing to many people, who assumed it was just an accessory for the wii
- aleph_minus_one 2y ago> It's like how the Wii-U was confusing to many people, who assumed it was just an accessory for the wii Fun fact: when it came out, I originally thought that with "Xbox One" they meant the original Xbox (the one before the Xbox 360).
- delecti 2y agoThe naming scheme is pretty simple, just bad. The new generation is "Series", with the X being more powerful than the S. So the Xbox Series X is the best model, and the Xbox Series S is the same generation, but less powerful. It's like if the PS4 and PS4 Pro came out at the same time.
- jerf 2y agoI mean, I still don't see why the XBox 360 isn't the most powerful of the series. I jest, but then, I also don't. The WiiU attracted a lot of justified derision on its naming scheme, but I wonder if it also got a lot because it was still legible enough to be seen by people as mistake. Speaking for myself, even as a bit of a gamer (not a major one, but I'm in touch with the scene in general), the XBox line is just a cognitive blur to me. I couldn't even name them correctly any more. If they come out with an XBox XS I would literally need to read an article pointing out that it's a new release. The line is so illegible as naming schemes I can't even make fun of them properly.
- basfo 2y agoAlso you have the Xbox one (original vcr model with kinect) Xbox one S, and Xbox One X. Then on the "Series" line you have Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X. So many people can think "X" or "S" as being a "Series", something of a kind, and confusing a "xbox one X" with a "xbox series X". - You have a series X? oh yeah, i have the xbox one X. Also the looks of the xbox one S and the xbox series S is quite similar... Not sure why didn't called xbox 2022 pro and slim or something. And it's a shame, i have an xbox series x and is actually a great product.
- jwells89 2y agoTo my knowledge, there's also very little that runs on Xbox that doesn't on Windows, and while earlier in its lifecycle it held an advantage in bang-for-buck, that's no longer nearly as true. At this point, for most people between the two it makes more sense to buy a PC, especially if factoring money saved on Steam sales and the like. For the remaining potential buyers who want a console for the "it just works" factor (which is still significant – point in case, look at how poorly Windows handles even first-party Microsoft-branded controllers in the absence of Steam, not to mention the GPU driver mess among other things), an Xbox holds little advantage over a PS5, and depending on the type of games you want to play, even over a Switch.
- kyriakos 2y agoIt's much cheaper to get an xbox over a gaming pc. I have a series x and several laptops at home used for work / school etc, none of them offer the performance I get from the xbox which is plugged in the TV in the living room.
- justinsaccount 2y agoSony naming: Playstation, PS 2, PS 3, PS 4, PS 4 Pro, PS 5 Microsoft naming: Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox One S, Xbox One X, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S It makes no sense. The second one was "360" and not the third one as you might expect, because the third one is "one".
- aleph_minus_one 2y ago> The second one was "360" and not the third one as you might expect This name actually somewhat (still) did make sense to me since the Xbox 360 was the competitor to the PS3. The naming did give a hint for that.
- Narishma 2y agoWhy not just call it Xbox 3 then.
- shrimp_emoji 2y agoBecause rationality is dead, and marketing was its murderer.
- aleph_minus_one 2y agoBecause there exists no Xbox 2, so marketing had to get more creative.
- Narishma 2y agoThat would hardly have been the first time they skipped numbers.
- aweiland 2y agoThey really haven't been able to recover from the Don Mattrick era.
- AzzyHN 2y agoEverybody who wanted an Xbox has purchased one. The only way they'd increase sales is to do some crazy promotions for Christmas, like an Xbox Series S for $200 or $250. Which they've done before with their previous "lower tier" consoles.
- ydnaclementine 2y agoXbox is weird. They offer a game pass to play (stream) xbox games onto non-xbox devices (tv, pc even I think). So if you really wanted to play xbox games, you don't necessarily need the xbox itself anymore. I wonder if this makes sense at scale? Sure the sales of the console itself are down, but are sales of games/passes up? Is selling a subscription to a choice of games more lucrative than selling a console one time, and selling a game one time?
- aweiland 2y agoGame pass games are downloaded, only a limited number of games (including those not on game pass) support the streaming you are referring to.
- ams92 2y agoHistorically, console makers have taken a loss on consoles they sell and they primarily make money on the games themselves. I wonder how much Microsoft actually cares about console sales.
- azemetre 2y agoWas this true historically? I thought Nintendo made a profit on every console sold they released, and out of the three they are the oldest.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- EcommerceFlow 2y agoSeems to be by design at this point. I don't even blame the higher ups at Microsoft for forcing Xbox to go console-less and 3rd party only. After 10+ years under Phil Spencers watch, almost every franchise Xbox was known for went to complete shit. Halo Infinite cost an estimated $500 million and might literally be the biggest entertainment flop in history.
- Klonoar 2y agoI find myself slightly annoyed that I always turn to my PS5 - as it has the better catalogue and people I want to play with on it - than my Xbox, since the Xbox controller is frankly nicer on my old ass hands.
- 015a 2y agoThe entire story of Xbox is: If Halo didn't exist, Xbox would have died years ago. Microsoft is fundamentally culturally incompatible with basically any product that isn't Enterprise B2B. The stories from e.g. Seamus Blackley out of early-day Xbox are harrowing; the division exists despite the rest of Microsoft, almost in flagrant opposition. They've invested hundreds of billions of dollars into game development over the past ten years, managing to produce literally zero new titles achieving even same-magnitude levels of cultural and market success as a typical Playstation triple-A. They've sustained themselves on ZIRP acquisitions of big games, and given enough time have managed only to run their acquisitions into the ground. Xbox made a call a few years ago that "more eyeballs on games is always better"; they reduced the prominence of the Xbox console, brought all their games to PC on day one, and even started selling them on Steam. That prioritization gave up all of their platform power; tithing 30% of every sale to Steam is a huge revenue leach, not to mention losing out on their own 30% on Xbox consoles. Spencer's argument has always been that Game Pass is the platform; but gamers aren't the kind of passive consumer of content that e.g. Netflix subscribers are. Gamers very regularly make value assessments like "yeah I want to try this new game, I'll pay the $10/mo for one month of Game Pass, cheaper than the $20 upfront", or "I'll be playing call of duty all year, cheaper to buy it upfront on Steam than pay for Game Pass". It was obvious to anyone that Game Pass's primary function was to save gamers money; no one sticks with the platform when it stops doing that. There is literally no company I would short harder than Xbox, if Xbox were shortable independent of Microsoft. The world would be better off if Spencer had never taken over for Mattrick; Mattrick is actually mind-numbingly, fool-in-the-public-square level incompetent, and if he had remained in charge we wouldn't even be having this conversation in 2024, ABK would still be independent, maybe even Halo would have been sold off to a better studio than 343i. Spencer has done better, but in his valiant attempts has taken a dozen classic gaming brands and franchises down with him.
- jwells89 2y agoThe original Xbox would almost certainly have not succeeded had it not been for Halo, but aside from the RROD debacle (which I think cost Microsoft a lot of momentum that generation, particularly in its latter half after the PS3 had been out for a while), the 360 was extremely solid and probably the Xbox at its finest. It had a wonderfully wide variety in game genres that Xboxes haven't enjoyed since and plenty of non-Halo big hits. It just might've done ok without Halo's help.
- basfo 2y agoI think the issue is that consoles are now just storefronts for a digital platform. Xbox lost the PS4 generation, where most people stopped buying physical games and started purchasing digital games. If you have your entire collection of games on PS4 (or Steam, or Xbox), moving to a different ecosystem is a pain. Even if the console itself is cheap and they give away games, once you have everything in one place, there is little incentive to move away from your console of choice on the next generation. You have to differentiate a lot of your competition, (as nintendo does) but an xbox is basically the same as a ps5, just with 20 or so different games (exclusives). That wasn't the case in the past. With physical games, I usually had more than one console, and depending on the price, performance, or other factors, I would choose one platform or another. That's why I think they want to push PC and even TV gaming. Getting people into their ecosystem is the tricky part. The console as hardware is actually great, probably better than the PS5, and really cheap for such a powerful computer.
- kyriakos 2y agoSomething that hasn't been brought up is how had Microsoft is at marketing xbox brand internationally. In Europe (maybe excluding UK) there is hardly any xbox presence. No adverts, no presence in stores. Gamepass is not officially available in many European countries. Gamepass streaming even less. At the same time I see Sony game ads everywhere and presence in physical stores. How is Microsoft expecting to sell hardware when it's not available officially?
- SJetKaran 2y agoXbox Series X and Gamepass comtinues to serve as an awesome introduction to console gaming for me. I really do hope physical XBox consoles continue to exist.