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Xbox Series X and S Sales Have Collapsed in Europe

people waited most of 3 years & got... starfield...

i've enjoyed having my series s, & catching up on oldies on game pass, but, 3 years later? it just sits there...
 
Maybe Phil should have spent all his effort, money and time getting all the Xbox studios to make great games. Should of been his number one focus. It's clear he doesn't give a shit about quality games, he just wants to trick you into giving money.

He became head of Xbox in 2014.

Games can take 6+ years to develop. Efforts to drastically improve a studio can take 5-10 years...

The console cycle isn't his friend.
 

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
They just have to keep trucking along. PS5 clearly has the mind share and market dominance. At this point, for this generation, MS will have to settle for being a secondary option in a lot of households. At this point they have not released enough software outside of Halo, Gears, and Forza to stick that just yet. Starfield alone might not be enough to get a PS5 owner to pickup a Xbox, but as they start to add to that and all the other studios start to release more console exclusive software it will be Starfield, Plus Indiana Jones, plus all the other games coming etc. things will look better. Maybe those Sony users start to realize the value proposition offered by Xbox/GP and make a different choice next time around.
Game Pass was created during the XBO, PS4 generation.

I'm pretty sure current Sony users know what Xbox, Game Pass offers by now.

The only thing MS can hope for is like you said at the beginning, to be a secondary option.

The real test is can they get new users. I have family members 8, 9 y.o. already entrenched in PlayStation. They barely played Roblox on my Xbox consoles...but now play it heavily on my PS5.

It is what it is at this point.
 

DaGwaphics

Member
Machinegames are gonna have to strike it out of the park for this game to become a pull factor, the IP seems pretty dead in the public conciousness going by the latest film. Not impossible, but they can't rely on the IP itself to bring players in.

Sure, but that's what I was getting at. Maybe MS doesn't have those instant 25m sellers that Sony spurts out, but a steady stream of content as a whole creates a need for the hardware among console players. The need will never be quite as strong on the MS side, because if you have a good gaming PC or don't mind streaming, you don't need one. But, there is those certain players that prefer the console experience or that have other options but want the console experience on the big screen, etc.

@OverHeat, LOL you don't bring in more money in the gaming business as a third-party than you do as a platform holder, EVER (unless you aren't solvent, like Sega). MS's platform is bigger than all third-party publishers for a reason.
 
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He became head of Xbox in 2014.

Games can take 6+ years to develop. Efforts to drastically improve a studio can take 5-10 years...

The console cycle isn't his friend.
Wrong way to look at this. Prior to becoming the head of Xbox, he was head of Xbox studios since 2010. Ie tasked with managing all Xbox game’s studios and their output. For the last 13+ years, he’s had a direct say in managing those studios and their output. In the las 13 years, the quality, quantity, and creativity of Xbox games has declined drastically. It’s not so much a correlation but a causation.

Imagine being this bad at your job for 13 years and getting rewarded with promotion after promotion. That should tell you all you need to know about Microsoft as an organization.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
When Microsoft falters and leave the console industry


mark-henry-no-mark-henry.gif
 

Daneel Elijah

Gold Member
This is specifically why MS has made a lot of moves that they've made already, IMO. That's why I got a laugh out of Sony accusing MS of wanting to turn Sony's game business into Nintendo's. I think the reverse is true in a lot of ways, MS wants to turn their own gaming business into Nintendo's (just a little more open with PC and cloud moving some of the emphasis off the hardware). Owning the major pieces of software and services that provide value to the platform while at the same time being a lot less reliant on the third-party offerings that aren't unique.

Also, while many on here can short change the cost of gaming as a hobby, when you look at the real math going on for the bottom 50% of the economy in both the US and most developed nations, I think there is always room for a good value play.
Of course the cost of gaming is a big factor and a good value is important. But we know that a good brand can get away with a lot if their product is considered superior to the competition. If Xbox can give me games like TLOU, I will play them. In the meantime I will continue to prefer Playstation. A game of the generation and a small game will often cost the same at launch. That is why for gaming I consider that quality is more important than quantity. But this is another discussion.
Microsoft becoming like Nintendo? When they buy Bethesda and ABK and seems to only want to use them against Sony? I can see what you are trying to say, but Nintendo got to their present success with hard work. Buying IPs to have the same is not IMO the way to do it. Nintendo don't sell consoles for profit because they want money, or not only that. They do so because they learned with the Gamecube that it is a pointless endeavor to loose money on hardware if you can just justify your price with others means, like the Wii and the Switch did. Nintendo is happy with the money they are making, but this is peanuts for Microsoft. I can't see them being happy with just being like Tencent. They want it all, and we have seen with the Xbox One launch what they will do when they feel that they have control of the market. I would love for your idea to be true: if they go third party and make great games, I will love to play them!
 

Pelta88

Member
I dunno, gotta feeling Xbox is gonna creep up next year. Not in terms of hardware, no shot. But the ABK deal...it's likely to write a different story next year around this time.

A new metric other than engagement? Perhaps. Other than that, nothing else will change in their favour. -55% is end of cycle numbers once new hardware is on the horizon. But they’ve reached that threshold 3 years into a new gen. There is a reason these results are defined as a collapse.
 
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NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
It's almost as though exclusive content is a big part of the console business model. Since gamers can play multiplats on more than one console (or PC), ignoring the release of a robust set of exclusive titles is profoundly dumb.
It’s almost as Xbox had a brief window of opportunity when PS3 wasn’t available and then cost a kidney when it launched, full-on arrogant Sony severely overestimating the money the average European would be willing to spend for video games at the time. When the price of the PS3 got toned down the clock stroke twelve for Microsoft’s Cinderella. X1 never stood a chance on the continent, on what
premise would Series build a seriously competitive market for itself? Nowadays very few people in Europe would buy two similar consoles going for €500+ each, and when all your friends are on PlayStation the choice is dead easy. The biggest retailers barely ever bothered to make shelf space for Xbox games when COVID restrictions lifted and people could go and see games in physical stores - all the more ironic when an actual PS5 was a sight rarer than a phoenix.

People should stop reading this data as the downfall of Xbox in Europe. Xbox has barely been a thing in Europe for the last decade; PS5 is now readily available everywhere; people now have more money to spend (or the will to spend it on non-essential things) after adjusting to post-COVID inflation. It is, quite simply, the status quo of the video game market in Europe. There’s nothing deeper than that.
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
A new metric other than engagement? Perhaps. Other than that, nothing else will change in their favour. -55% is end of cycle numbers once new hardware is on the horizon. But they’ve reached that threshold 3 years into a new gen. Their is a reason these results are defined as a collapse.
Hardware has not been their focus for some time. They've said it themselves. I don't know how they are crunching these numbers, but they somehow feel there are better statistics to focus on. I guess what it all really comes down to is dollars and cents. If revenue and profits grow, then who gives a shit how they get there honestly. Certainly the investors don't care. Only people who do are people who want to continue to drag them in a hardware sales comparison with Sony or Nintendo. I say let em do their thing. Not saying its the right or the wrong way, just simply respect their position.

Nobody batted an eye when Nintendo bowed out of the console war narrative. It made sense at the time, for the most part, Nintendo is it's own thing and has always been either the main console or an auxiliary choice for most gamers, myself included. The problem with Xbox is that they also bowed out, but continue to disrupt the industry by consolidation, basically flanking the competition. From a business sense it could be said that this is the smartest move they could make. Play to their strengths, which is basically cash on hand. However, it's important to consider that all these studios now...are Xbox. The period in which games were mid-development at the time of acquisition has passed. The next volley of games are all fully Xbox's responsibility. I will save judgement for when these come out.
 

SHA

Member
Western RPGs and pc games on Xbox don't interest them generally speaking, I don't believe it's performing poorly or at the the same pattern around the world as it's in Europe either.
 
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Banjo64

cumsessed
I dunno, gotta feeling Xbox is gonna creep up next year. Not in terms of hardware, no shot. But the ABK deal...it's likely to write a different story next year around this time.

I just hope they actually focus on games now, not acquisitions. I'm looking forward to Hellblade 2...and that's pretty much it.

Now that I think about it...what is slated for next year with the big 3? I barely know of anything. Anybody got a list?
Hey did you know you can get CoD for free if you buy a £250-£470 console and then pay the low sum of £155.88 a year?

Said no one ever.

It’ll make a splash alright, like a turd hitting the bowl.
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
Hey did you know you can get CoD for free if you buy a £250-£470 console and then pay the low sum of £155.88 a year?

Said no one ever.

It’ll make a splash alright, like a turd hitting the bowl.
Well, COD will still sell well. On Xbox, and Playstation, and PC, and apparently Switch (we'll see about Switch). Gamepass will have COD, but nobody says they gotta get it on Gamepass...it doesn't matter to them. Also you fail to mention King and Candy Crush...also Wow apparently is making a comeback in a big way. All I'm saying is that this deal....it's gonna make money....easy.
 
Friends Lol GIF by Max



to selling series consoles with windows. Let us install steam on these consoles who supposedly eats monsters for breakfast. A 12 tf steam machine gets a lot of interest especially at that price point.
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
@OverHeat, LOL you don't bring in more money in the gaming business as a third-party than you do as a platform holder, EVER (unless you aren't solvent, like Sega). MS's platform is bigger than all third-party publishers for a reason.

Install base is what matters, no it’s revenue, no it’s profit, no it’s mau, no it’s install base, no it’s revenue, no it’s profit, no it’s mau RINSE AND REPEAT
 

Kamina

Golden Boy
I haven’t touched mine since finishing Starfield many weeks ago.
There are just too few exciting exclusives for me. ☹️
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Because the difference is Sony is leveraging the popularity of the PS5 to do this whereas MS is damaging the xbox to do this.

Sony isn't doing day 1 FP games on PC or their subscription service. The PS5 remains the premium way to play games when they first come out.

Even if portal gets streaming access, you still won't be able to play ps5 games without buying them if you want to play them day 1.

Even if they expand ps+ steaming access to PC, this will still be the case.
Damaging the Xbox console. The Xbox/MS brand has never been stronger in the PC space especially considering how they cratered their image in the GFWL shitshow era. The real question is how long the classic console model will survive, mobile will eat into it more as time goes on, and the march to all digital will continue. Sony is in strong position and so can afford to move slowly while MS have been forced by their weak console brand to just pull the band-aid off.
 

cireza

Member
Xbox is going to do the most Xbox thing possible and try to jump start next gen consoles 2+ years ahead of Sony and think they have done something special even if it doesn't have the 11 out of 10 type of games.
This can work if :
- you build future proof enough hardware that somehow will compete (or give the illusion) despite being released one or two years earlier
- you have excellent first party games available at launch

We have seen instances of this happening in the past and consoles getting a lot of market share in the process (MegaDrive, 360). Honestly, it would shake things up a bit. This gen has been so boring... There's no passion. These consoles are ugly boxes with little to no identity.

This sounds too traditional anyway. Things are going to evolve to something else, with cloud, digital games, services, subscriptions getting the focus etc...
 
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Damaging the Xbox console. The Xbox/MS brand has never been stronger in the PC space especially considering how they cratered their image in the GFWL shitshow era. The real question is how long the classic console model will survive, mobile will eat into it more as time goes on, and the march to all digital will continue. Sony is in strong position and so can afford to move slowly while MS have been forced by their weak console brand to just pull the band-aid off.

That has come at the cost of the console sales, which is the strongest pillar they have. Everything collapses without it.

People keep dreaming of a future where GamePass exists just on other platforms, but it won't.

The classic console model probably has at least another 2 cycles in it. Mobile hasn't at all eroded console sales. And physical or digital has no impact on console either.

Pulling off the bandaid too early can be a mistake and that's what we've seen.

They won't be the first company to be ahead of the industry but too early for consumers. PS3 and Vita were both way ahead of the industry. So was the EyeToy.

MoviePass was ahead of its time but failed, but look at AMC A-List. Sometimes it takes a stronger position in an industry to make a model work.

MoviePass was trying to leverage a weak position into a stronger one, which is why it failed. It had to be aggressive in order to do so, which is also why it failed so fast. Microsoft has money, but that's about it.
 

cireza

Member
If by your own admission this gen has been boring for you (it's not been for me, especially not with the games I've played this year), then how does more hardware solve this for you?
Well as I stated, having hardware not being exactly the same would help getting more interesting "fights" in the game space.
Having more first party games would help building better identity for the consoles.
Everything has become streamlined to a point it has become nearly impossible to spot differences in games between platforms. Doesn't mean the games are bad. But the overall context is not very exciting.

What feels certain to me is that Xbox will not get a "win" against Sony by releasing exactly the same hardware and the exact same date. If it is still possible today to do some variation on it, and take some risks, then maybe it is the time to do it. Otherwise they will continue being entirely in the shadow of a competitor doing the exact same thing, but with better deals and communication.

Happy for you that you are enjoying this gen though.
 
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Weird way to show you're not "all in".

msft-activision-deal-size.png

Buying ABK didn't put them all in on consoles. Neither did buying Zenimax.

The overall price of the acquisition doesn't mean anything either. They bought Skype in 2012, where are things with Skype now? It was probably a large purchase for them relative to their overall market cap.
 

VitoNotVito

Member
We see articles for every territory that reports numbers. That tends to be Japan, Europe, and US.
Everybody's always talking about Japan while China is where the real money and potential are. China is already twice the revenue of Japan with a massive upside due to a much larger player base. It's also the market where consoles practically don't exist and PC/mobile has something like 99.9%. At the same time, Xbox sees PC and Mobile as their main platforms for growth...

M7slkJl.jpg
 

PaNaMa

Banned
Price still matters to people. If your console can't be as ugly as PS5, make it a bit cheaper. Entice people that way. Just as powerful, not quite as ugly, but also less costly! Obviously MS is gonna get that money back when the user subs to game pass anyways, so why not just drop the hardware hardware price on both consoles, get them in people's houses... then just slowly reel in that cash with those monthly sub fees.
 
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