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Phil Spencer: Xbox Demand Still Strong While Supply Chain Increasing. We’re selling more consoles than we've ever sold at this point in a generation

You don’t think that people bought Xbox to play an epic AAA title with the budget and like of God of War but with a Microsoft franchise? Your out of your fucking mind. No matter how you spin this, its a disappointing year and certainly fall season for Xbox.
No I don't think people are buying Xbox for God of War type games. MS has never made games like that. Most of their games are multi-player online experiences.

Game Pass is Xbox’s killer app. That service has provided a multitude of games of all genres on the system. The success of Xbox this far has proven that while big titles are nice success can be had with a variety of different games across many genres.

2023 will have more bigger releases but there is plenty of new games to play right now. They just released another highly rated title today in fact. Xbox will be fine.
 
Pretty impressive to Xbox sell so well in a year where the competition launches Horizon Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7, The Last of Us Part 1 and God of War Ragnarok, alongside marketing rights and exclusive content for games like CoD, FIFA and GTA.

And against Nintendo firing on all cylinders as well as the pervasiveness of mobile gaming these days too.
 

MarkMe2525

Gold Member
Sales will care, owners of the system wanting more quality games that speak to them will care. The point in this thread are referring to a AAA game, not some artistic pet project that few will want to play.
No, the point of the thread is the comments from Phil Spencer and the sales rate of the Series Consoles. The "Xbox has no games" talk and rebuttals are just derailing the thread. This argument has been rehashed in almost every single Xbox centric thread on Gaf.

I personally don't understand the obsession with console sales numbers. There are so many more interesting topics to discuss.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
It’s clear you are missing my point. Which clearly was who gives a shit if it has a high score? Is that going to make the majority of people feel better about their fall release after looking at god of war? No, it won’t… but keep making it seem like most people will give a shit about that game and use it as a great example why they should own an Xbox (hint: they won’t).
I get what you are Saying, and completely agree that Microsoft have dropped the ball this year and do deserve all the negative press they get as its the only way they may get the message and start releasing some bangers.

I've acid multiple times that 2023 needs to be a banger of a year for them at least matching sonys 2022 or I will lose faith in them considerably.

They need forza motorsport, starfield and something else pretty big. I personally don't think it would be too hard for something to match and exceed the quality of Horizon forbidden west but that's more my personal taste. Hopefully vampire shoots game is that for me as I love co op games with my buds.
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
It would be great if they reported sales again. Is this quarter the best quarter ever or are their LTD of Series console is still besting all the other consoles launch aligned? It is reasonably to be the case, but why don’t they just state it? Why give this generic statements?
 

Helghan

Member
It would be great if they reported sales again. Is this quarter the best quarter ever or are their LTD of Series console is still besting all the other consoles launch aligned? It is reasonably to be the case, but why don’t they just state it? Why give this generic statements?
Because otherwise it can be spinned into a negative when compared with Playstation. While now it's only a positive, better than Xbox One/Xbox 360.
 
Then at least state it clearly that is overselling all other Xbox consoles launch aligned, why keep making these generic statements?

To be fair, I believe they have said this.

What they don't want is to have people look at these numbers and then have to explain the decrease in console sales next year.

Example: I tell you, I've sold 15 million units in 2 years. The fastest I've ever done it. But then in year 3 I tell you I sold 5 million units.

Now I regret telling you about the 15, because 20 million in 3 years is no longer on the trajectory that I hyped up.

Microsoft knows that 2023 is going to be a tough year for them. Like in sports, you win championships in the offseason, not during the season.

Microsoft and Sony are both selling everything that they can produce, but that will come to an end for many reasons. Supply increase and demand decreases. People are going to start tightening up their wallets next year and when they do, they'll look closer at discretionary spend. They'll look more closely at whether they can drop money on one console or another.

The problem for Microsoft is that the PlayStation is going to continue a high level of demand because of the games available. Namely, Spider-Man 2, which will be the highest-selling 1st party game of the year next year across PlayStation and Xbox. Sony promises to deliver Wolverine in 2024.
 

MOTM

Banned
You act like I give a shit what console is in the lead, I own all and play all of them. I care about games and I can be critical of any company that deserves it. Maybe your the one who needs to quit white knighting on Microsoft’s behalf if you can’t be at all critical of their shortcomings.
Ahh the "I’m neutral I just really want them to do better" card m. GTFOH!
 

Ronin_7

Banned
Series S over here widely available but Series X demand has been strong for sure, sells out quickly but I've seen 5/6s already here and there.

Great news overall.
 

Helghan

Member
Then at least state it clearly that is overselling all other Xbox consoles launch aligned, why keep making these generic statements?
What more do you want him to say? He said:
If we go back to the original Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, we’re selling more consoles than we have ever sold at this point in a generation.
The Xbox Series X|S is out for 2 years now. So they sold more Xbox Series consoles in those 2 years, than the original Xbox, the Xbox 360 or the Xbox One did in their first 2 years.
 
Because otherwise it can be spinned into a negative when compared with Playstation. While now it's only a positive, better than Xbox One/Xbox 360.
This is true and it also doesn't paint a complete picture of all of the other ways people interact with the Xbox ecosystem. The comparisons to previous Xbox consoles makes more sense than just talking about console sales in a vacuum. People have to accept that Xbox is doing things differently than both Nintendo and Sony.
 
So with this Xbox France was vindicated in the other thread, and apparently the casuals are so happy with Xbox, Microsoft won game publisher of the year. Phil is clearly not lying about the demand.

What more do you want him to say? He said:

The Xbox Series X|S is out for 2 years now. So they sold more Xbox Series consoles in those 2 years, than the original Xbox, the Xbox 360 or the Xbox One did in their first 2 years.

That means that Xbox Series is already around 20 million consoles sold if it hasn't already hit and passed that.
 

zedinen

Member
Series is tracking behind One in their main markets

Xbox One

US 8M (Sep 2015)
UK 2M (Nov 2015)


Market share is far more important than launch aligned sales

NPD wins

PS5 17
S/X 7

360 24
PS3 0


Launch aligned sales are incredible misleading in the early years

Wii 34.55M
PS4 29.3M
PS5 25.0M
PS2 24.99M
PS3 16.6M
360 13.4M
NGC 10.45M
PS1 10.0M
 

Helghan

Member
Series is tracking behind One in their main markets

Xbox One

US 8M (Sep 2015)
UK 2M (Nov 2015)


Market share is far more important than launch aligned sales

NPD wins

PS5 17
S/X 7

360 24
PS3 0
What does number of npd wins even mean? If you win 17 times by a small margin but your competitor 7 times with a huge margin, guess who sold the most consoles? Not to say that this is the case. Just that it’s a ridiculous metric.

I also don’t believe Series sells lesson US/UK than xbox one. Source?
 

Kagey K

Banned
Series is tracking behind One in their main markets

Xbox One

US 8M (Sep 2015)
UK 2M (Nov 2015)


Market share is far more important than launch aligned sales

NPD wins

PS5 17
S/X 7

360 24
PS3 0


Launch aligned sales are incredible misleading in the early years

Wii 34.55M
PS4 29.3M
PS5 25.0M
PS2 24.99M
PS3 16.6M
360 13.4M
NGC 10.45M
PS1 10.0M
If it's tracking above 360 it's tracking above PS3.

Launch aligned. Your numbers got skewed somewhere
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Market share is far more important than launch aligned sales

NPD wins

PS5 17
S/X 7

360 24
PS3 0


Using "NPD wins" as a metric for anything


Excuse Me Wow GIF by Mashable
 
Series is tracking behind One in their main markets

Xbox One

US 8M (Sep 2015)
UK 2M (Nov 2015)


Market share is far more important than launch aligned sales

NPD wins

PS5 17
S/X 7

360 24
PS3 0


Launch aligned sales are incredible misleading in the early years

Series is over 8M in the US, and will be shortly past the Xbox One in UK as XO was frontloaded and started slowing down. Internationally the Series is way ahead of it.

NPD doesn't really have any impact on Series outselling the 360 and One aligned.

You are right, Launched aligned sales are misleading in the early two years. So why are you acting like the Series is tracking behind the Xbox One? It fell of a cliff. Again, it's not "tracking" behind if it's selling faster and pretty sure Series is over 8M US and will be much further than Xbox One than it is now by Dec 31st.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Series is over 8M in the US, and will be shortly past the Xbox One in UK as XO was frontloaded and started slowing down. Internationally the Series is way ahead of it.

NPD doesn't really have any impact on Series outselling the 360 and One aligned.

You are right, Launched aligned sales are misleading in the early two years. So why are you acting like the Series is tracking behind the Xbox One? It fell of a cliff. Again, it's not "tracking" behind if it's selling faster and pretty sure Series is over 8M US and will be much further than Xbox One than it is now by Dec 31st.
The key metric in this math is number of NPD wins. That's really what you need to know.
 
I dont think I’ve ever heard another console manufacture say things like this outside of financial reports.

I’ve never heard jim ryan or doug bowser talk about the sales of consoles in interviews. I believe what someone else said, that they are using pr interviews to advertise the console for holidays. They are saying things to get headlines, because there isnt any big compelling software to move units this quarter.
 
I dont think I’ve ever heard another console manufacture say things like this outside of financial reports.

I’ve never heard jim ryan or doug bowser talk about the sales of consoles in interviews.

Then you must have missed when they did, because they did.

Bowser https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2...-helping-the-switch-surpass-103-million-sales

Jim Ryan https://wccftech.com/playstation-jim-ryans-100s-million-players-consoles-model-frustrating/


I believe what someone else said, that they are using pr interviews to advertise the console for holidays. They are saying things to get headlines,
I did, and yes I believe that. But not because of compelling hardware but to get people to pay attention to sales and keep hype going until their big games early next year.
 
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The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
It would be great if they reported sales again. Is this quarter the best quarter ever or are their LTD of Series console is still besting all the other consoles launch aligned? It is reasonably to be the case, but why don’t they just state it? Why give this generic statements?
While I agree, I can't see why it would matter outside of console warring.

No matter how great the numbers are, Microsoft will likely still be number three, so while it isolated could look good for the Xbox Series, it would always been used as a negativity, because we all know Microsoft will never be able to outsell PlayStation, so why even bother posting numbers tbh.
 

Moses85

Member
Xbox Series X consoles are called Brick Boxes here in germany because nobody is buying them. Same in France.. they are in stock everywhere.. but no PS5… sounds a little bit strange what Phillyboy is saying.

College Accuse GIF
 
While I agree, I can't see why it would matter outside of console warring.

Investment, support from devs, more money to expand and improve first party gaming services and other such things, knowing that studios are doing well which can not only help them grow but prevent layoffs, knowing that support in various areas will be consistent and that the hardware or services will continue. etc etc.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
Investment, support from devs, more money to expand and improve first party gaming services and other such things, knowing that studios are doing well which can not only help them grow but prevent layoffs, knowing that support in various areas will be consistent and that the hardware or services will continue. etc etc.
I don't see Microsoft having lack of support from third party devs at all.

Theres no indication that says "watch out buying an Xbox, they might not be here five years from now on.
 
I don't see Microsoft having lack of support from third party devs at all.

Theres no indication that says "watch out buying an Xbox, they might not be here five years from now on.

There was a large amount of third party devs that didn't touch the Xbox One last gen. For overall sales, and bad software sales were it didn't seem like they would make money.

Also the other reasons listed.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
There was a large amount of third party devs that didn't touch the Xbox One last gen. For overall sales, and bad software sales were it didn't seem like they would make money.

Also the other reasons listed.
Really? Which games?

And what was the official reason?
 
Really? Which games?

And what was the official reason?

Seriously? You've been here since 2017 and you weren't aware of all the "releasing only on PS4" discussions? Which were also happening on other forums and social media?

The reasons were a combination of install base (outside the stronger countries) and releases not selling enough on Xbox One. There are many TP games that are on PS4 but not on Xbox One. That's not even including Japanese devs which makes it even worse.

So if MS had launched Series X without last gens game pass and without the sales of the much cheaper S they would be finished this gen..

No, they would just be far behind. The X still be in demand and would still be selling out but there would be no buffer for the dry periods without the S.

If for example XS is 45 million and PS5 is 47 million in a hypothetical, removing the S drops that to 20 million or so Xbox series consoles.

Right now the Series X is recently improving production but still not where it needs to be to have production like PS5 (which sacrificed production of PS5D to do it and MS doesn't want to sacrifice either) so without S maybe they are 10-11 million max, 8 million the floor without the S. Which with over 20 million consoles sold is a pretty big deal.

I suspect that Microsoft saw last holiday and made as many X as they can, but tripled production of the S to fill the gaps and are doing as many promos with them as possible to get as many buyers outside of BF to Cyber monday which will be the period most of the X stock will sell. S will sell during those 4 days as well but there will be more stock of it outside of that for the month of November.

I assume they will use the same strategy for December, though not as heavy on the promos.

I expect possibly in NPD alone 3 million consoles sold or more, leading the way. Any PS5 or X shortage in November customers find will be faces with a Series S on promo.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
Seriously? You've been here since 2017 and you weren't aware of all the "releasing only on PS4" discussions? Which were also happening on other forums and social media?

The reasons were a combination of install base (outside the stronger countries) and releases not selling enough on Xbox One. There are many TP games that are on PS4 but not on Xbox One. That's not even including Japanese devs which makes it even worse.
Maybe I have seen them, but as they probably were games I found uninteresting I probably didn't care about which platform they were on.

But which big third party bangers didn't come to Xbox one?
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
It would be great if they reported sales again. Is this quarter the best quarter ever or are their LTD of Series console is still besting all the other consoles launch aligned? It is reasonably to be the case, but why don’t they just state it? Why give this generic statements?
Probably the same reason why Sony used to respond to NPD reports during PS3 era saying "the Sony family of products outsold Wii". Which was hilarious as they purposely excluded DS, while combining PS2, PS3 and PSP into one giant number. If someone wanted to see actual hardware sales, a gamer would have to read the NPD recap. But Sony would PR a combined total.
 
Probably the same reason why Sony used to respond to NPD reports during PS3 era saying "the Sony family of products outsold Wii". Which was hilarious as they purposely excluded DS, while combining PS2, PS3 and PSP into one giant number. If someone wanted to see actual hardware sales, a gamer would have to read the NPD recap. But Sony would PR a combined total.

We get sales for Black Friday every year (and sometimes Cyber Monday) and given BF is usually 95% of the time correct in how the month will end, we will get a hint from that.
 
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