Xbox Console Sales Are Tanking

No wonder Microsoft is exploring bringing its games to PlayStation 5

[Lightning77]

Play Xbox games here play them there. It's what they've been conditioning ppl for years now.

There own fault but I doubt they really care at this point.

[Cacabunga]

I will never support the idea of not owning my own games.. NEVER

Couldn’t be happier that HW sales are bombing..

[Reaper22_]

Dude, just because you buy a game doesn't mean you own it. That's not how software works.

[JackBNimble]

I don't think xbox problems have anything to do with subscription services anymore and everything to do with putting their exclusives on the other console.
At one time I was considering buying an xbox as my second console, but after learning their exclusives are slowly going to ps5 why would I ever pay MS for their console?

[darthv72]

@Jack... you can still get one for all the games that aren't coming to other consoles. And you don't have to pay MS... just get one 2nd hand. Nothing wrong with that.

[blacktiger]

wrong, owning physical means you own the game and console. If the Internet shutdown you still get to play, anyway you like. So yes It's yours. Online multiplayer that requires Playstation does n ot include physical or digital copy.

[shinoff2183]

What's HW?

Reaper22 that's exactly what it means. Atleast physically. Doesitplay.org

Nifty little site that kinda just gives you a heads up if such and such game is worth buying because it's all on disc. Despite the rumors. Most are.

[JackBNimble]

Black tiger
You can play any digital game offline just like physical as long as there isn't an online requirement...
So you're feeding a bunch of bs .
And if you paid for the license, then you can download that game as often as you need even after games have been delisted.

The only advantage physical has is the opportunity for reselling your games, or physical license which it actually is.

[crazyCoconuts]

I'm sure they care but unless they're willing to take increasingly large losses, they're out of options.

[GamerRN]

I'm hoping the next Gen Xbox is a PC hybrid that is significantly more powerful that PS5 Pro, otherwise, it's game over for Xbox.

[crazyCoconuts]

I think it's likely going to be an Xbox branded PC, but if you think about it, that essentially means game over for Xbox as well

[Rhythmattic]

MS changed the narrative by being slapped with PS sales..
XBOX , is no longer a "Console".... Only the "Xbox Console"
A Gateway that need not a Xbox "Console" ..
Yes , PS Games are becoming available to Win users after a timed release....... But they never changed the definition of what a Playstation is.

[Zeref]

Let's see what happens when the new CoD goes into gamepass. And all the old ones.

[crazyCoconuts]

Gamepass is the other shoe that has yet to drop.
Do you think they'll put the upcoming COD on GamePass without raising prices by at least $4/month?
Old ones sure, but old ones get given away on PS+ and such all the time already - that's not where the $ is at.

[CrashMania]

Even on xbox consoles CoD still sells millions, it gets players regardless, so I'm not so sure about any big impact it'd have by being on gamepass. Unless it drives subs numbers up in the millions, that's a lot of revenue lost from the amount of people who'd just play the new CoD on gamepass instead as opposed to the millions that'd buy it anyway, you might say it'd get more players and spend more on MTs to make up for it, but players who want to play CoD would get it regardless of paying full price or grabbing it from gamepass.

I'd be shocked if there weren't at least a bit of movement numbers wise, but a lot of people thought the same about the hugely hyped Starfield.

[Aloymetal]

Ah...Yes....Gamepass, the EIGHT yr old service also known as ''the best deal in gaming''
that hasn't done s*** for the green brand in all these years....Ok;)

[romulus23]

Not much as it relates to console sales. Those people who are waiting for this most likely already own an xbox.

[shinoff2183]

Idk I've seen alot alot of people drop cod lately. Sure the sales are high but I doubt it's enough to pull xbox back up.

[TheTony316]

Most likely nothing.

[Zeref]

Let's see what happens when they announce the new CoD goes into gamepass. And all the old ones.

[shinoff2183]

Did you just post it again. We got your point. Even though not a good one. We seen. You even got some replies.

[ChasterMies]

“It's what they've been conditioning ppl for years now.”

They really haven’t. Almost a year ago, Phil brought up the specter of going third party in an interview with the Kinds Funny podcast. Definitely not heard and people are definitely not conditioned to see the Xbox logo on a PlayStation game.

[Lightning77]

"Almost a year ago, Phil brought up the specter of going third party in an interview with the Kinds Funny podcast."

Lmao no he didn't. He mentioned third party this year and bringing those games over to PS a few months ago. First time he's ever talked about PS.

Tablets, phones, TV, handhelds, that's what ppl are talking about when conditioning Xbox as platform for years. Starting in 2016 Quantum Break so that was 8 years of conditioning it's customers to play on every other device. How you manage to confuse yourself is beyond me, that or your trying to change history. It's ok that's what I'm here for.

[WelkinCole]

Oh they do care. Why they still support the xbox

[DarXyde]

Microsoft has always been notoriously bad at selling their consoles. The OG Xbox was too damn big and not enough exclusives, the Xbox 360 had exclusives but the hardware was likely to fail (especially in the early days—they of course properly addressed it with a redesign, but then the games stopped coming), the Xbox One took a step back with exclusives and was marketed as an all-in-one entertainment box, and the Series consoles are kind of a headache for developers so some games come late (or not at all) and you're going to be able to get those games elsewhere.

But this is Microsoft. Software is their bread and butter and to that, fair enough.

But they don't seem to understand how to move hardware at all. At this point, the best selling point would be telling people that all of their games are on other platforms, but you can only get the game pass experience on PC and Xbox.

In which case, that benefits Windows but not Xbox hardware.

They'll make a lot more money though and that's always been the big thing for them, so I guess it works out of they don't have to keep making hardware...?

[banger88]

Turns out when you put ALL of your exclusives on another platform (PC), people don't have a reason to buy your f***ing console. MS should just go 3rd party.

[SpacedDuck]

PC that even on a 7 year old PC runs games better than PS5 or Series X.

The 30 fps machines.

[notachance]

yeah 7-year old PC which costed $2000 at the time it was bought..

[Deeeeznuuuts]

I'm yet to play a Playstation 5 native game in 30fps 😂

I know they exist but yet to play one, waiting for Dragons dogma to go down on price and hopefully a 60fps mode

[KyRo]

What Devs are able to achieve with a set spec sheet is way more impressive than a £3000 computer using brute force to run a game at high frames and are only getting them super high frames thanks to frame generation because it's easier than optimising and still there's PC ports which are inferior to the co sole counterpart.... Elitist PC snobbery never fails to make anyone not look like a tw*t. Do better.

[Crows90]

@nitachance

Up until very recently a GTX 970 was able to play games at mid to low setting at 30fps or higher.

That machine cost me less than 1k to build. Held its own for 2+ generations I think.

That thing released in 2014 or so. Considering so many gamers bought vanilla ps4 and ps4 pro...that's a wash for that generation.

And if you take into account that many gamers continue to just play older titles cuz most new ones are crap...that old machine continues to be able to play many new titles and all the old ones...indies are where it's at...thankfully you don't need a powerhouse for most of those.

[andy85]

30 fps machines? I've played a grand total of 1 game at 30 fps on my PS5 out of about 100. Also I'd be interested to know the PC that beats it in 2017 considering the 20 series wasn't even out then. I've recently bought a laptop that vastly outperforms my PS5 and I'm disheartened by it. Side by side on ultra with the same game running the differences are minimal. And I've already had issues and had to do a full reformat as there was something wrong with my graphics. It looked that low poly i thought i was on a PS3. Ain't all it's cracked up to be.

[shinoff2183]

Spaced duck. Not everyone wants to go through the hassle of dealing with pcs. They can be a fking headache

[Mr Logic]

Lol. Top of the line 7 years ago is 8700k and 1080ti. Sub 60fps on GOW, Dead Space Remake, Forza Horizon 5, Fortnite, Remnant II, and I'm sure many more.

[DustMan]

You can't mention superior pc performance on 7 year old hardware here. Apparently its unfathomable to believe that my i7-8700, 32gb ram, with a 3080 can run anything at high/ultra settings. I upgraded from a 1080ti which played most things just fine at plus 60fps. The card came to me in a part swap, it wasn't really a necessity, but why not upgrade if it's relatively free.

Seems like most people don't realize is that with consoles everything is produced to be as cheap as possible.

Yes the pc I built 7 or 8 years ago, and was relatively expensive, but do you honestly look back 7 or 8 years and go..."man, I can't believe I spent money on something I love."

[Number1TailzFan]

Not many people have decent computers though, look at Steam charts, many own junk (by today's mid-high end standard) GPUs and probably CPUs too, so depending on the game many of them aren't going to run too good.

[CantThinkOfAUsername]

The ones with low end hardware don't buy or play the latest AAA games. Don't let Steam Hardware Survey (which isn't verifiable data to begin with) convince you otherwise. It'd be relevant if Steam associated which hardware is playing which games or even genres.

[blackblades]

There fanboy brains are tanking as well same for media well there brains been gone

[GamingSinceForever]

Their

[JackBNimble]

Whose fanboy brains are you even talking about? There are loyal fanboys everywhere with their hardware brand stuck in their shorts.

[Lightning77]

Saw a video of MS financial break down on YT. Basically MS has growth in services and usage is up while consoles are way down. The thing is, if it wasn't for ABK they would be flat, meaning no growth. Revenue was up 62%, good right? Yes again that 62% growth was bought by ABK. They bought that growth. As I said earlier with ABK they would have no growth just flat. Once again it's the acquisitions that's keeping MS a float this whole time. With out that, yeah they would be in trouble, which is just sad.

With loads of game announcements backed up going back as July 2020. Will their growth ever be from those many studios and games? I feel like MS is just getting lucky at this point. No big releases since October yet still seemingly doing well or staying more or less the same really, minus console sales falling. They buy their growth but I suppose that's the point of acquiring studios.

[anast]

It's not luck. They purposely became a service provider.

[purple101]

Worse than that, they were forced into it, if people were buying their box full price and full priced games by the million, they would love to sell you them

But they don’t

So a series s and game pass is what we have, bottom of the barrel gaming

[Jingsing]

The basically bought software growth so it would look good on their end of year paperwork for investors.. sad.

[crazyCoconuts]

Cash rich companies have to do something with their cash, so acquisitions make sense.
Problem is MS tends to run them into the ground because they suck at managing companies.

[PhillyDonJawn]

No such thing as keep getting lucky. Clearly they know what they're doing and it's working as planned

[fr0sty]

With "as planned" being getting out of consoles and becoming a third party software and services provider.

[shinoff2183]

It is not planned for people to stop buying games. Trust me

[Tedakin]

Everyone company buys stuff to increase revenue. Sony bought Insomniac, Bungie and Naughty Dog. Imagine Sony without those Spider-Man games provided by Marvel and Insomniac.

[shinoff2183]

They'd be alright. I'm not really even into them personally. Sony would've managed.

[Ps5conehead]

I don’t own stock in ms I could care less about there sales. What happened to talking about games

[NotoriousWhiz]

I have stock in MS but not because of Xbox.

[shinoff2183]

I swore I seen a thing that with Activision ms was actually negative. Not even.

[Vits]

Sort of inevitable, they are becoming a service provider first and foremost. So the reasons to get their hardware are becoming less and less.

[Sonic1881]

I totally agree with you

[purple101]

I feel bad for people who brought a series s, still playing like it’s 2016 with 720p on a lot of games

Ok so I should really stop dishing-the-dirt on Xbox but they just make it too easy!

Now, we hear the inevitable, fans have woken up and stopped buying, took a while but better late than never

[ChasterMies]

“I feel bad for people who brought a series s”

Me too, which is why I constantly tell people not to buy it.

[LoveSpuds]

Well I bought a Series X over 2 years ago, it came with 2 years of GP included.

I ended up playing mostly old XBox games like Gears, Halo, Fable rather than new games because, despite all the hype, I quickly found there was actually not much in the way of killer games on the service. The kind of games I really wanted to play generally never came on the service so I was left to play the occasional Indie title.

My GP expired 6 months ago and I'll never renew it, in fact I am looking to sell my Series X. My GP ran out before Starfield released and I was mighty tempted to renew for that, but I just feel burned. I don't want to cough up all that cash for the occasional AAA exclusive title that the push out.

[cthulhucultist]

well duh.

Insert surprised pikachu meme here

[MetroidFREAK21]

I really only use my Series S as a backwards compatible machine at this point. I bought Starfield, but played maybe like 30 minutes of it and haven't touched it since

[Bathyj]

Tanked*
Tanking is present tense.

[Abear21]

Will they hold strong and release huge games exclusive on Xbox? That would drive sales. They are probably too money hungry to ignore potential profits on other consoles and if so that will prove that they really don’t care about the health of the industry or competition that pushes the industry forward—they just want that dough.

[TwoPicklesGood]

MS is actually doing pretty well regardless of console sales and that obviously is bugging people for some reason.

[fr0sty]

Microsoft is doing fine. XBOX is not... At all... And their shareholders are aware of this and have already started forcing changes to address it.

[shinoff2183]

Yea mainly the stockholders and investors.

[neomahi]

If consoles sales have been consistent, then perhaps, but I haven't heard anything otherwise. We also know that Xbox (Microsoft) haven't been reporting numbers as they so proudly did, when they were "winning" against the PS3, during that era so, we assume PlayStation are doing very well or perhaps destroying Xbox sales, but we don't really know as Xbox are trying to preserve their image and not seem, perhaps, too weak.

My point is, without knowing any specifics from Microsoft because of this, this is a pretty big assumption as Microsoft seem to be saying they're profitable, but like every other business this generation, they all seem to be in agreement that gaming is on the decline, maybe we could see another console crash because Microsoft, as all others, except maybe Sony and Nintendo doesn't really say anything, is that expectations (likely very lofty for all of them) aren't what they thought, or maybe are unreasonable, given a increasingly worse economy. But, Microsoft has stated Xbox hasn't been performing to their expectations, probably not wise. They've stated they believe they can no longer compete with Sony and that Sony have won the Console Wars. MAYBE, PlayStation needs to acknowledge that win and move on. Otherwise, perhaps it's best for Xbox to acknowledge that hardware-wise, is not their strength and they should leave that to those who are better and developing, building, and managing those and just work on software. I think they'll experience MUCH less stress that will allow them to accel at focusing on their software and as Nintendo does, focus on the fun and let go of some of the business. I think it's in their best interest to take the SEGA route and I think Phil Spencer will feel better about his contributions to the business, see more success, and leave his current position feeling more gratified

[gold_drake]

remember, they did tell us " you dont have to buy an xbox"

[fr0sty]

And it appears as if everyone was like "OK!".

[Charlieboy333]

They also told us it's not worth it for them to make great games

[S2Killinit]

Not a good outlook for their next console

[fr0sty]

Whether there is another one I feel is still being hotly debated inside of Microsoft. Xbox is planning one, but I don't get the feeling it has been 100% greenlit by Nadella and their investors just yet.

[StoneTitan]

There wont be a next xbox

[S2Killinit]

They already announced something if im not mistaken.

[StoneTitan]

I dont think it will be an xbox though. They said they are working on next gen hardware but never said its gonna be an xbox. Probably just a pc typ thing

[Agent75]

Buy an Xbox, but Microsoft didn't tell us all that there's not going to be many games out. Back when it was PS4 and Xbox One, I thought we didn't need new consoles. This gen has been a waste of hard earned cash. But I'll never buy another Xbox. Only rated the Xbox 360. I'm sick of all these consoles. But a single format will never happen. Next gen not far off, this gen has flown by. The cost of VR, it's just not for the masses.

[purple101]

I rated halo back in the day, loved it even

But I can’t excuse Xbox 360: scratched cds
Red ring of death, corrupted save data on the hard drive = too many problems.

[kaos89]

Not having must have xbox games since the 360 era did the xbox hardware in. It has taken 10 years of buying other game IPs to actually have a game library and now they dont have enough xbox consoles to sell games on so now they have to go multiplatform.They are following in Sega's footsteps.

[DustMan]

All the PC haters here are funny. Upset that a system we built, or bought 7 or 8 years ago can play playstation 5 games with better performance than something they bought four years ago if you jumped in at launch. Sure it was more of an investment, but I'm an avid gamer. It's my Hobby. I'll gladly drop good money on a new pc over a console because it will outperform whatever the next gen console follows. You get what you pay for. Consoles will always be underpowered to keep cost down, and to make sure that you upgrade to whatever system is produced next.

[shinoff2183]

Congrats dustpan. You get absolutely nothing from it. No award, no cookie, nothing.

[StoneTitan]

Its our hobby. We will gladly drop good money on a new hardware for the next generation. Consoles will always be a great investment. They just work.
I probably have a more powerful pc than you and I still decide everyday to play on console instead :)

[ocelot07]

I'm a PC gamer and the first part of your comment is absolute BS it's embarrassing no wonder pc players get a bad name it's people like your self with delusional comments.

Your pc you built 8-9 years ago out performs a ps5 right? Let's see what type of CPU and gpu was released 8-9 years ago. GPU wise it would be a gtx 900 series best being gtx 980 ti.

Intel 6th gen or AMD FX CPU (lol). The only CPU in that lineup that is remotely capable is a 6700k a £45 CPU lol. I just sold a system with a first gen Ryzen 1600 and 980 ti. System could just about play cod warzone at 65-70 FPS at 1080p low.

[DustMan]

i7-8700, 1080ti, and 32gb or ram, nvme 1tb storage. I said 7 to 8 years ago when the components became available. Don't exaggerate. 9 years ago, I agree. I'd be full of s**t .

All of these parts came out in 2017/2018. Six or 7 years ago. I recently updated the video card to a 3080 because I basically got one for nothing on a parts swap. But it was more of a "why not" decision than a "man i really need to upgrade this busted ass card." 1080ti is still a solid card for sub 4k.

So I'll admit my Card is only 4 years old currently, but the 7 year old processor bottlenecks the hell out of the card. However at 1440p I still get rock solid frame rates that have only dipped below 60 fps on games like Alan Wake 2, So I just bump the game down to medium settings, and guess what steady 60fps with low raytracing. The ps5 came out in 2020. Thats 4.5 years ago and can hardly do 60fps on anything remotely demanding. Since building my box I've spent about as much as a 2 Playstation plus subscriptions since 2017/18. So there ya go. No treats needed. Just going to enjoy playing games that actually run as advertised (granted maybe a month or two after release if it needs pc optimization)

I do admit that that in a year or two I'll need to upgrade to a new box, and like I said. Gaming is my hobby, and I'll happily shell out cash to have superior performance across the board that lasts longer than 1 console generation.

[S2Killinit]

MS will still tell us their next console is the greatest console ever built.

[jwillj2k4]

And it very well maybe, but we can’t play hardware specs now can we?

[WelkinCole]

This was always going to happen. I think this surpises no one at all.

Let this be a warning to Sony as well with the playstation. If they care about their Playstation they should stop immidately trying to follow MS with thier stupid multiplat and GaaS plans. Know your fucking supporters.

We want more AAA exclusives story dirven games like it was in the PS2,PS3 and to some degree PS4 gen. Its why they were dominate in all these past gens.

It will only be a matter of time before PS fans start abandoning the PS if Sony does not make corrections

PS5 has been the worst PS gen for me. I hardly have any notable PS exclsuve in my collection. Just Spider man and GOW. Both not new IP's

[phoenixwing]

I've already partially ditched ps due to games arriving on pc. Not planning on buying the ps6.

[seanpitt23]

Microsoft really doesn't help themselves..
In business you need a reason for the public to buy your product.. they don't have a reason everyone of their games comes out on PC that can have a better experience.. they only way xbox would succeed is having must play games solely for Xbox and nothing else..

[derek]

"Poor some liquor out for our dead homie Xbox".

[Hofstaderman]

Not worth the good stuff mind you.

[Kakashi Hatake]

The way this generation is going, I expect the next Xbox to be the next Dreamcast (I loved the Dreamcast and still play Powerstone 2 with my friends today). There's so many parallels to Sega after their successful Genesis days and Xbox now. Xbox is in the same state as Sega was when they had the Saturn on the market.

[Futureshark]

I'm was sure there'd be some sort of obscure observation about this...
But I guess they've now killed themselves as finally the disillusionment has hit.

[Hofstaderman]

There is some obscure observation of the comments just no replies to the obscure observation of said comments.

[Miacosa]

Xbox future is to publish everywhere. Microsoft will follow their mobile and office software playbook to be successful.

[DivineHand125]

I keep saying it and will continue to say it. Redfall was the straw that broke the camel's back. The failure of that game caused many to lose confidence in the Xbox platform.

Also the fact that Starfield was underwhelming didn't help either.

[northpaws]

As much as I don't like the ideas of GamePass, the problems were not the GamePass itself... but how they keep failing to deliver amazing games all these years... I got 3 years of GamePass Ultimate, only played Psychonauts 2 and Hi-Fi Rush...

[zero_jp]

A lot of it is MS is not Apple. MS is looked at outside of software a terrible hardware manufacturer.

People aren’t fans of MS and Xbox the way they are Sony and PlayStation.

Furthermore people associate Japan and the Japanese with quality. They associate America with anything but.

The rub is Apple. If Apple made Apple Game Stations they’d make PlayStation look like Xbox. Because people are emotionally attached to Apple in a way that they’d sell their own kid to buy something they make.

I think Xbox as a brand has accrued too much damage to ever be successful outside of services and GamePass at this point. To me it needs a new name, a new vision, and a new path forward.

I don’t see how they can continue as is otherwise. The Xbox name is a joke in most circles. It’s just a shame that it’s come to this with all of their resources and the answers to the test given to them time and time again by PlayStation and Nintendo.

[Hofstaderman]

And who didn't see this coming since 2021 with this generation?

[Father__Merrin]

Xbox is slowly going it's a shame but blame lies on Spencer and the n4g faithful who spouted gamepass as second coming

[RhinoGamer88]

Think about Phil and his Executive team of sycophants. Six years of poor performance and they still have their jobs, bonuses, and stock options. They are millionaires. If we performed this poorly, we would have be fired four years ago.

Shame Satya!

[SonOfOsiris]

LOL I wonder why

[EazyC]

Like the rest of Microsoft's ecosystems it's now a "service" rather than a "product".

That's the reality of it, I could not comment of the financial viability of this but I will say it massively dilutes the brand from a sheer power perspective. Xbox will become this nebulous concept rather than a "thing"

[purple101]

Oh man for me it was a small while ago they started doing press conferences with “worrrrrld excluuuusivvve” “Xbox platform excluusive”. In deep film commercial voice over.

I knew right then if they didn’t deliver on all that, they’re finished

Wel it was worse than I expected not only did they not deliver great games, they delivered halo infinite half finished, and couple other duds, I think at this point, they’re just working it out how to try and leave gracefully,

[EazyC]

That's a good point -- if they are bowing out of the hardware market then their games ought to be class-leading and they're not even close.

I don't like the Gamepass concept, the model is based around endless consumption rather than enjoyment/art. It's a bit like streaming services where it's quantity over quality.