'Tipster' Suggests Xbox Will Stop Marketing Consoles In Certain Markets

Surely not? Unless Microsoft is planning to get out of console manufacturing completely before the next generation kicks off (which would fly in the face of previous comments made about their next-gen hardware), I don't see the business sense in not marketing the console itself. If the plan isn't to cease hardware manufacturing, then they're literally handing market share to Sony on a silver platter.

Why stop at certain markets? Give up on Xbox altogether as Microsoft seems literally in a hurry to get rid of it.

I won’t sell my console right away as I’ve invested quite heavily on my digital library, but sure as hell I’m not investing one more cent on the platform.

I live in the Netherlands and when I visit gameshops like Gamemania there is only a minimum amount of space for Xbox. Intertoys has 2 racks of ps5, a big one for Nintendo and None for XBox. Been like this for two years already. Even at Mediamarkt Xbox is maybe 1/10 while N, PC and PS have the other 9/10

@somnambulance yeah, they're lagging behind, but I don't see the point in continuing with hardware at all if they're not even going to try and get people to buy it. If Game Pass, Cloud and supporting Nintendo and PlayStation are that big a pillar of their strategy, fine, but s**t or get off the pot; either manufacture your own hardware and put the marketing oomph behind it, or don't bother spending the billions on R&D, testing, manufacturing, etc. I'm glad I no longer have a horse in the console race anymore; if I were invested in Sony or Microsoft right now, I'd really be wondering what the hell was going on.

Did they ever start promoting the xbox in Europe? I’ve never seen a tv-add, billboard or any of the sort over here.

If true, it would really be in Microsoft's best interest to transition toward a "gamer's variant" of Windows to compete with SteamOS, making Xbox "consoles" a baseline standard for developers to aim for.

It’s an extremely sad time for me been with Xbox consoles since day one.
But I think it is definitely Microsoft’s strategy and does not surprise me in the least IF THIS TURNS OUT TO BE TRUE.
Two weeks I switched my major console platform with third party games and eco system to my PS5, I think it’s the right decision, even if I don’t like Xbox leaving the hardware market.

Let’s hope they make some fantastic big AAA games as a developer and publisher for Sony and Nintendo and PC.

@IOI
I stopped any future investment in my series x 2 weeks ago. Will let my stacked GPU run out and that is it.
My eco system and third party games are now with my PS5 in the future and that is it really.

And Switch is Switch of course.

@Markatron84 The comments still fit if future Xbox hardware is just a line of PCs.

@Grumblevolcano true.

However, I would assume they'd still be Xbox branded? And they'd market them?

Based on their behavior and marketing the past few years i believe this 100 percent. Pack it up boys, it was a good run.

No surprise. As I've been saying, much to many wanting to argue against, Xbox has one more console generation in it tops. Then it will be 100% publishing and cloud.

Even the UK Xbox strongest European market it really struggles.
I mean the PS5 outsold both series consoles and the Switch added together for the month of June 2024.

But then again what did Microsoft expect with zero advertising no clever big stunts that Sony do and no TV advertising like Nintendo do.
Unfortunately the Xbox brand has been a shrinking violet for many years in the UK.

The rest of Europe it might as well totally give up now.

they been telling us(without telling us) they are dumping the xbox console. if pc gaming wasn't connected to ms i would go there but i have major hate for ms now days. bunch of greedy ******** with no bounds. monthly windows fee incoming.

@Markatron84 They wouldn't be consoles though.

The cycle of Microsoft

Rumour comes out. Fans say nothing is confirmed, wait for the press release. Microsoft deny with rumour with peak PR lingo. The rumour turns out to be true and fans defend it using a loophole.

I just hope they don't start messing about with WoW since they now control that also.

It’s already started.

Read many of purexbox recent headlines. If the game is available on gamepass.

It doesn’t say ‘something something XBOX game’

They are all titled ‘something something gamepass game’

Are they doing marketing?

How can you stop what you never started?

A "tipster" and people instantly react as though it must be true 😂.

@Sifi oh come on.

You may be the biggest apologist and cheerleader for MS, but even you can’t be that ignorant to see there is barely any Xbox marketing in the UK. And that’s it’s strongest market in Europe.

The main blame for these rumors lies with Microsoft and its terrible communication policy.

But the media and the need to spread ***** for clicks are also responsible.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner
I even mentioned the UK Xbox market early.
Even me an Xbox day one every console can see no sense in Xbox now and started to move on with my third party games and eco system going to Sony with PS5.
They just can’t be trusted and I’m not investing anymore money in Xbox, they could drop the hardware market tomorrow if they wish and also not release a next generation home console hardware as we know it today.

I actually trust the devil himself more than Microsoft with Xbox right now.

@Pabpictu
Their terrible communication policy is part of their plan just like zero console advertising in Europe and the UK, they don’t give a dam about consoles and you and I.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner Even here on Mexico, which is one of the very few markets where Xbox has the lead (and quite substantially above both Sony and Nintendo), I haven’t seen ONE single piece of marketing in any type of media, seriously, not even a single poster, billboard, advertisement, nada.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner I’m not an apologist either, but these rumors have been flying around since the OG Xbox. I mean, aren’t we all tired of speculating that MS is out of the console race, only to get new hardware and more investment into Xbox?

Idk man, the rumor mill never has anything new or nice to say about Xbox, but if you enjoy what the brand has to offer, that should be enough

Microsoft could leave the console business today and it would not matter to me one bit since I can access Xbox content via my PC, tablet, and now Fire Stick in the app. I've been saying the console has been passe for years and those holding onto a box need to realize that the landscape is changing.

I do, however, have a few game purchases on the Xbox ecosystem that I'd love to stream or download on my PC. EA Fight Night, NHL 2022, MW2 '09, and Diablo III come to mind.

Fake news. They never marketed the console in ANY region, so how could they stop, let alone only in certain areas? The only way they could market less is to market for PlayStation and Nintendo, which they in fact already do....

So many of you don't get it. Consoles aren't the focus. MS doesn't make money on consoles. They make money on games and GP. It makes total sense if you're not stuck thinking this is a battle for console sales. MS has completely surpassed the newer to focus on consoles.

It is unlikely they will ditch consoles completely because they need a baseline spec for devs. They could base off PC specs, but I doubt it. However, it would be awesome to see them pivot to a fully portable console and continue to expand availability of their full game library, not just GP. I've always wanted to be able to play my Xbox games like I can with the Switch. Steam comes close but still requires a work around and only supports GP. A fully portable Xbox and availability on other platforms would be phenomenal!

You can already connect your GP library to GForce (provided the game is supported on GF). Now imagine being able to take a controller or a portable anywhere and connect to a TV and play your library/GP. (Good internet obviously plays into that) I'm gladly sticking with MS to see it play out.

Weird. As I thought mostly the US or others were more digital. Sure Limited Run and others are a thing and the retro gaming market but for how vocal it can be I don't hear or see enough of it in other regions to know what's what anymore compared to physical copies of older generations and some being for JP/EU and going oh EU/PAL releases came out for a while longer or particular games. No idea how true that can be for physical games anymore nowadays.

They can analyse but I don't know what to think really at this point.

I see the odd ads but still Gamepass related (and that was like last year or months ago I don't remember as I barely see them) not console related or game related (unless trailers or articles in places a hardcore would look of course not pushed to me). Other than the Fire Stick ad I haven't bothered or really seen much. I don't see posters really, I don't see much pushes for games in an EB/Gamestop just PS/Nintendo games. The Xbox section is ok there I guess, new or budget ones.

Sure EU/PAL I assume may have pulled back from physical to more digital but there is a reason why many still got physical in EU/PAL regions is because of how wide of a range of countries to sell to and besides the localisation costs physical I assumed was big enough there. So are they cutting back now? Due to more digital?

But Africa/Middle East too huh, no idea the situation there but how low are sales there though I wonder let alone any other countries rural or cities. Whelp if they find it to be the case 'if really'.

I don't see many Xbox physical other than EB/Gamestop, JB Hifi stopped doing them, besides seeing Suicide Squad Xbox physical and that was it. It was barren and only PS5/Switch/PC peripherals. Not even the Xbox consoles I think anymore either if I remember while ago I checked the Switch section they were positioned in.

I mean I know Xbox/Microsoft are a software company but even still. Why offer hard drive upgraded consoles then. That's what keeps throwing me off. Why offer them if they can just go well we want full digital to ramp up and keep enough units of the others?

I get offering Fire Stick support, not other TV support yet just Samsung and any other solutions for non-console users as us dedicated will get the consoles of course and Microsoft is fine with that, whatever news of consoles and whatever hardcore to still be happy buying them if not a PC or not sales off games ported to PS5 or whatever. They clearly understand their console userbase is still there.

But at the same time why more consoles? I'm not complaining I'm fine with more consoles even if revisions but it's just a lot doesn't add up when they could have used that money for anything else.

Especially as if the price is too high or they don't want people to buy external hard drives and just get these Xboxes instead then is there much point?

When a cheaper console between Series S/X but of Series X power, so a smaller hard drive (not ideal but I mean 4GB 360 existed for a reason and not all games had to be installed to the hard drive then like they are now and with how big games are I do wonder, or just a non-quick resume configured hard drive Xbox) maybe, as engineering in-between hardware this late wouldn't be a great idea of course for developers of course I know that.

@Moby You hit the nail in the head. Essentially, the console isn't going away, it's just becoming another option to access Xbox. No more important than PC, phone, tablet, Fire Stick, cloud, whatever. Microsoft knows where the money is being made and they're going to go make it. Period.

There's a ton of third party games I want to buy but I can't see Xbox lasting much longer so am waiting for ps5 pro to come out.

I'll probably still keep my Xbox but certainly don't trust the format enough to build up a digital library.

This is likely one of those cases where they jumped to their own conclusion based on one piece of information. Similar to the sea of thieves on ps5 means all xbox games will go to ps5 which means xbox won't make consoles anymore.

Even if they do cut drastically back on marketing in any region right now it doesn't mean it's permanent or that they are abandoning anything. They could just be looking at ways to cut expenses as this gen winds down for them over the next 2 years.

They might limit the market's available but I doubt they wouldn't focus on the Europe since it's a huge market. But this would also suggest that MS is focusing the Xbox in North and South America along with Asia, which are also big markets.

I suspect that it might be getting easier to sell folks in those regions on the immediate access of cloud gaming, and then upsell them on the console rather than vice versa, so it's potentially more of a cart/horse dichotomy than a retreat.

When did they start marketing it? It's barely been marketed in most countries anyway last time I recall seeing an Xbox add was when Starfield launched last year. Unless their marketing is mainly on gaming specific platforms that gamers are already watching anyway then that is probably why the vast majority of the public doesn't notice it. As far as I can tell they have only been promoting their products to the people that more than likely already are interested in it rather than to a wider audience.

Here in Dubai our major games shop (Geekay) removed all Xbox heading and displays from their stores and now only have Sony and Nintendo displays.

When I went in there the other day for a controller they had to go out back to the stockroom to get the colour options they had in stock as they had none on display.

I was quite concerned at that point.

@Friendly so it seems they promote this generation in Europe, as well, as they do in the US. 😂

I don't see any adverts for Xbox in any market really. They don't even really advertise for their subsidized gamepass service. They seem to operate on the within the know mindset. Which is odd considering Microsoft is a corporation and wants as many customers as possible.

@rustyduck I'm just waiting for that tier to come. Then they will include subsidized gamepass within that monthly fee. Then brag about the GP numbers like the did once Xbox Live went away. Then they will bury owning windows outright like they do for getting Microsoft word and PowerPoint.

It’s only a cut & paste rumour. It’s constant rumours though and changes in focus and prices. Depressing if you’ve stuck with the brand. Console wise anyway, it’s sinking it seems.

@OldGamer999 Their terrible presence in the UK is made worse by the push to digital also. MS are not advertising the console and then when you go in stores they don't bother stocking many games as MS is training people to buy digitally. Even in second hand stores like CEX their presence is utterly diminished. Which matters because even in the world of internet shopping, retail shelf space is stil powerful advertising.

Its all well and good people claiming that MS know where the money is and are chasing GP. But this week they have admitted that GP is not doing as well as they want and the best way to grow GP would be to grow the console install base, which won't happen when your average non gamer is losing awareness of the brand.

@Ilyn
Yep totally spot on, I mentioned a while ago that over 50% of GP subs are on Xbox consoles, that is a big uptake. With the remaining percentage on all other billions of devices, that’s a low uptake.
Sell a console you stand a good chance of selling a GP.

Being honest outside of the USA it’s gone to far and they have absolutely no chance of any recovery really.
As for cloud gaming they keep pushing down our throats I don’t think gamers and definitely the general public really want it. They want hardware under there tv or hybrid like the Switch.
The amount of times I go to restaurants and see a young child with a Switch in hand is many.

Microsoft want us to change but we don’t want to and the poor console sales with no advertising and poor GP sales especially outside of the USA show us this.

For the current time and near future Microsoft are flogging a dead no starter horse.

All the negativity and I'm done with Xbox coents over an Xbox rumour yet again 🤣 the amount you see you'd think there was No1 left 🤣🤣

You highlight one of those that railed against me when I said Xbox Game Pass would have tiers and a price increase, with BO6 being on the highest tier, @PsBoxSwitchOwner. The other is a musical instrument who was particuarly vociferous in his shots at me and his defence of Microsoft, but who has been mysteriously absent since news of the Game Pass changes.

Some people will go to great lengths to deny persistent rumours, even when those spouting the rumours have proven track records...

The thing is, @Moby, you are correct that it seems that for Microsoft the console is no longer the focus, and that focus is now pretty much entirely on Game Pass. However, having a console and Game Pass go pretty much hand in hand. Microsoft have said as much this week with their Game Pass changes.

So, if people stop buying this generation, and do not buy a console next generation, then it absolutely follows that Game Pass subscriber numbers will fall. Let's face it, if you decide next generation to buy a PS6 instead of a neXt generation Xbox, you are highly unlikely to continue with Game Pass too. The two are intrinsically linked; Game Pass needs strong console numbers for it to continue to be successful. If that falters, Game Pass has three options; drop the quality of content, increase the price, or cease to exist entirely. It would be easy to argue that the first two of those options has already happened, so I'm not so sure that Game Pass is in a great place either...

@Fiendish-Beaver Some people will go to great lengths to deny persistent rumours, even when those spouting the rumours have proven track records...

You are forgetting that magical qualifier of them only having a good track record when the rumour is good news. When its bad news they apparently know nothing 🤣

Absolutely true, @Ilyn. It really is a case of; if you don't like the rumour, it isn't true...😂

This was exactly what I was asking about recently @fraserg
Hopefully it’s not true although to be fair, Xbox marketing in the UK is already dead - I can’t recall the last advert I saw on TV in the last few years that was specifically Xbox related.

It’s really sad to see and looks like the beginning of the end of Xbox in Europe regarding consoles. It’s clearly going all cloud based.

The purchase of Activison is starting to look like a millstone round the neck, rather than a good move right now.

I wonder if this could all potentially mean that the next Xbox hardware won’t even be available to buy unless it’s via import.

Time will tell but this does feel like more sad news for UK Xbox gamers.

Some have said they're focusing on what makes money and cutting what doesn't, but, are they?

They just told us this week that Game Pass does not make enough money. They've been telling investors that GP does not meet growth expectations they outline. We know consoles haven't sold well outside NA and certain areas. If this rumor is true, it means they won't bother spending to promote the console on 2 continents that make up a large chunk of gaming. We know half the GP sales are on consoles, and the consoles aren't selling in most regions. Some have said it's about cloud, while cloud expansion has stalled, and during the ABK trials they admitted cloud is very unused and in the case of the UK has very little capacity at all. It's unlikely to be much different elsewhere. They abandoned their own cloud device. Meanwhile they're selling GP on Amazon's streaming device now, while running pretty light on capacity in general. That should be an indication of how popular they expect it to be.

So how exactly does a company that has cited massive growth as their objective focus on "where the money is" by raising prices on their under-performing sub simultaneously with releasing it to a new market (Amazon), cutting marketing of the console, that accounts for 50% of subs, in major markets, and focusing on "cloud" products that by their own admission they have low supply of and little demand for?

Cutting marketing costs (do they have any???) in non-existent markets isn't a bad idea. If it goes along with a strategy to increase market penetration for the product elsewhere. A console can't exist in America alone. But even if we were to consider that they were getting rid of console hardware, and focusing on where they succeed, it would still make no sense, as that would result in a drop of half their subscriptions, while adjusting prices to slow adoption from elsewhere.

One could say they want to just be a PC publisher, but, then, the Windows Store for games is mostly empty and misses most of the biggest titles and they seem to have no intention of fixing that.

I don't think they have a strategy to grow the console. And I also don't think they have a strategy to exit console and promote other services instead. I think they really just don't have a strategy. They got mobile which is all they really cared about as it's worth 1000% more than the rest. And they'll just keep bumbling through console and PC half-hearted as an also-ran. Then they'll complain they missed more targets to investors.

It's, again, not even that they lost to Sony. Sony's doing worse now than they were last gen, too. XB's customers aren't just leaving for competitors, they're just leaving the market. The market depended on mass casuals, but the casuals went to mobile. Sony's strategy is just soak the enthusiasts that remain dry. MS's strategy was find the casuals again. Neither seems to be a great strategy. And the top selling games are all from 10 years ago. In a lot of ways I think we're living the damage of last gen. Sony running away in wrong directions with the whole market while MS and Nintendo were out of the game licking their wounds broke the market in irreparable ways that only show up years later.

@NEStalgia is Xbox finished for console users especially in the UK?

@x3King84 I don't think they're "exiting" hardware, even in the UK, or even in Japan for that matter. Just as they don't have a strategy to succeed in console, I also don't think they have a strategy (yet anyway) to exit either. I think for now they'll keep kind of bumbling around always seeming directionless but present waiting to find the next big thing. The handheld is pretty certain to happen. And I'm sure there's at least one more generational console run (now if the sales collapse further on that next console, then it may really be the end.)

It just doesn't make for a pleasant user experience, and they definitely had so much more potential to make it great a few years back.

@rustyduck windows isn't a requirement for PC. But most games on PC are windows only. But I think other OS are getting more attention.

@Fiendish-Beaver MS is fast freeing GP from console. You can already connect your GP library on GForce. The Xbox app is moving to Amazon fire sticks as well as expanding on more TVs. And if the portable becomes a thing that is the whole point. They don't need consoles to sell well to keep GP alive.

And if they continue to subsidize consoles, it only increases the value.

@CutchuSlow yea pc gaming needs to get away from microsoft. soon i hope.

You may be right, @Moby, but Microsoft have literally just stated that growth outside console is stalling, and not reaching their expected targets. Amazon is still untested waters. We have no idea of how well the functionality works and what the uptake will be. If it does not provide a fluid experience due to people having lacking internet, then there is every chance that it won't be that popular at all. We are yet to find out. Right now, consoles are what are keeping Game Pass going. If Microsoft fail to sell enough consoles, and people switch to other platforms, then it means that those left behind on the Xbox will be required to do the heavy lifting when it comes to paying for Game Pass, which is why we, on consoles, are the ones bearing the brunt of the increased cost that Microsoft have just announced. Remember, at one point, Microsoft expected to have 100 million subscribers by 2030. As it stands, the numbers of subscribers are reportedly stalled at best, and falling according to other reports from a high of around 30 million. Microsoft themselves have just said that subscriber numbers are not hitting their targets, so just because they have now spread to Amazon, does not mean that that target will be achieved. That still needs to be determined, leaving consoles the ones to sustain subscriber numbers...

@Moby As @Fiendish-Beaver said, right now console is GP, GP is console. It's not what MS wanted but it's what they have right now. About half of GP subs are console, and losing console subscribers would mean losing half the service membership. That's a no go. They can't make up those losses when they also have stalled on uptake outside console. Amazon will be a bump but not enough to both replace consoles AND grow past them. The good news of that is that it's why Ms really can't simply exit consoles. They really need to keep selling them to keep the gp numbers stable even if the console sells poorly. The bad is that they're going to keep experimenting wildly to find any way out of the quicksand and it's always the customers that'll be caught up the the turbulence.

It's not just game pass, gaming subscriptions just aren't growing much for anyone. Even Apple. The market just doesn't want them for whatever reason. But Ms desperation means being a customer gives you whiplash as the violently swing from one strategy to another without warning on hopes of finding the way out. And tbh it's only barely better on ps as they're more ambivalent than desperate.

Why am I not surprised?
I only know one person who owns a Series S, and that's it.
Personally I moved on to PC Game Pass.

I haven't seen a Series X in a local store, over here in Sweden, in maybe 2 years? And I've never seen a physical game, for this gen, since...the launch of the console.

@NEStalgia Truth. I see Playstation and Nintendo adverts on TV all the time, and I rarely watch TV. All over the internet, too.

Don't recall seeing an Xbox ad any time this gen, though.

@IOI So the plan is to complete whatever games you've purchased on the platform and then divest yourself from the ecosystem going forward?