Xbox Series X|S Console Sales Down Almost 30% In The US Compared To 2023

And that’s the frightening console sales data that makes me worry for a next generation Xbox.
Simple statistics and statement from me.

Seems like COD in GP did not move the needle. Kinda wanna wait and see what happens in december due to Indiana and overall Xmass spending/console gifts and such.
If december is down too then well, "this is an xbox" and "you dont need an xbox"campagin clearly worked. Good job marketing team at MS lol

@OldGamer999 now its 90% all games coming to PS day 1 in 2-3 years closer to next gen launch. If they dont do a traditional console then a 100%, eveyrthing on PS.

I pulled the trigger and bought the PS5 Pro. Still plan to spend more time with xbox due to GP and prob buy next box just for GP but will depend on the games/pricing.

I dont think xbox is doomed or smth, but for console main factor is GP. Maybe also the ecosystem factor down the road but that only if you have several devices.

But do they count phones, tablets and pc’s as xbox-es, since everything’s an xbox?

Microsoft spent years telling people not to buy an Xbox. So they aren't buying them.

Now they advertise smart watches as an Xbox.....and people still aren't buying an Xbox.

This is a SCARY situation, very much reminds me of Microsoft and the Windows Phone.

Xbox hardware is cooked fam. Not saying they wont make more but it’s not going to be properly supported to maximize it.

@TheGameThrifter good thing there are many devices these days. Switch 2 coming soon and if you want more power you can look at PC or PS5 PRO.

xbox will be probably a budget frinedly game pass machine. I dont think next box will be super powerfull, I think it will be just powerfull enough to run newer games but focused to keep the price under 599 or so.

Gee, I wonder why hardware sales are down?🤔🤔🤔

@Millionski
It’s all cool at the minute with series x and I have GPU until March 2027.
And it’s cool games going to other consoles and devices.
Just give us a very positive sign Microsoft for next generation Xbox home console, as simple as that really.

In a nutshell I think you have to answer 2 questions when choosing xbox: are you interested in MS games and do you want to access them via game pass. Both answers should be yes.

If you are not interested in MS games, then why xbox at all? Selling feature of GP is MS games day one. If you dont care about that => PS plus extra will do just fine. And if you want to play MS games but dont mind buying them - you will be able to do it on PS.

There is also an ecosystem facror but today its very weak. Maybe in 10 years or so.

@OldGamer999 Same. Mine GPU is due jan 2027. I am not buying stalker, indy, etc on a PRO even that I have it - I will just play with GPU.

But I was able to stack GPU right before all the price increases, and core conversion was working. If they cut all these schemes and you have to pay lets say $25/m - that would be a hard sell. Since GP growth is also flat, I see them just simply pushing the prices further.

Honestly owning 2 consoles next gen comes down to a math question of how much value you extract from GP and overall if you just want to bother with it or not. I plan assuming no exclusivity in any form for xbox for next gen.

If next xbox is uninspiring lazy series X pro kinda device that they do just because "they have to" - do I want it then? just from consumer perspective.

Is anyone really surprised by this? As Microsoft torpedo the Xbox brand by removing all its exclusives then there’s no logical reason to pick up a Series X|S over a PS5.

Not surprising for anyone who has been paying attention. Most of my games don't have "Play Anywhere" features (or even a PC equivalent on the Xbox app) so I'm very worried that they seem to be doing everything to become a publisher. Most of my games are going to be trapped on the console.

Oh don’t worry, I’m sure if this trend continues then Microsoft will continue to make Xbox consoles for all eternity because they love throwing away money you see.

People often bring up Surface tablets as evidence that Microsoft will always produce Xbox consoles going forward no matter how few units they sell. Thing is though the difference in R&D cost for these two product categories is huge. Tablets use off the shelf components. Consoles need bespoke SOCs, bespoke motherboards, bespoke cooling solutions, controller/headset accessories, and a highly customised OS and dedicated support for developers. Consoles are expensive to produce and maintain.

The fear for many of us has always been the death spiral. Consoles selling fewer units, third parties slowly lose interest in the platform, customers slowly drift to the competition, Microsoft themselves lose interest in promoting Xbox, cycle repeats over and over - until a critical threshold is reached and the inevitable conclusion manifests. The bean counters at Microsoft decide that they can save more money by discontinuing console entirely.

I don’t want this to happen, but we gotta face facts that a 30% decline in sales each year is unsustainable. Something needs to change to ensure Xbox consoles remain viable long term. Wake up Microsoft, please. Before it’s too late.

Interesting time indeed. I can't see Microsoft trying to compete directly with Nintendo or Sony in the standard priced console space next gen. A handheld with full Steam and Xbox app support plus a high end console perhaps although the latter is debatable with mid range PCs better value than ever. It's a guessing game until the big reveal. It does seem like Xbox is going the way Sega consoles eventually did but none of us truly know what the future of gaming looks like. Speculation keeps us engaged nonetheless.

Edit: crazy idea but maybe Microsoft enter the PC hardware market with a 'modular/upgradable Xbox'. The PC scene is expanding all the time and advances in technology means you can potentially have one sitting below your TV in the living room without taking up too much space.

Final sales will probably be broadly comparable to Xbone. There's the GTA6 push to happen yet, and naturally they probably still sell between 5-7m units per year anyway.

There's something at play behind the scenes that is making 3rd party Devs start to have a relationship with MS again so I'm not worried about the death of series consoles or lack of support. The price of the ps5 pro worries me, and the costs of AAA game development worries me, but not a random 30% drop in hardware sales in November. That was expected given the lack of hardware promotions around black Friday.

Just my opinion, but with the way that the Xbox is being marketed into the ground right now, with the PlayStation 5 increasing its market share and the news that everything moving forward from Microsoft is likely to come out of PlayStation consoles, I would think that a new console from Microsoft would be a huge waste of time and money. The more people that buy a PS5, they are going to be invested in a new eco system that would make going back to Microsoft a waste of their money, especially when all the franchises that people care about will be available elsewhere. GamePass in a few years from now could exist with only Microsoft titles, and there are a lot of them, and that could exist on rival consoles simply because of that reason. If Microsoft don’t pay for other companies to put their games on the service than it would not effect Sony having Gamepass on the console in the same way as there is a Netflix app or whatever. It’s just the beginning of the end of Xbox being a thing, but Microsoft will not be effected at all thanks to the games they now have under their umbrella!

I will say one thing as a little positive as I do my own very little UK analysis.
The Xbox series x has surprised me December sales in the UK near to me.
They have sold a good few more than normal which I didn’t really expect being honest.

Maybe because they said everything is an Xbox people bought blenders and fax machines thinking they could play gears of forza on them

Xbox is just basically a gamepass machine that's the value!

When everything is an Xbox, what’s the point of an actual Xbox?

Pure stupidity, brand suicide. This is going to continue.

@Utena-mobile It really does, and the most frustrating part is that we know the why's. It's really, really clear to see how it went wrong multiple times in the span of 12 months.

@Bionic-Spencer Unrelated but BC 09 was amazing. So underrated. Great name. I've got the physical OST on my shelf.

@Cakefish the reason I am not 100% doom & gloom with xbox consoles (only 50% now lol) is that I believe the threshold you mentioned can actually be pretty low. We dont know for a fact but decision to do next gen is usually around mid current gen and they announced it last year. It means even 30M consoles is enough to keep going. They also kind of stuck with most GP subs being on console too.

another counter-argument for lack of 3rd party support - Square Enix, Kodjima and ex-timed PS excluvies - all reaching xbox. Stray, kena, final fantasy, sifu, Silent hill 2, Death stranding 1 (and 2 at some point) - all these are/will be on xbox despite the low console sales. In the end its about porting costs and potential revenue which seems like working if companies decided to release on xbox.

My projection is that xbox will be there for 1 or even 2 more gens but it will be pretty boring box without cool features the sole purpose of which is Game pass. Then they would go full cloud/pc. I dont think they will stop consoles before we are all ready to cloud.

what is more concerning is shift to no exclusivity. 1 thing is some red lines, timed exclusivity up to 1 year or more and another thing everything is day 1 on PS/Nin. Based on all recent reports I am sure it will be the latter.

Definitely the xbox console share will be shrinking, but will they exit before all the cloud tech is there - good question. I suspect it will be low but enough to keep doing. Again unless they lanuch GP on PS/N, that could make xbox useless

@OldGamer999 there was good deal for Series X in US/Canada and no deal for PS...until PS deal appeared and it was better lol.

I think they messed up the series s 1tb and digital white SX pricing. should be 299 and 399 at max BEFORE any deals.

@Millionski
Yep they definitely did in the UK.
Series x discless 1tb £429.99 rrp
PS5 discless 1tb £389.99 rrp
In the UK, must be honest that pricing has really really baffled me.

Well hell why buy one when all you gotta do is wait with a playstation lol

@Elbow Yeah, the ABK deal really was a Faustian bargain.
( T _ T )

@Utena-mobile The whole thing feels like the monkey's paw curl. Xbox gets the most developers they've ever had, gearing up for an unspeakable amount of things on the way, annnnnnnnd they just spiked their console out the window onto the freeway.

@Bionic-Spencer Completely agree and was telling it a while ago - if they could "trade" their console share for GP on PS/Nin they would do it in a heartbeat. Ubi+ and EA play exist on PS/nin and they are no problems. Just cut all the 3rd party stuff and keep only MS games. Price it down little bit as people would still be required to pay for ps plus for online access, so maybe like 10-15 bucks or so. Put it on paper so they dont do shady practice like hiding the GP from PSN or something and take your W as GP will be easily double-tripple the number of subs.

However, reportedly sony and nintendo declined but that will hint on MS then pushing more their own platforms but they still dont do it. I dunno honestly whats the plan. I kinda see GP also making changes down the road as its still mostly on console base that is shrinking. THe bare minimum is another price hike

@Elbow dude's bionic arm is his dead wife. Wild.

Good lol Idk why Microsoft made me become cynical of their Xbox brand. I was and am an Xbox die hard but man! I am dying hard with their decisions! I'll keep buying their games but not on Xbox anymore 😭 stop breaking our hearts Microsoft

@Millionski I'm pretty sure they'll raise Gamepass up to $20/mo and at that point I'll just buy my games on sale or physical (of that even exists next gen, prob not). $240/yr can get you a ton of games on sale, Day One games are all buggy and MS has delayed a lot each year making my GP sub feel like it doesn't matter. Also considering a PS5 pro let me know how you like it!

No big hitter exclusives

@Millionski It’s great to see some former exclusives finally make it to Xbox, but problem is Sony keeps adding to the list. I finally got Kena on Xbox but now am left wanting Stellar Blade. And there’s still devs choosing to delay on Xbox separate from Sony’s influence; Black Myth Wukong, Enotria, and where on earth is Dave the Diver? I still feel very uneasy about the third party situation on Xbox.

Your other point with cloud is honestly depressing. I’ve tried it and it’s awful currently. Even in future I’ll never be ready for cloud. I just don’t like the concept and not only because it necessitates an always online requirement. I’m simply old fashioned, I like the thought that the game is being rendered on local hardware. I like my Digital Foundry analysis. I view cloud gaming as completely soulless.

@Elbow Definitely. One of my most favourite games! 😄

@OldGamer999 Price of PS5 digital games and subscriptions are locked into the Sony store, Xbox games and subscriptions are Not locked into their Digital Store.
You will be paying more for everything Digital on the PS5, that £40 difference you can make back just by buying a subscription or one AAA game via third party on Xbox.
The digital PS5 is a false economy as many find out 'After' buying one and not knowing everything Digital is locked into Sonys expensive store prices.

@Rog-X
Yes correct but it gets the general public to pick that cheaper machine or be fooled as you might put it. But it dam well works, if me and you like it or not.

That is a horrifying decrease year over year. That's like....Wii U or Dreamcast numbers.

Xbox sales have been plummeting every quarter ever since they wanted to by Activision and had to fight all the regulators and their only defense was "we need them to compete, we all ready lost".

Turns out taking a world tour to say your platform sucks isn't great for the platform a d the current "no exclusives" push isn't helping.

I'm sure there will be a next Xbox but I don't see that helping. We need to make sure Third party support stays solid, if that slips we know we're heading to Wii U, Dreamcast, and Vita town.

This does not bode well for Xbox at all. If people aren't buying Series S/X than they most certainly are not going to buy the next Xbox. I know I've already decided that the smartest move next gen is to skip Xbox and get a PS6 instead so I can ply the best games Playstation has and the best games Xbox has all on one console.

What this data shows is the Nintendo is definitely able to milk sales by not announcing the switch successor, Sony got an uptick compared to last year because of the pro most likely (or just lower sale prices for base hardware; but it's highly likely many of those 15% are just preexisting PS5 upgrades which I'd hope not considering the price and implication if this pricing strategy works) , and Microsoft wasn't able to persuade people to buy a console "refresh" that was pretty much the exact same product that launched four years ago. We can also see that people ARE NOT changing spending habits and Microsoft needs to decide if that's a good or bad thing for Xbox Game Pass. People clearly didn't buy an Xbox for day one GP and they didn't even significantly change how PC gamers buy it. Now there are those higher numbers and Microsoft already confirmed an uptick in subs, but it looks like those don't make a dent in the larger picture compared to the majority of COD players. And again that's either a good or bad thing based on how they spin it.

I'm also curious what it would have looked like if Black Ops 6 wasn't cross gen. Them still doing a cross gen release was a surprise for me. If it had been the first new cod that's current gen only, could Microsoft have convinced the PS4 and Xbox One upgrades to buy a series X or S to play it with XGP? Even just the Xbox One users who are perfectly content because all their favorite games continue to be cross gen.

Moving away from the consoles, I like the sales chart. Dragon Age Veilguard gets a lot of hate online, but it seems to be doing really well. What you'd expect at the top, is at the top, but overall there's some nice variety.

@Markatron84 Well I never said the story was great.... because yeah that alone really brings the rating down a good bit

There may well be an Xbox next gen - but if these poor console sales continue, 3rd party publishers may question if it's worth developing games for.

Say what you want but consoles in the future are going to be a thing of the past. MS is playing the long game. Despite all the armchair CEO's here, MS will eclipse Sony soon with more revenue and of course much more profit in their gaming division. All I have to say is enjoy games and have fun. Stop taking it so personally. A box means nothing under your TV. It is the content, where the future looks bright.

Who would be dumb enough to buy an Xbox console when "everything" around is now considered an Xbox...especially since it has been losing all its own exclusive games and with it its own brand identity everyday that goes by.

I made that mistake 3 years ago, but never again would trust Microsoft.

So black ops 6 launches into Gamepass and Xbox has the worst hardware sales for November ever in the history of Xbox.

Yeah I think it's safe to say Xbox consoles are definitely cooked.

@Utena-mobile Microsoft has explained that the Xbox business is healthier than ever before, no need to worry. Microsoft spends $1B a year getting third-party games on Game Pass and they earn $8B each year just with Game Pass subscriptions, not counting software and DLC sales and sales on other platforms. At least half of those subscriptions are console subscriptions.
They are better than ever financially and have become the second largest publisher in the world after Tencent. They have an excellent studios portfolio. They're not going anywhere, consoles are very profitable for them. Multiplatform is how you do business when you are this big, no need to worry about that. Just with Call of Duty skins they earn a huge fortune. 😂

@Banjo- Your blind faith is impressive but the complete lack of effort over the holidays to try and sell any consoles should be obvious to anyone by now that they no longer care about selling Xbox consoles and in fact they're just going to let it die because that's part of the plan so they can pursue that 3rd party publisher status you're boosting about.

With the This Is An Xbox ads and no big discounts or console promotions, killing their console sales over the holidays was clearly by design.

It's so cringey to see embedded posts from the X wannabe. Ruins the entire article.

@MrMagic No blind faith, but official numbers. Genuine question, what are you doing here?

@Banjo- I could ask you the same question every time you pop up on push but to answer your question I own an Xbox, in fact don't we all? Actually I'm typing this on one right now. Well according to Microsoft I am.

@Banjo- Let the non-business educated kiddos have their fun. They obviously don't understand the business and are stuck in 1996 where "conSoLE iS kINg!".

@MrMagic Very funny that you accuse me of blind faith being one of the big Sony fanboy hating Microsoft on Pure Xbox! I was on Push Square before Pure Xbox because I bought a PS4 before an Xbox One. And you don't see me on Push Square bashing Sony every day in spite of not liking what they're doing. Last time, I was talking about a Sonic game. But here you are... Thing is, it's logical being here if I like Xbox, not logical being here everyday if you hate it. That's the difference between me and you.

@MrMagic yeah Xbox is cooked for in the coming years.

@Banjo- And I've owned every generation of Xbox apart from this one and I still own an Xbox I just didn't bother to upgrade because of how disappointed I was with them last gen but I still take an interest in them is that so wrong? Maybe I would've actually upgraded if they got their act together sooner and tried to actually compete but I'm not liking their new strategy so I'm simply using this place to voice my opinion on it.

@TheEstablishment They should pay more attention to the revenue and debt of each company than about the number of consoles sold.

Still insane that you're not allowed to voice an opinion on Xbox here without it being scruitinized by the blind faithful if it isn't a glowing opinion.

I own every Xbox system and think this generation has been a complete joke. Every other Xbox has had something stellar and unique to it during its lifetime but the Series X has nothing that I would consider great.

I know the industry loved to mock the One X but that thing was so much more exciting than the current generation of Xbox.

It's also sad that because hardware is continually down for one brand, people on twitter and these sites are desperate to push this narrative that consoles are suddenly dying out or not as relevant.

@TheEstablishment

I'm sure the armchair business analysts would just love their narratives to be true.

@Millionski It did move the needle… to PlayStation favor, honestly it’s shockingly terrible the platform offering the biggest game of the year for “free” in their subscription didn’t entice basically any users to it, but rather pushed PS5 sales even further.

Xbox is beyond cooked.

Don’t worry about it, unless microsoft actually says so, consoles are still happening, why waste your time doom and glooming?

@donv2135 Because they literally have nothing better to do.

Clearly Xbox is doing better than ever. Across PC, (other) console, and mobile. All of which are an Xbox.

@NEStalgia i understand you and other always have to dig on xbox, but just game, and let mircosoft worry about the business stuff and don’t doom and gloom everytime you see something negative

i admit the consoles aren’t selling as well as you hoped, and regarding what happened with the microsoft phone and surface tablets, you’re worried about xbox hardware potentially disappearing entirely, but that’s why we should enjoy what have now and don’t worry about something that isn’t set in stone yet.

Yeah, I want xbox to do better, but instead doom and glooming everytime we see something negative, try to talk with friends and try to understand that it’s not just exclusives that get consoles sales. suggest gamepass

well, it could be worse

it could have been 50%

personally, I think we take this console war too seriously in my opinion, and i think they’re doing small steps because everytime they do something like this, the fans get angry because it goes against the norm

@Fenbops @Lrapsody

MS no longer counts console sales as their successful metric. MS always sold consoles at a loss so it may seem like they've given up on consoles but it's not that simple. They are likely to keep their hardware while focusing on game "access". They know consoles are fast becoming a niche market for hardened gamers. MS will keep stacking the chips in their favor to make money by moving beyond console. It's pretty simple, really.

MS will make more off gamers who don't buy the Xbox, while continuing to attract a broader market to enhance sales. The APK buyout gave MS a huge leg up in the mobile market, one of their weakest areas.

The "fans" are upset because MS has the temerity to grow their brand beyond the simple idea of console gaming.

@Moby they’re boarding their horizons, it could backfire, but it seems successful so far,

@Rog-X yeah it's an industry thing to get it to a "good enough stuff" state so they can start generating revenue to see if it's even worth it to invest more money into it. Always a big risk launching games for the big players.

actually guys, now that i think about it, did sega leave consoles and almost folded because they don’t have money, if xbox is still profitable and the fact microsoft is a three billion dollar company and comparing that to sega’s state at the time is silly, besides, they have been doing this since they introduced play anywhere.

Strange, wonder why?

NGL I bought myself a PS5 for Christmas. Got a lot to catch up on!

@NEStalgia I would correct you and say Microsoft Studios are doing very well. I’ve said for a while now that Microsoft are going to rake in more money than ever through gaming and releasing everywhere, while the Xbox brand itself fades away or becomes a sad umbrella term for anything that can stream games.

I think it’s sad as a fan of Xbox since the original console.

@TeiGekiLord The Series X is a solid piece of hardware, really is a nice machine. But as usual, like with the PS Vita that was also solid hardware in its day, the company behind the hardware has gone and messed up.
Not currently having an Xbox means I’ll be trying game streaming as I still have my GPU up till 2026 I think? So I’ll try Stalker 2, I have a Mac and a big monitor but I do have fast gigabit internet to give it a go on, won’t cost me anything. I will be looking at their next console, but think it may be there last.

@Elbow It's f**king fantastic in its ludicrousness, I love it.

@XboxNumber1 I take my hat off to you. I also think that the next consoles will be more expensive and also less restrictive. Yes, Cloud means that they need Xbox consoles anyway and they don't need to lose money selling them, not even Sony, more focused on the traditional business, wants to lose money selling PS. If Steam is making a home console like some people are saying, it's yet another reason for Microsoft and Sony to move on and leave the console wars (not the console market) behind, since both of them have stated that they need to release games elsewhere, but now they have extra competition with blurred boundaries. Only Nintendo can afford the 90s business model because of the cheap development and ancient hardware.

@Utena-mobile Don't worry. My best wishes for you and thank you for your esteem!

@Rog-X Literally none of Sony's first party games (aside from Concord) are anywhere close to poorly rated

@Cakefish Microsoft does the exact same thing. This gen they've paid for timed exclusivity of:

The Medium
Call of the Sea
Warhammer Darktide
Planet of Lana
Somerville
Scorn
High on Life
The Last Case of Benedict Fox
Stalker 2
Ark 2

and more

What is the deal with this coping mechanism I see all over the place? Destin from IGN does this all the time on his youtube channel too. Why would any of us care that MS is doing well outside the Xbox console space? Do you think we're fans of Microsoft as a game publisher?

Are there fan sites like "Pure-EA" or "Pure-Tencent" similar to this site? We like to hear about how well EA or Tencent's shareholders are doing compared to Sony?

Their gaming division revenue you're crowing about is being fueled by Candy Crush Saga and CoD Mobile, which has more users than CoD on PC, PS, and Xbox combined. This isn't good news for the people visiting this site who are fans of the Xbox console, not here because they're Microsoft shareholders. It's a clear signal in a change in direction away from us.

@PSDeckSwitchOwner the thing is though I’m pretty sure none of those exceeded 6 months exclusivity at most. It’s a bit different when Kena took 3 years, Death Stranding 5 years, even Stray 1 year to arrive on XSX. Final Fantasy 7 Remake is still MIA after 4.5 years and counting. When Sony does exclusivity it’s for significantly longer durations, exponentially so. If Stellar Blade had 6 month exclusivity I would already be playing it!

And with Microsoft now full-throttle transitioning to a third party multiplatform publisher, these timed deals will soon be a relic of the past once the existing contracts have all expired.

So, obviously they cant just stop doing consoles. their share will be immediately taken by PS/N and even by selling games there they are paying 30% cut on each sale. GP count will drop below 10M right away => that means death of service.

So there should a be smoother transition for them. I can think of only 3 logical ways out. I am 99% sure it's one of these 3:
1) $800-100 prebuilt PC with some xbox flavor. Replace xbox with its-own PC windows machine that has a xbox-OS layer in it. That means nothing will be as smooth as console, but it allows a more open PC device => steam and stuff will be allowed meaning they cant really subsidize the console cost. Its probably be very mediocre in specs.
2) Find an agreement with PS/Nintendo to launch game pass on their platforms. Basically, trade xbox console share to reach PS/N audience with game pass. Caveat - this requires shrinking game pass to ea play/ubi+ models, without 3rd party content. Price has to be also $10-15 because PS/N still want to sell PS plus and nintento online - 100% it will be an online requirement. so the online portion of GP will be also be cut. Maybe it will be a separate tier of GP only for PS/N but maybe changes come across the board.
3) Keep doing consoles for 2-3 more gens until cloud becomes inevitable and when you can announce fully cloud and everyone would be fine with it. Without marketing efforts, exclusives and features, console share will shrink however it will still be probably between 20-40M to keep going.

I believe mostly in 3rd approach. Kinda slow death vs some radical changes.
What yall think? If you are MS exec and see those numbers - whats the way out?

@Cakefish i predict no exclusivity down the road for xbox. Neither 3rd or 1st party. Probably by the time next gen launches.

I dont see a single reason to do them. It will be a slower process tho. We already know for example subnautica 2 was signed as timed exclusivity.
Lets enjoy the last normal gen for xbox - the series X/S gen.

They dont want to attract people to their platforms, instead they come to other platforms and sell content there.
Honestly sounds not bad if you think about it from consumer perspective. We just all know this makes direct impact on xbox console specifically. I still dont understand how the want to manage shrinking GP subs count that will fall along with less sales for next xbox. I think GP its at peak now. Surely, cloud will change things but will GP survive another 10-20 years? i am not sure

I think Game Pass is the worst thing to ever happen to Xbox. On the other hand I think Game Pass is the best thing that happened for the consumer. I just wish they could both coexist.

Remember that console that came out 4 years ago? It's weird it's not selling as much....... obviously!

@Ricky-Spanish Exactly. I bought my Series S as a gamepass machine and there is a decent chance I would do it again next gen. Just, let's not have another GP price hike for a little while...

@ZYDIO game pass did not kill xbox. Its the xbox one launch where first mass exodus happened where people switched to PS4. Followed by day-n-date on PC back in 2016-2017 so argument of "why xbox if you can buy PC" started and then the ABK deal which led to change in strategy due to sheer investment and Satya taking over and making decisions.

If xbox was selling like PS or nin, we would ve seen easily double the GP subs putting it into 60M range or so which sounds pretty sustainable to me. They could also attract some PC audience if their games were not on steam too (we have seen EGS fail tho but they dont have subscription and COD like games). Pretty sure exclusives like DOOM that are also availabe in GP for $10 (PC GP is cheaper) could be a strong argument to use Xbox store on PC.

In a nutshell what has always been a strategy in gaming of attracting people and locking inside your system became "stay where you are, and we will come to you". Again top players like Valve with steam can do such things, because brand is too strong. We have seen steam deck getting a lot of popularity just due to the steam factor. And even them failed before with steam machines.
But since MS platform was never winning after 360 days, neither on console nor PC xbox store, no one is going to come back from steam/PS/Eshop to MS unfortunately.

Publisher strategy currently seems like > game pass. So when fanbase shrinks, GP shrinks and then expect changes to it as well.

@Fenbops While true, I don't think that's really "Xbox". Microsoft gaming existed LONG before Xbox did. Xbox is actually the intruder that stepped on the toes of and basically destroyed Microsoft gaming. Is how we lost amazing studios like Ensemble, lost MSFS for decades, lost Mech Warrior games for decades etc. they even made hardware, the sidewinder controls that still to this day are some of the most sophisticated flight sticks ever made.

None of that is Xbox though. It existed long before Xbox and Xbox actually destroyed it for a long time as they shifted focus to Xbox, killed Microsoft gaming, and tried to force everyone into Xbox.

So I see this as more of an "undo" where they dismantle Xbox and rebuild the Microsoft gaming that Xbox destroyed as though Xbox never happened.

As someone that played me games stuff before Xbox and loathed Xbox og for ruining Ms PC gaming I actually have a certain satisfaction from this, however as I ended up liking Xbox for what it is too, it's only bittersweet revenge.

Of course they're still going to make gaming boxes for the foreseeable, I just don't know if it'll be "Xbox" or Surface Xbox Edition or what.

Sent from my Google Xbox Phone

@Coletrain Series console will likely not break 40 million. The folks that want/need one already bought them. And Xbox hasn’t exactly been giving many compelling reasons to buy one now. They seemingly gave up a couple years ago, by Phil’s own admission.

@TheGrizMan I think they will, the GTA push will be a huge factor. And they haven't grinded to a halt, they just sold less than they did last November. They're at around 31m now, so it'd have to be a complete collapse not to reach 40m over 3-4 years.

There are compelling reasons to buy them, because cloud gaming is ass right now in most places. There are a few exceptions in N.America for sure, but you won't get close to a native experience in most of Europe.

They've definitely given up the marketing push for the console for the most part you're absolutely right, but I think if the games keep hitting well the brand will grow, and sales will naturally keep coming. Not to ps5 levels of course, they'll never be able to compete console to console again. But to levels where it makes sense to keep going seems plausible to me.

@Millionski I'll rephrase that, I think Game Pass is killing gaming period. At least the way it's implemented. I think Game Pass should be reserved for old games and little cheap games. Putting new AAA titles on there I think is a mistake. I don't see how they're making more money. $20 subscription versus $70 or more. Then they start making games for Game Pass instead of making games the normal way through creativity. They end up just pumping out a bunch of cheap crap to make it look like they have a lot so people perceive increased value. Like I said, if they want to put older things on there I think that's awesome because no one's going to pay for those anymore anyway. I just don't see it being sustainable in the long term even though the data suggests the opposite. I don't want gaming to turn into Netflix. At the same time Netflix does have a lot of good stuff that's made just for Netflix. Maybe they'll pull it off, if they do that would be awesome. I just want quality games with no compromises. Like the 360 era.