In an ironic way, people cheering for Xbox “leaving” console should be shameful because look where it led to. Just saying.
Even more ironic is the mid 1990’s is when a lot of people say gaming was at its best
This is going to be spun in most quarters as 100% an Xbox problem, nothing else to see here, move along. I think two things can be true at the same time: Xbox hardware sales are collapsing due to factors unique to Xbox, and the console games industry as a whole is going through a major change and the end result is not going to look like what we all grew up with.
The dark ages are nigh.
Oh look, right again.
Media/fanboys still think more Sony content isn’t coming to other platforms when the world is in the midst of massive economic turmoil (have been since 2020 and it never stopped, only got worse), declining PS5 hardware sale (the media love to omit that in most regions, PS5 sales have been down YoY for three years running now), and Sony has **hired a director to oversee multiplatform development for Xbox and Switch, specifically (for those that aren’t idiots, in enterprise parlayance, a Director means that it’s not a team, it’s not a group, it’s a Division being overseen, which means it’s not something they’re just kicking around).
I’m sure they’ll laud Sony as some sort of innovator when they open the floodgates, despite Xbox clearly seeing how things were going years ahead (and that does not diminish their own countless mistakes over the last decade) and having actually built systems to benefit players as a draw (see Play Anywhere, Smart Delivery, xCloud, Game Pass, Heutchy Method, FPS Boost, etc.).
For those that still need things spelled out, the old ways of fixed and closed hardware ecosystems simply cannot survive when most people can’t afford the damn hardware to begin with…
Edit:
For the braindead fanboy that will create an account just to respond to this, I present things called facts to support my claims.
Also this because the human populace that composes the media/zeitgeist have memories of goldfish:
Or the fact that in their recent earnings report, their software sales were only buoyed from an abysmal quarter by Helldivers selling so well on Xbox 
/Sony Fanboy
Why are we arguing against hypothetical users who aren’t here?
It’s my fault. I game on Xbox and the brand craters. I then finally decide to get a PS5 last week and what happens? The PS5’s numbers crater as well.
Remind me of pyramid scheme where the kid sold watches very well at launch, but the resupply becomes overwhelming and he can’t find anyone to sell to. That’s what we’re getting at.
This is epic bad especially for Sony. This means they didn’t even break a million on black Friday. 1.6 million for 4 consoles in a black Friday month. consoles in previous years sold over a million units on just black Fridays. If this is the sale on a black Friday month, what can one expect on regular months. One can see why Xbox is pushing streaming, and PC. I can see Switch 2 sales tapering off and PlayStation taking a huge hit as well. I expect a lot of PlayStation exclusives to start rolling more to Xbox.
I say stay on PS5, that way Xbox will rebound.
Thank you for your sacrifice!
They have priced themselves out of the sweet spot. It’s not a reasonable price at the best of times, and certainly not in this economy. People are struggling.
BRB I’m just ordering a Switch 2 as I type. I want a medal for this killstreak once I’m done.
The weird part is although this is just in general, analysts said this year’s Black Friday will be the highest one yet. Again, gaming isn’t alone in this regard but that’s something I was surprised they were to say.
Black Friday was terrible this year. I saw videos of so many electronics not touched. I doubt PlayStation sold over 600, 000 for the month of November even with Slashing the prices for Black Friday. Who knows this might the time subscription takes over just like it did with Netflix.
Reminder that Microsoft projected YOY losses initially for consumer spending. Xbox saw overall growth, but everyone knows that the USA isn’t doing great with lower class income and consumer spending right now. The economy is rough. The job economy is also rough. What’s the most rough is a game console market which hasn’t really grown in decades and is only now giving attention to that problem as the whole industry starts to implode financially. Hopefully Xbox’s strategy pays off and it is more widely adopted by publishers and platform/ecosystem competitors. Not having our libraries tied to a single piece of hardware is a good thing, as is having that single piece of hardware be able to play every game without stipulation. Increased value for gaming hardware (all gaming hardware) might start to introduce console gaming to new markets, but so will bringing everyday console game purchases to libraries on PC and in the cloud and one day on mobile (the courts gotta make Apple and Google play ball eventually). At worst hardware is a sinking ship and it’s one that console gaming (I don’t know how else to describe the AA and AAA and whatever else type of games that only get released on consoles and PC) can’t be tied to as game development becomes more expensive. That’s just like flying in bars of gold to stack on top of an already sinking Titanic. Gaming needs new gamers one way or another. Xbox Play Anywhere and Cloud Gaming to unify Xbox gamers into one wide ecosystem is a great strategy to push for that. I’m excited for Playstation gamers to hear there’s similar things in the works there. We also really need to move past exclusives. The argument of “there’s no reason to buy XYZ console without XYZ exclusive” IS the problem. What type of hardware product needs to have exclusive software to justify its existence?? People aren’t dropping $500+ in droves for the privelege of spending (soon to be) $80 on a game. Do people buy a specific TV brand for an exclusive movie or TV series? No. They might buy a streaming service under that pretense but even then they can access the streaming service on ANY device and it is a far lower upfront cost. The entire console market is just upgrades and that’s weaning a lot as prices just continue to grow up, hardware lasts longer (is supported longer), forever games exist, and the most popular games are on mobile phones (and then PC just has EVERYTHING). It’s evolve or die (eventually) time.
Industry has been saying for years console users aren’t growing. That is turning into shrinking now. Lots of factors at play here but I’m not sure price is as big of a factor as people are saying. And the series s is why. It sold a lot. Was 300 usd for quite some time and often times less than that. But why didn’t it drive even more sales for cost sensitive customers? Why didn’t it sell even more while people are saying today’s 500 entry price is too high?
What is best strategy for next gen? If we assume next Xbox is in the 1,000 range, I was thinking Xbox would be crazy not to also have a more entry level box at the 3-400 range. But series s didn’t pick up that many of the price sensitive consumers. Although what do we think the s sold this gen? 10-15m units? Hard to say that’s insignificant in the Xbox eco system.
All that to say just to come back to the cloud strategy. It’s right there in front of us. I’m really starting to think next Xbox gen is going to be way more cloud focused than we ever expected and the $1,000 box owners will be the minority. Will cloud catch on? I’m starting to think it has to.
https://x.com/stealth40k/status/2001349805486886996?s=46&t=O_AGT9SEnlptKOF_2SxtqQ
Not sure what game here will motivate newcomers or even veterans, but this could be a tough one.