https://x.com/florian4gamers/status/1726853349964931114?s=46&t=O_AGT9SEnlptKOF_2SxtqQ
A literal Xbox Tax.
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Xbox hardware just isnât desirable there. The Series S and PS5âs strong momentum all but sealed their fate in mainland Europe for this generation in my opinion.
A permanent price drop just isnât worth it. Sacrificing even more money on hardware just so the ratio can be 3 to 1 instead of 5 to 1 in favor of PS ? Pass lol.
Obviously still try in that region but the main focus should be PC gamepass and growing their PC presence. Itâll be fine in the long run in the overall business aspect of things.
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What do you mean by Series S, isnât that a positive considering it lowers the barrier of entry?
The tv market is an interesting case study. People buy the âcheapestâ of the best sets. It means in a country like France when I look at the top seller lists on various large sites (like Ubaldi), itâs always Samsung & TCL at the top of the list. Often the mid-range sets with decent specs (anything between 500 & 1000 euros).
Price matters. A lot. If thereâs a marginally inferior product in terms of specs (as is often the case in the tv market), itâll still sell way better than the competition when itâs priced more competitively.
Iâve heard the stories about MS losing money on each console sold (I donât know the veracity of this claim), but one thing is certain IMO: hardware specs have never really been that important in the console industry.
Itâs up to Microsoft to somehow figure out a way of making a product which has competitive specs & more importantly a competitive price. And no, I donât mind if Xbox has slightly weaker hardware than PlayStation, not when itâs cheaper. I was perfectly happy with my Xbox One once it had its price drop (I got mine for 249 euros in December 2016).
On paper it should of worked like that but it had the opposite effect. People in Europe wanted the XSX and it wasnât available to them for a very long time during the shortage issues. People who want a XSX arenât settling for the Series S, theyâre turning to the PS5.
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I think the only answer on console side is for Microsoft to release their console 12 months before Sony. If they have a strong launch with a next gen Elder Scrolls and a few other games it might be to their benefit. I donât think Microsoft on console side can compete with Sony if they release at the same time. Hopefully they improve leadership to take care of European and Asian markets by doing little things like improving localization and marketing.
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Nah.
People need to get out of the mind set of beating or even keeping up with Sony in console sales, console sales are important but they are nowhere near what they used to be
Xbox is releasing their games day and date on PC, that alone takes a big amount of itâs appeal away compared to PS which is still doing the half assed PC launches
Xbox doesnât have to sell as many or even close to what Sony does in console sales, they only need to sell enough to make sense business wise and keep GP subscriptions, people need to stop looking at this from a console war/not first place = failing perspective
If they release ES6 alongside a CoD on GP and potentially other big games on the next Xbox launch, they wouldnât even need to release a year early
Xbox issue was their complete loss of momentum in 2022 on on because of their complete lack of major titles, if they launch next gen with major titles like ES6, CoD on GP and more and keep that momentum up next gen they will be fine
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I agree. Itâs why I agreed with some rumors a few weeks ago which suggested MS would release next-gen Xbox in 2026, forgoing a mid-gen upgrade for a real next-gen launch within 3 years.
Consoles are closed hardware with an expiration date. Thereâs no âfuture proofingâ a purchase when we buy a console. It becomes outdated by pc tech as soon as itâs conceived & long before itâs released.
Leave the âwe have the most powerful hardware!â bragging rights to the company willing to charge more for their product. Considering their dominant position in terms of hardware sales, thatâs logically Sony.
I feel thereâs absolutely a market in Europe for Xbox when itâs priced competitively. Todayâs sales data on Amazon shows this IMO.
Iâm going to assume consoles still play a huge role in gamepass subscription numbers.
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Of course they do, 25-30m subs are on console, the console is hugely important but as long as those people are being provided with a console thatâs what matters, not selling more than Sony
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How can we speak on launching early being the solution when we havenât even seen the results of the obvious, launching with a desirable lineup of games and a good pipeline of future games?
We are basing our strategy on the results of a generation where theyâve poorly executed on delivering games early on, which wonât be an issue next generation.
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Exactly, itâs not like Xbox has been releasing AAA banger after banger and people arenât caring
We are 3 years into the gen and not particularly much has been provided from all their acquisitions yet, they had little to nothing for their launch line up, most of Zenimax has either not released titles or were busy finishing up multiplat titles, CoD isnât on GP yet alongside of the rest of ABK and the majority of Xbox studios havnât even released anything yet
Thereâs still way too much to release before we talk about Xbox needing to release years early or price drops
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Just chiming in to say I agree with you. Those sales are the result of putting 0 effort in Europe. Localisation issues, non-existent marketing, no visibility in general.
Someone or a team of people should be in charge of knowing the area, what people want there and improve the situation, because it is sad to see.
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Yeah, this.
I donât believe in launching early either.
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Iâve said it before, but outside of a small improvement, I donât see a way out of the situation in EU for Xbox.
Not much they can do to move the needle. PS, Nintendo and PC are just too engrained in the culture in that region.
Thatâs why I think there is a limit of 60 million or so consoles that MS can hope to sell each gen.
OK, so why doesnât he just sell lower on Playstation to sell lower everywhere else?
There seems to be a supposed Head of Japan/Asia position on the way but I guess weâll have to wait and see just what kind of power they get (the job description says it is âfully autonomousâ).
It is obvious that Mattrickâs âtiered countriesâ system BS was kept even if MS has ever tried to claim otherwise. Japan seems to be like the only non-anglo country theyâve tried to âupgradeâ into âtier 1â (with the hires mainly) and itâs more like⌠tier 1.5? 1.8 even?
Now as for the other conversation on console sales, they seem to be going ahead on this, âforget console push PCâ strategy where they are weak. They can do that, but⌠if all these 2024 games come out and is the usual Xbox localization effort, missing many crucial languages, or are terrible to the point where they need to apologize (Minecraft Legends Arabic this year), or their apps keep using Bing Translate that everyone keeps laughing at, or they make no attempt to get the word out about PC GP in these areas either (I can keep going lol)⌠Then when exactly are they going to get serious?
Maybe theyâll just look at it from a purely numbers point of view. As long as people in these regions are playing CoD and Blizzard games on PS5, Steam, Switch 2, then thatâs all that matters and they are hitting their â3 billion gamersâ
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Yeah, I canât understand how it is so difficult for a trillion-dollar company to be able to do localization. Because this is not only Xbox, MS canât translate their way out of a wet paper bag. How hard is it to hire one guy, one, who knows the language you are trying to imitate?
This is not a personal crusade either, idgaf about localization in my language for games since I play in English anyway (or whatever language is suitable for the setting of the game with subs). The MS app, website, communication âtranslationsâ though are horrible and obvious machine crap.
These things screams: We donât give a shit about your country. Not a great tactic.
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Honestly this is such a weird take. Microsofts success isnât about its ratio to PlayStation. Selling more consoles widens their customer base. The fact that selling more wouldnât put them above PS is honestly irrelevant. Heck if the ratio goes 10:1 but you are selling more than you did thatâs fine.
There is a sensible discussion about their losses per unit vs cost but I think the post is right. Europe has always been a tough market for Xbox there are lots of reasons. But price and their fumbling of it and clearly their high unit costs is a big factor.
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Not so much on launching early or not but the idea that you can fix this with games surely has to end now?
People keep talking about a steady release of games but who in the market even notices that? We do and we have Xboxâs. The current market Iâm going to say cares little for exclusives unless those exclusives are absolute monster titles or massively popular licenced IP.
There is a massive amount of stake being out in a games lineup that cannot reasonably change the console market. It just canât. Primarily because most people arenât even aware of whatâs coming out, what isnât and where they can or canât play these games. Starfield is a perfect example. A massive game. As big as anything Xbox has. But it wonât make people unaware of it or just causally aware buy an Xbox.
Console market is relatively simple. Most powerful based on perception. Lowest price. Most âcool and desirableâ brand. Most enticing and exciting next gen features. Coolest design. Marketing for the biggest games around.
Thatâs ultimately the factors that will decide.
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