I know that Phil has basically said they’re not going to hold COD hostage just to boost console sales, but even after conceding this console generation - what can Microsoft do to further boost hardware sales?
Will ABK exclusives alone be enough to move to needle or is PC and GamePass (SmartTV, ect.) cannibalizing what could be major movement on that front?
I’m guessing, at best, only slightly. Xbox console sales are what they are at this point.
Only way to get major boost is to buy take two and make GTA 6 exclusive.
I don’t think console sales matter that much anymore. You can’t reach 3billion plus people through console sales. They’ve made it clear they want gaming to be like windows where it’s available on every device even the hybrid Nextgen console seems to be going that way. The main reason for ABK was mobile according to Phil. Also being 3rd place helps them with acquisitions.
I think having Hellblade 2, Avowed, South of Midnight, Fable, Clockwork Revolution, Perfect Dark & Everwild will definitely help. Let those games be high quality and the reviews rated highly will help. However those games are on PC so that will hurt console sales. Xbox is more concerned about player numbers, revenue and profit numbers. Xbox is back and better than ever!
So the lack of console sales aren’t exactly a “failing” but more of a product of their business strategy and we can expect them to continue to develop hardware into the future?
yes they will still make consoles because it still an avenue for revenue and is basically the only Consumer product of Microsoft when the rest of the companies is mostly enterprises and B2B where as xbox B2C
It will help, it’s certainly not going to make them surpass Sony or anything like that, at least not this gen
It will be a bigger deal heading into next gen though when people are picking up new systems, people buying a new system and seeing Xbox CoD marketing everywhere, being able to play it for “free” with GP alongside maybe something like ES6 would be a huge way to start next gen
This gen however will be mostly about building towards next gen and the future, not making some massive comeback for the later half of the gen
Yes there’s no doubt there will be some people buying an Xbox because of call of duty marketing going to Xbox now, and game pass call of duty.
Its next gen when you are going to see the benefit of owning them in the console space I think.
Yes. Microsoft has made official public statements that they will continue to develop console hardware.
Funny timing about hardware sales:
“For a Sep… Sep 2023 Xbox ecosystem units highest since Sep 2016, dollars highest since Sep 2014. Sep.”
https://twitter.com/MatPiscatella/status/1714638014301995354
The launch of the next system could be truly ludicrous with the IP and Studios they have now.
Probably. Though not in the short term. When Xbox becomes the lead marketing platform for CoD and ABK games start coming to game pass and we start seeing some more exclusives we will probably see more growth.
Im expecting a 3:1 in CoD 2024 players next year in Xboxs favor and going up an order of magnitude almost every year.
Im expecting Game Pass to hit 100m by 2029 or sooner.
I expect a lot of Xbox games to easily hit 30m players, with the larger ones going above 50m, easily superceding every Sony game and almost every Nintendo game.
I expect that to help sales.
Xbox hardware isn’t going anywhere
Certainly not for at least another gen, they have 30m+ GP subs, 25m of which are coming from the console and those numbers are probably even higher now that GP Core has replaced Gold
If they don’t have a console, where are those 25-30m Game pass subscribers going to go? Cloud or PC? Very, very doubful
They have way too many Game Pass subs relying on console to give it up, not to mention the many other reasons it makes no sense to get rid of the console
Not this year since no ABK titles are likely to come to Game Pass in 2023 based on Phil’s comments yesterday.
It’s mostly only core gamers that probably already have a current gen console or gaming PC that even know about the ABK deal.
This deal was about King and mobile gaming.
If you really followed the ABK deal closely and saw all the leaked e-mails, even Sony thought it was a mobile play based on how much they think King alone is worth.
"Strikes me as more of a King play than COD. But King sold to Bobby for $5Billion and has now grown to be worth £50 Billion.
If it was a Xbox exclusivity play. Spencer could have locked up MS console exclusivity for the next 3 COD releases for maybe £5 Billion."
Of course, they presented a different story to regulators…
In the short term no. However, in the long term absolutely. Imagine a next-gen console launch with Elder Scrolls VI & COD. You could simultaneously market Elder Scrolls VI to the hardcore and COD to the mainstream.
An even crazier option would be to have a limited edition ‘Day One’ COD and ES6 Xbox console bundles.
Cod console bundles will increase console sales. But that is next year.
This is especially true as Sony’s PS5 slim digital will be $449, while the Series S (possibly the 1TB model based on the leak) would still be $299.
Probably but honestly the ABK sale being final should mean for us that we should not really care anymore.
MS is all in on gaming and they want to make sure console hardware goes forward as well so keeping track of sales should not really be as big a THING as it is now with all the fanboy wars and forum slinging and twitter crap.
MS is fully behind Xbox and from a gamers point of view that is all that matters.