The idea of this topic is to have a place where we can discuss (and post your discontent) regarding everything that Microsoft have lost and have to gain back since Xbox 360 and all the issues that Microsoft have right. Marketing, exclusive games and so on. We can post news and complain about this in that topic without polluting other topics with that.
Ideally it could be something like Xbox Community & Acquisitions but it would contain meltdowns and other stuff, but it remains to be seen whether this topic is gonna be popular or not as people tend to post in other topics anyway out of habit.
@Roronoa_Zoro90@Knottian We can continue discussing it here I guess so we will free up Acquisition thread.
Well, technically it is undeniable that Sony would outsell Xbox this gen in equal conditions, no matter how good Game Pass would be (especially if you don’t market it).
Nothing is truly ever technically undeniable in a dream scenario that hasn’t once happened in real life. It’s simply an unknown that we can guess about.
Has it happened in history where the insanely successful company came up with the successful product and lost to the competitor with no marketshare and bad reputation?
Xbox has to deal basically with two things - bad reputation (kinda recovered) and all the destroyed chains (marketing, localization). During the previous era they were shackled by Windows division and if not for shortage they would have no time to recover. Without shortage we would have 2:1 to already.
Even with shortage we are around 1.4:1 and that when Sony is missing their own estimations.
There’s certainly nothing technical about that assertion. PS5 has the early advantage from PS4 momentum for sure, but once we are properly into next gen things become a lot less clear. If supply wasn’t an issue, for instance, we might see Xbox All Access playing a huge role in shaping the contours of who sells more. There will also be lots who got an XSS and will someday upgrade to an XSX, which will add to Xbox sales potential.
Plus, it isn’t at all obvious that Sony’s 1P output will land as well as last gen. Each gen different/new genres rise to prominence and become the new popular thing everyone focuses on. Last gen Sony’s serious, ‘sad dad’, over the shoulder, high production/presentation quality stuff was a hot ticket and Sony was one of only a few publishers who really made many of those. This cycle we dunno if that continues or fades away. If wrpg’s become the big thing, for instance, suddenly Sony will have little to offer mass market consumers looking for wrpg’s. Sony recognizes this too, as they are now moving into GaaS as a central pillar of their strategy, so they are rushing to diversify things.
Would it though? If everything went as planned for Sony they would come from the successful PS4 era with a lot of time exclusive games (big third party titles and first party games), huge marketing push, no issues producing consoles (they would make PS5 like there is no tomorrow) as Sony would not need to make Azure blades they would probably surprass Switch (not every month though). And keep in mind that outside USA, Xbox has no marketing (and I think without COVID it would be the same).
A lot of unexpected events of course happen and a lot of them were beneficial to Xbox.
Well, Sony realized that they need more reliable source of revenue - which is of course GaaS. Especially that now it knows that it can lose third parties with a finger snap. And making single player games is not the solution as they are too expensive and take too much time to produce.
I have been arguing that Sony will become something like T2 but on a bigger scale.
I mean, it doesn’t fit those loaded qualifiers, but the PS3 almost surpassed the 360 in sales after a very rough start.
I don’t think it’s even remotely “undeniable” that the PS5 to Series ratio will be 1:2 again. I don’t think that would have been the case even without the Series S.
Because arguably Xbox 360 did not win europe and Japan. Also they lost a lot when pivoted to Kinect (those cringy E3 oof). Xbox 360 had also 1 year headstart too.
Sure, though you can’t discount that the Kinect was the best selling accessory for a while. I think maybe even “ever”, I’ll have to double check. But you asked for an example and I gave one.
This generation simply isn’t the same as the previous one, where Xbox was playing with a shoestring budget. While yes, console sales aren’t as important to MS, they’re still a big factor and you can be damn sure they want to sell as many as they can. Right now the consoles are pretty near each other in numbers, and yes there are supply shortages. But there also aren’t many current-gen only games.
Once the casual audience needs to switch over for say, CoD, or GTA6, they’ll be faced with either a 500 dollar PS5, or a 300 (possibly hit 200 during major sales) dollar Series S. At that point price becomes the primary factor, even discounting gamepass.
Yes but you are also presuming anything unexpected would not help Xbox’s trajectory as if Sony’s momentum just dictates how things would work out in perpetuity, which isn’t true either. My point is there are major elements that will potentially shift the industry’s favors that are not in play yet and open up opportunities for Xbox moreso than for Sony. The other angle to consider is that it was clear going into this cycle that Sony was no longer competing with Xbox, rather they were competing with Microsoft Corp and that just totally changes what becomes possible in that competitive space.
It was indeed. It completely changed the trajectory of sales for 360 in a wholly unprecedented way too.
This is a great point. One company has a mass market priced box ready and waiting for those casuals to make the switch to next gen and the other company won’t have a box in that price range that is actually available anytime soon. I don’t mean due to chip shortages either, I mean the digital version is scant on offer and is just a tiny fraction of overall PS5 sales, so those casuals are choosing b/t XSS with $25/mo option vs $500+PSN+games option. that could be huge!
It’s impossible to predict what will or won’t happen in this business. I don’t think anyone foresaw the incredible success Nintendo would have with the Wii, the absolute disaster they would then have with the WiiU and then the absurd success they would have again with the Switch, all with underpowered hardware and limited 3rd party support.
MS Marketing is weird. Sometimes it’s super bombastic, like the actual ship they used for Sea of Thieves. Other times it’s almost nonexistent, like with Pschyonauts 2.
But marketing is only one small piece of selling your consoles. Availability, price, and of course value are just as important.
A lot of people go after Sony console by default simply because that’s all they now. It is literally a meme akin “What’s Xbox” And when people buy a console, they rarely switch even if other console provides immensive benefits.
I didn’t bother to mention the PS5 digital because it honestly feels like a paper price to me. Sure it exists, hell I had one for a little while, but good luck actually finding the thing anywhere.
This isn’t really how it works. The general public isn’t as “loyal” to their bases as we are. They’ll move if they feel the need to. We saw that with millions of 360 owners going to the PS4 instead.
MS have set a stage where they won’t be outsold 2:1 anymore. And will instead slowly inch up and close that gap. Heck, just take a look at the Japanese sales last week. Series is still way below the PS5 in total console sales, but last week’s sales they were only a few hundred behind.
Brand loyalty isn’t really a thing with the casual masses at the console level. They were happy to shift from PS2 to 360 to PS4, and would gladly shift to Xbox again if the value prop is good enough in their eyes (and with EA Play on GPU I think it would be). Yes, this is a different story somewhat outside the US/UK, but Xbox is likely to grow in all those markets in PAL too.
PS5 Digital was just Sony’s half assed attempt to compete with Series S…But they did not try hard in that regard. I remember somebody mentioned that Sony produces only 1 diskless console and 9 with disks.
And when people buy a console, they rarely switch even if other console provides immensive benefits.