if Xbox had stick with the 360/early XOne model of exclusives and console focus, would they be in the situation they are today?

[Etifilio]

200M? Now you’re just talking sh**t. If Sony and Nintendo, who have much bigger global and iconic brands couldn’t sell 200M consoles. What makes you think you could’ve made Xbox do it? Lol

200M is achievable, but they would need to invest billions into marketing and real exclusive games, for example, having a game like GTA 6 fully and eternally exclusive to one console, never coming to any other platform, they have the billions necessary to do pay for it

 

[Etifilio]

No way, they'd need to sell alot more in EU and Japan for that. The 360 didn't even hit 100 mil but sold over 40mil in the U.S. Xbox would need to sell around 60 million in North America to hit 100 mil worldwide lol. Will never happen.

360 sold 49M in the US i believe, i think 100M and even 200M is totally achievable if they invested the dozens of billions into exclusive games and marketing, they would basically force people to come to their box, that's how Nintendo and PlayStation became the successful juggernauts that they are, but they (Sony, Nintendo) don't have the money to lock a game like GTA 6 or COD eternally for example, MS has this money, that's why if they actually cared they could be the ones to push consoles to 200M+

 

[Systemshock2023]

More like OG Xbox and 00s 360 approach. The xbone was sent to die, with that poor messaging, less power and Kinect 2.0. On top of that you hade the poor momentum from the late 360 era. Sony understands that its always better to close the generation on a high note, to build hype for your next console. Just look at Sony's 2013 with TLOU vs Xbox, what did xbox have. Gears Judgement??

 

[AllBizness]

360 sold 49M in the US i believe, i think 100M and even 200M is totally achievable if they invested the dozens of billions into exclusive games and marketing, they would basically force people to come to their box, that's how Nintendo and PlayStation became the successful juggernauts that they are, but they (Sony, Nintendo) don't have the money to lock a game like GTA 6 or COD eternally for example, MS has this money, that's why if they actually cared they could be the ones to push consoles to 200M+

The entire console market is under 250 million globally and you think xbox could sell 200 million? Lol you need a mental health check.

 

[Shadow2027]

People always refer to the xbox 360 sales figure, but always overlook how many of those console sales also stem from people buying a 2nd or 3rd due to rampant red ring issue as my family had. One of several reasons many switched.

 

[Etifilio]

The entire console market is under 250 million globally and you think xbox could sell 200 million? Lol you need a mental health check.

if they actually pushed consoles, yes they could cause they have infinite money to do it, but they made their box an undesirable product and their brand stinks nowadays, so of course, today it's impossible for them

 

[Petekilla]

Lol, what are you on about? 200m isn't some crazy goal, it's easily achievable with the right leadership, someone like me. The PS2 sold 160m when gaming wasn't even half as big as it is today. And no most people didn't buy it because it was a DVD player....

The PS5 could've done 200m easily this gen if they still had real exclusives and didn't waste countless time/resources on competing hardware. But instead they threw that away to make pennies on PC. Last gen they made PS4 the best place to play, this gen, they made PC the best place to play. They missed their goal last FY, and they'll miss their goal again this FY. Console sales are declining 30% every month in every region. Now they'll be lucky to sell 100m consoles this gen

The Switch came off of the awful Wii U generation and had supply issues, so it got off to a very slow start. It still managed to do 140m+, possibly 150m by the end of its life cycle. The Switch 2 will easily do 200m wait and see

Saying the Switch got off to a “slow start” Now I know you’re talking nonsense. It was the fastest selling console of all time, during its first year. Also. “Switch 2 will do 200M”.

 

[Hatefield]

Yes, cause nothing changed except them not selling 80 million consoles cause 60% of them were broken.

 

[Petekilla]

Also I think the 360’s sales numbers were a fluke. Many of those sales came from PS2 owners that were pissed at how Sony were handling the PS3 launch and moved to 360. They eventually came back home to PS4. Also there were many people who bought multiple 360’s because of the RROD debacle. The Xbox One wasn’t going to reach 100M with a stronger PS, imo. Xbox just doesn’t have the worldwide reach that PS and Nintendo do. Xbox’s ceiling is 50-60M console sales.

 

[anonpuffs]

No, but they wouldn't be doing that much better. They have a problem selling to markets outside the US due to their abysmal language and localization support. They'd be very strong in the US though.

 

[GachaMadeMeBroke]

I don't know. I think Xbox always had a lot of issues selling to audiences around the world, but what I do know is, Xbox in their prime (OG box and 360) had the content to compete in the market. They had killer apps, they had 3rd party support hell they even had a ton of Japanese support too. I loved the 360 and if they had continued with that trajectory I would've probably still been in that ecosystem. Xbox legit managed to penetrate the gaming space that was predominantly dominated by Nintendo and Sony, and that's not an easy feat but they flushed all that down the drain. They fucking had the IP to dominate, we make fun of Gears and Halo but those games became worldwide hits with Halo being one of if not the biggest shooter of its time, HOW DO YOU FUCK THAT UP?? And that's why I don't know where Microsoft would've been because even with the content to succeed I feel like they don't have the leadership and vision to make Xbox what it could've been.

 

[Petekilla]

Speaking of console sales. These are great points by Colin. Good listen.

 

[Kokoloko]

Way better chance of surviving, than selling all your exclusives to a rival platform.
Only an idiot would do that.... oh wait

 

[ToTTenTranz]

Don Mattrick sucked but Phil Spencer sucks even more. Phil was also a higher up during Don Mattrick's days and was actually responsible for ruining their internal studios.

Exactly this.
Don Mattrick had a mostly successful rule building up successful and well functioning studios.
He and the rest of Microsoft screwed up the strategy and messaging around Xbox One, but at least they could still release decent games that made the Xbox sufficiently interesting as a platform which is by far the most important factor.


Phil Spencer is the one who was in charge when all the Xbox Studios, one after the other, started becoming incompetent with constant delays, cancellations during full-production and mediocre releases.
And then he doubled down by simply acquiring more studios and turning those incompetent as well.

 

[JAHGamer]

Saying the Switch got off to a “slow start” Now I know you’re talking nonsense. It was the fastest selling console of all time, during its first year. Also. “Switch 2 will do 200M”.

Multiple things can be true at once… it was a fast selling console AND there were supply issues AND a lot of people were still turned off by it because of the Wii U. So yes, the Switch did have a lot of factors working against it, that’s an objective truth. And it still managed to sell over 140m+

Everyone remembers how tough it was to get a Switch in 2017, stop acting disingenuous. And it was also difficult in 2020/2021. Which is why Nintendo is making it a high priority to have enough Switch 2’s to sell next year.

GameStop expects the Switch to be hard to find through 2017

CEO predicts "Wii-like" sales potential amid instant sell-outs of new shipments.

arstechnica.com

Component Shortage No Longer An Issue For Switch Successor, Says Nintendo

Furukawa talks combating scalpers

www.nintendolife.com

 

[On Demand]

They would be selling more consoles of course. Anything is better than Xbox Series sales. The market still wouldn’t be massively in their favor though.

PS3, Sony worst generation, started to outsell 360 in 2007 worldwide. 360 only got those extra 20M sales because of Kinect. The PlayStation brand is just too strong. Especially in Europe.

80M is PlayStation’s lowest limit even with a “bad” generation. Normal sales are over 100M.

Xbox only got to 80M because of Kinect. Normal sales for Xbox would be in the 60M range. MS has never sold 100M consoles even with all the exclusives they used to have. Their biggest market is the U.S. That severely limits them.

So yes they would be in a better position if they kept the 360 and XB1 strategy. But they wouldn’t fully control the market. Not with PlayStation and Nintendo around.

 

[Loy310]

Yup, because greed trumps everything.

 

[Johnic]

They wouldn't. At the very least, they'd be more competitive.

Xbox used to be a good brand during the first half of the 360 era. It was a console you looked at and saw things you wanted to play. They were at the forefront of gaming zeitgeist. Halo and Gears were HUGE.

At the same time, Sony was fumbling around. High prices, lack of games at the start of the gen and a late release.

Then MS shifted their focus for whatever reason. I guess they felt comfortable with where Sony was so they started pushing in another direction. People like to say the Xone killed the brand but it started in the 360 era. MS got so complacent that they stopped supporting the 360 with games. I believe that's where they started preparing their TV push. I feel they were too comfortable with Sony's position and they thought they'd go all out and be the one device people need.

However, they completely ignored why people buy console. Games. While MS was shifting focus to other things, Sony kept on pushing with games. TLOU released in 2013. That's the last year of a console's life cycle. That's a major risk. And it's software risks like that that enabled then to push ahead in the end.

Meanwhile, MS kept on pushing their new strategy of Kinect and everything else that wasn't core gaming, especially software. At the same time, they started pushing shills and PR mouthpieces. They even got caught paying youtubers to lie about the Xone. And it just kept on snowballing from there.

And while their lack of actual good software got them nowhere, they tried to compensate by huge astroturfing campaigns. You see the same campaigns today. They just keep changing them to what they need. Currently it's "exclusives are bad and don't sell much".

Bottom line is, MS is a creatively corrupt company. They can't create, only destroy, as evident by their latest releases. The xbox brand is ran by marketing people, who try to use buzzwords instead of actual software to lure people in. That's why you see these major "analysts" shills for them openly. They're more focused on actual PR than software development.