Phil Spencer: Microsoft subsidizes the cost [of Xbox consoles] to the tune of $100 to $200 per console

Bryank75

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Today, Spencer said, Microsoft gives people choice in how much they'd like to spend if they want consoles. The company offers the $499 Xbox Series X and the less powerful $299 Xbox Series S. Microsoft subsidizes the cost to the tune of $100 to $200 per console, with the expectation that it will make the money back on sales of accessories and storefront purchases, he said. It's up to gamers if they'd like to pay $10 or $15 per month for Game Pass subscriptions. They can also buy games outright, or play certain games for free.

Spencer said he doesn't think Microsoft will be able to keep the prices of games constant forever. But they can provide impressive amounts of entertainment in comparison with other pursuits. "People can play video games for hundreds of hours," he said
 

Sircaw

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So 100 bucks on the s and 200 on the x? is that how the subsiding works?

does that 3tflop wafer really cost so much more at the high end?.
 

Gediminas

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So 100 bucks on the s and 200 on the x? is that how the subsiding works?

does that 3tflop wafer really cost so much more at the high end?.
2+2, yes.
can you imagine, that garbage ss cost like 50$ less then PS5, glorified old gen machine, and whole gen is fucked by it 😂
so they go in huge debt over hardware but also from gamepass 😂
 

Killer_Sakoman

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"Spencer said he doesn't think Microsoft will be able to keep the prices of games constant forever"
What does that mean?
 

Sircaw

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2+2, yes.
can you imagine, that garbage ss cost like 50$ less then PS5, glorified old gen machine, and whole gen is fucked by it 😂
so they go in huge debt over hardware but also from gamepass 😂
it really is hard to believe but yer, absolutely crazy.
 

Loy310

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2+2, yes.
can you imagine, that garbage ss cost like 50$ less then PS5, glorified old gen machine, and whole gen is fucked by it 😂
so they go in huge debt over hardware but also from gamepass 😂
Its an amazing strategy……
 

Dr Bass

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Not sure I believe that either. That makes no sense. There is no way the SoC for the xsx is that much more than the ps5.

If it IS 200+ more to make than a ps5 that just seems like piss poor engineering.
 

Dabaus

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These are ps3 era losses on hardware, software sales are falling 3-4 percent each quarter per their financial statements, and game pass makes about a billion dollars in Revenue, not profit a year. This division is bleeding money, so much so regulator’s should be investigating how they they are allowed to lose this much money to gain market share.
 
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Weird because Sony is making money on PS5 even before price increase

That may have changed now after costs for components went up, but I imagine they definitely aren't taking a $100 loss on either model, let alone $200.

I'm guessing it comes down mostly to what companies MS are sourcing certain components from, like the PSU, capacitors, battery, wiring, heatsink etc. That, and/or what specific factories they are having their systems assembled at and their business contracts/relationships with those locations, what distribution & freighting services they are using for shipping units, warehouses for storing them, etc.

Maybe Sony just has better relationships with their suppliers in that respect than Microsoft does with theirs (either those they share with Sony or those that the two differ on), and can work out better pricing deals. I'm not factoring AMD into any of this btw, because I don't think Sony's pricing advantage with AMD would be significantly better than Microsoft's, though differences in APU wafer sizes could matter.

Something else though that some people probably don't want to consider is that the $100 - $200 loss per system COULD be in relation to unsold systems sitting in warehouses and within the channels. If the system's been made but it's taking too long to sell, that basically works its way out into a fiscal loss. Needing to discount systems rampantly over extended periods of time could also be costing them money, something I personally think has been happening with the Series S in multiple markets (even here in America) since at least August. You can find those regularly getting discounted for $279, $249 even $229 at some places and the deals just seem to keep recurring regularly.

Considering the stated purpose for Series S, compared to the total likely Series sales so far (where even though they're trending ahead of 360 and XBO, it's not by the amount you think it'd of been considering how the Series S has been positioned and advertised within the Xbox console ecosystem), I'm thinking the likelihood of unsold Series S units is probably the main contributor to the purported losses Phil's talking about. Obviously, they would never confirm or validate this in an interview, but it's an interesting coincidence.

So 100 bucks on the s and 200 on the x? is that how the subsiding works?

does that 3tflop wafer really cost so much more at the high end?.

No, I don't think either costs that much to produce. Honestly thinking the purported losses are coming from unsold inventory, primarily of Series S units.

It kind of gives some context to the constant sales deals for the system outside of the holiday season, because component costs differences in non-APU or RAM things would not add $100 or $200 in expenses to take a hit on. Even the differences in APUs wouldn't account for those kind of losses on their own.

So I'm thinking it has to come down to a notable amount of unsold inventory, mainly of Series S units.
 

Darth Vader

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That may have changed now after costs for components went up, but I imagine they definitely aren't taking a $100 loss on either model, let alone $200.

I'm guessing it comes down mostly to what companies MS are sourcing certain components from, like the PSU, capacitors, battery, wiring, heatsink etc. That, and/or what specific factories they are having their systems assembled at and their business contracts/relationships with those locations, what distribution & freighting services they are using for shipping units, warehouses for storing them, etc.

Maybe Sony just has better relationships with their suppliers in that respect than Microsoft does with theirs (either those they share with Sony or those that the two differ on), and can work out better pricing deals. I'm not factoring AMD into any of this btw, because I don't think Sony's pricing advantage with AMD would be significantly better than Microsoft's, though differences in APU wafer sizes could matter.

Something else though that some people probably don't want to consider is that the $100 - $200 loss per system COULD be in relation to unsold systems sitting in warehouses and within the channels. If the system's been made but it's taking too long to sell, that basically works its way out into a fiscal loss. Needing to discount systems rampantly over extended periods of time could also be costing them money, something I personally think has been happening with the Series S in multiple markets (even here in America) since at least August. You can find those regularly getting discounted for $279, $249 even $229 at some places and the deals just seem to keep recurring regularly.

Considering the stated purpose for Series S, compared to the total likely Series sales so far (where even though they're trending ahead of 360 and XBO, it's not by the amount you think it'd of been considering how the Series S has been positioned and advertised within the Xbox console ecosystem), I'm thinking the likelihood of unsold Series S units is probably the main contributor to the purported losses Phil's talking about. Obviously, they would never confirm or validate this in an interview, but it's an interesting coincidence.



No, I don't think either costs that much to produce. Honestly thinking the purported losses are coming from unsold inventory, primarily of Series S units.

It kind of gives some context to the constant sales deals for the system outside of the holiday season, because component costs differences in non-APU or RAM things would not add $100 or $200 in expenses to take a hit on. Even the differences in APUs wouldn't account for those kind of losses on their own.

So I'm thinking it has to come down to a notable amount of unsold inventory, mainly of Series S units.
Simple as Sony buying more components = cheaper prices. They have the added advantage of unified APU and major component production, which are shared between digital and disc versions.

Xbox not only buys fewer components but they have to source parts for two completely different consoles.
 
24 Jun 2022
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Simple as Sony buying more components = cheaper prices. They have the added advantage of unified APU and major component production, which are shared between digital and disc versions.

Xbox not only buys fewer components but they have to source parts for two completely different consoles.

I mean, that is part of it most likely, but there's more to it if they are taking $100 to $200 losses on the systems altogether. Sony may or may not be taking a loss on PS5s now after some cost increases, but if they are I doubt it is anything too much, maybe a $20 to $25 loss now but it honestly depends.

So that would still put Microsoft around at least $75 north of that, possibly even more, and these consoles are largely similar in many of the big areas. Same GPU technology, same CPU tech, same memory/RAM type, relatively similar costs overall on internal storage (Sony may have a more expensive I/O subsystem but MS are going with smaller, faster NAND modules for their internal storage, for example). Costs in motherboards shouldn't be astronomically different between the two, either.

So I'm thinking the main thing pushing MS's costs that high may be due to an excess of Series S units that are taking long periods to sell, and the recurring sales deals for it even here in America lend some support to that idea. It's just speculation though; only MS really know what's making them have to subsidize costs by that much at an average.
 

ethomaz

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$200 on Series X
$100 on Series S

Seems about right.
Sony PS5 is probably costing around $500… it was lower last year.
 

Dick Jones

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I imagine part of this subsidy stems from MS paying over the odds to get priority for components. They can't have thought they would be willing to accept long term subsided consoles hitting the market like that.