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Do you think Microsoft will ever win a generation in sales?

Explain why not? If MS puts out a two hit combo that is practical, I can see them doing some good numbers where it counts. I already said that the console side stands no chance but a carefully planned XBPC and XB console move could do wonders for them.

Did their store suddenly become successful? Did their brand rise from the dealer in Europe and Asia? It's ludicrous.
 

Wollan

Member
It's a battle of ecosystems.
Fumbling up the Xbox One terribly in 2013 at the advent of console digital sales taking off was the worst possible timing by Microsoft. Sony really rooted themselves with a quality PS4 & PSN.

Sony will likely remain the largest console-gaming ecosystem for the foreseeable future.
But maybe Nintendo could make a comeback with their mobile-offerings + hybrid Switch.
Or one of the trendy giants w/global-presence (Google/Apple/Facebook?) will make a proper move towards traditional consoles but likely not be interested w/the future being mobile & AR/VR.
 

wapplew

Member
It's not a question about will or will not, it's a question about how badly MS want to be market leader.
If they really want it, no one can stop them.
 

xxracerxx

Don't worry, I'll vouch for them.
Explain why not? If MS puts out a two hit combo that is practical, I can see them doing some good numbers where it counts. I already said that the console side stands no chance but a carefully planned XBPC and XB console move could do wonders for them.

An Xbox branded PC sounds pretty awful...it would be better to put out a Surface console.

It's not a question about will or will not, it's a question about how badly MS want to be market leader.
If they really want it, no one can stop them.

This line of thinking is ridiculous...it is like saying MS has infinite money to spend on the Xbox division.
 
...Maybe? Who knew Wii would be the phenom it was? Maybe they strike gold and sell 100 million Xbox Twos. I doubt and I doubt they believe that either. They want you in their ecosystem spending money.
 

Salty Hippo

Member
Its hard for xbox to win because the Playstation brand is so deep. Seriously comparing the stables of each company I jst dont think its possible. If Microsoft released the greatest lineup of games, the most powerful hardware. All Sony has to do is release the next masterpiece fron naughty dog, or something like spiderman, days gone, death Stranding. Something from their worldwide studios just puts them on the map with gamers.

Ms has a chance in NA. No doubt, but it just takes one game to even the odds. I still think the last of us was the biggest momentum shift ever. Not just from last gen but it carried over to this Gen in a big way. Everybody was talking about it in a time when the 360 was just cruising on 3Rd party games. Why wouldnt somebody buy a playstation system for Atleast one of those games. Example right now is death Stranding, I walked in to my work and people were talking about it. Its not just nostalgia (crash bandicoot) but something out of the norm is what PS is about. It will never go away,ever.

I think you are severely overestimating those games and forgetting how dry Xbox has been in terms of announcements. If MS did in fact have the greatest lineup, between both released and upcoming games, a Days Gone wouldn't mean shit.
 

kyser73

Member
Looking at current global sales distribution, MS is heavily loaded to the US - 65% by some estimates. By contrast estimates for Sony are ~35%.

Sony is continuing the work in markets in Asia & the ME (and China) as they did from the beginning in the EU, and started with PS2's ultra long tail in what were then not even developing markets - localising games, localising marketing & building retail presence.

It's the kind of long game that MS doesn't seem to pay any attention to for Xbox (which amazes me as they certainly have the localisation resources from Windows & Office), and these are the markets where the growth in the medium term will come from. The EU, NA & Canada are mature markets which are stable - declining long term.

So unless MS does something truly radical to make up ground in both a mature market (EU) and the markets where the next growth will come from, the answer to the OP's question is no.
 

jesu

Member
If they hadn't screwed up this gen with the under powered console and the unpopular online demands they would be coasting.
But whether or not they release another console after the Scorpio is another matter...
 

Sydle

Member
Anything is possible, but I think it's unlikely without a seismic shift in their approach.

I believe one of their most obvious paths to significantly increasing sales is making the Xbox a real Windows machine that can play anything a Windows 10 PC can, including Steam, GOG, etc., and riding what seems like a growing wave of momentum for PC gaming. It would automatically have the biggest gaming library always.

It means they would have to make their Windows Store far more competitive if they want to get growing digital sales, but I think that would light the right kind of fire under that team's collective ass to make it better.

Not happening, but that would be the big kind of huge consumer-friendly risk they would have to take at this point to turn things around for their console sales WW.
 
I didn't see his post. Now that I have, I'm just laughing at both posts.

People can't face fact that XB as a console alone won't win.

On mobile but I recall Microsoft posting their 80m consoles sales acknowledgment several weeks/months before Sony did the same for PS3.

I don't know where the narrative that the PS3 outsold the 360 came from but it's never been accurate iirc and I only recall it being a widespread belief at the start of this gen.
 

Shock32

Member
I think you are severely overestimating those games and forgetting how dry Xbox has been in terms of announcements. If MS did in fact have the greatest lineup, between both released and upcoming games, a Days Gone wouldn't mean shit.

I think it could mean something, nobody knows at this stage;but thats the point. Sony has proven themselves for 20 something years. Im not knocking MS, I hope they release awesome games. Great games are good for everyone. But sticking to the topic they are going to have to prove themselves time and time again, not just give up if an IP isn't successfull after one game. Invest is new ideas cause who knows what can be successful and "generation defining".
 
On mobile but I recall Microsoft posting their 80m consoles sales acknowledgment several weeks/months before Sony did the same for PS3.

I don't know where the narrative that the PS3 outsold the 360 came from but it's never been accurate iirc and I only recall it being a widespread belief at the start of this gen.
Found the sources.
October 2013: Xbox 360 hits 80 million.
November 2013: PS3 hits 80 million.

Edit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_consoles

You need to read the notes on each of them though, to get a better picture.

Either way they are almost too close to call a clear winner.
Ahh, so there were more numbers released, thanks.
 

boingball

Member
Never. They just don't understand consumer markets outside of the US and MS has never shown that they can learn (they don't want to change and wait for the consumers to change)
 

Gren

Member
Never say never, but if they didn't "win" with the 360's early courting of JPN games, generally better multiplats, burgeoning Indie support, & later Kinect sales phenomenom, I can't imagine them having a better shot again.
 
US? Of course. Worldwide? Lol no. MS has had three generations to build up a good base in the EU and Asia and sales have only gotten worse (I do believe its only selling double digits in Japan).
 
US? Of course. Worldwide? Lol no. MS has had three generations to build up a good base in the EU and Asia and sales have only gotten worse (I do believe its only selling double digits in Japan).
EU I think it could still be possible but incredibly hard since like you said, MS has been floundering there since the inception of the Xbox.

Asia? It's not possible. They tried hard as hell during the OG Xbox but it just did not work. Only thing I can think of is if some other company from Japan or something marketed and released the Xbox in Asian markets but that's not happening :l
 

Shiggy

Member
The Xbox brand and division doesn't really have that much support within the company. They seem relatively limited when it comes to internal projects, with a heavy focus on Forza, Halo, and GoW. Studios which did other titles more suitable for a wider audience either got shut down entirely (Lionhead) or heavily downsized (Rare) to increase profitability. Obviously, to increase sales, this approach does not work.

With how they are supporting the Xbox One right now, I wouldn't be surprised to see them leaving the dedicated home console business in the future. Instead, they will probably release Win 10 gaming machines with an Xbox UI.
 

Apt101

Member
As most everyone has mentioned, probably not worldwide as long as Sony is in the game. But I think they could win a generation outside of the US in either Canada or the UK if they get off to a good start.
 

crash-14

Member
Not likely. They only really cater to a certain type of demographic.

that's the jackpot.

It totally works for them, but other than the first 2 years of 360 I haven't seen effort to become even bigger by appealing other demographic with IPs variety.

360 ended up being the shooter multiplayer machine, something that definitely worked on US but never was gonna work as "brand builder" in the other markets

And I guess that's the difference between Playstation and Xbox. If we look back at Gamescom/PGW press conference, you'll see that they featured very diverse IPs that has nothing to do with guns, soldiers and all that. They now there can't be the same marketing approach.

And yes, Ps can do that cuz they have more first party studios, but they've been working on this strategy that has totally worked. That allows you to try and "fail" with things like Modnation Racers while having Gran Turismo 5 and WipEout HD, or creating something like journey while you're flying on top of that Naughty Dog money.

What has Xbox tried? Make exclusive deals with FIFA and pretty much that's it. That alone ain't gonna work. They had their chance but they didn't wanted to keep pushing new and creative first party IP's. Maybe it was a "mistake" to focus on exclusive deals with third partys (Mass Effect, Bioshock, etc) instead of invest in create or buy first party studios.

And that's speaking about Europe. I could say things about Japan and all that "protectionism" crap but it'll make this post even bigger. We are talking about a country that has fully endorse Apple and has KFC as a traditional meal for Christmas day... You can totally success on that market if you do things correctly.

I guess in many peoples mind, microsoft can't just do something like Little Big Planet or The Last Guardian (And if they do, it has to be on Ori's scale).
 
Yes, they can. Microsoft needs a way to come up with an affordable handheld PC that can run all Windows 10 Steam software and that can also be docked to run on TV like Nintendo's Switch.
 
It's possible. They'd need to land a home run in the States and the U.K. And break out in emerging markets like Latin American and China. Japan is becoming less viable as console market.

It's not likely but to assume markets will stay this way forever is equally far fetched. Consoles sales ultimately won't matter though. Services and eco system is where the future is headed.
 
I doubt it. I imagine a convergence of sorts before the Xbox brand really dominates worldwide. The gaming side of Microsoft seems more like a pet project than a business arm. Though I'm looking at it from a Sony/PC gamer perspective, so I don't have all the facts.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
I dont think meteors is needed. It wasn't involved when Playstation Portable lost to the Nintendo DS by a huge margin.

PSP still ate a large portion of Nintendo's lunch in a market they had never previously been in before hand even with Nintendo's gameboy presence going back decades before. Over 80 million sales of the PSP isn't a joke.

Of course when it came down to it, Nintendo were just far stronger in the handheld space than Sony was, but you could flip it around in the console space.

The wii was the first and only time a Nintendo home console had ever gotten past 50 million units in general.
 

OmahaG8

Member
It's a testament to how well Sony pulled out of their PS3 nosedive that some don't even recall the horrid first few years. 360 started the generation my clear favorite and it ended with PS3 being my clear favorite.

Not to mention the inflated sales numbers from RROD. I bought three 360s and only had one PS3- a 60 GB that still runs fine.
 

Fou-Lu

Member
Nah. I don't see it happening. People like Xbox, but Playstation and Nintendo? Those names are gaming.

Plz come back SEGA!
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
Not to mention the inflated sales numbers from RROD. I bought three 360s and only had one PS3- a 60 GB that still runs fine.

I was always weirded out by the RROD stories i heard. I had a 2006 OG 360 that sounded like a jet engine taking off. Despite that, i only sold off it off in 2011 for a matte S model and it had worked like a charm up until that point.

Knock on wood that my PS3 Slim i bought in 2010 still works like a charm as well.
 
Of course it could happen. It would just take a combination of a really strong gen for XBOX and a weak one from Sony/Nintendo. Will it happen in the next 5-10 years? Probably not likely, but who really knows. Each of the big 3 has had serious missteps, even within the last couple gens.

The "brand strength" argument is silly to me, they're all very strong brands. A few shifts here and there can change people's outlook entirely.
 

Wagram

Member
Worldwide? Probably not as long as Nintendo and Sony share the pool, but never say never. They need to diversify and both Nintendo and Sony offer a hell of a lot more diversification in software than Microsoft.
 
You're mistaken. The 360 outsold the PS3.

It was erroneously reported near the end of the generation that the PS3 had outsold the 360, but this was not correct.



It's always funny to me when people go "ah but the Xbox only sells the best in America," as if that matters.

America is a bigger market than the rest of the world combined. The 360 selling better in the US and UK alone is why it outsold the PS3.

I hope you'll post at least some kind of source for the allegations.

Explain why not? If MS puts out a two hit combo that is practical, I can see them doing some good numbers where it counts. I already said that the console side stands no chance but a carefully planned XBPC and XB console move could do wonders for them.

Will Microsoft have the support of the Japanese industry?

And even if they did why would someone switch from Playstation (which basically means gaming alongside Nintendo in a lot of European countries)?
 
You're mistaken. The 360 outsold the PS3.

It was erroneously reported near the end of the generation that the PS3 had outsold the 360, but this was not correct.



It's always funny to me when people go "ah but the Xbox only sells the best in America," as if that matters.

America is a bigger market than the rest of the world combined. The 360 selling better in the US and UK alone is why it outsold the PS3.

This is comedy gold!
 
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