In terms of market share, yes. The Xbox 360 sold 84M units and the PlayStation 3 sold 83.8M units. So you had a 50/50 market share with Sony (not factoring in the Wii, 101.63M). When you consider the PS4 is already once again over the 80M mark and generous estimates have the Xbox One at the $35M you mentioned - sure, you're not looking for your next meal at $35M sold - but you have lost more than double your market share! And you're only losing more as Sony to this day continues to sell more PS4s than Microsoft does Xboxes, so that market share loss is widening.
Do you think Microsoft sees this as anything less than a failure? You may not, you're a gamer, what do you care if there's only one system sold, as long as it has the games you want you're happy. But from the business side of things that is a major (and widening) loss in market share. I guarantee you Microsoft is not saying "people are still buying Xboxes," they are saying, "How can we win back our market share?" and "How can our software compete in terms of sales against a user base that's more than double our own?"
For example, the
Witcher 3 has sold more than 33 million units. The Xbox has been responsible for 20% (2015), 14% (2016) and 15% (2017) of those sales, while the PlayStation is responsible for 48, 42 and 35 percent.
Means nothing to you or any Xbox owner. You can still play the Witcher 3, so what do you care? You don't. That's not the point. Point is we're talking business, which is different from the gamer perspective. And business wise, Microsoft knows that they're not competing on a level playing field in terms of user base, so if they're spending AAA money on exclusives, you can bet they want them to to have a higher possible ceiling of customers than the 30/35M or so Xbox owners - especially in comparison to the massive market share of their competitor.
I submit to you THIS is the reason why they opened their games up to PC, not because they own Windows -
they've owned Windows before they owned Xbox, you mean to tell me they only just now realized it? - and certainly not for any "for the gamer" talk or anything like that.
The problem that arises though is what BANGS (and let's be fair he's not the only one, Jim Sterling, etc.) have been saying.
The tradeoff for opening your software up to different hardware, is that now those people don't need your hardware if they want to play your software. This is not a point to be argued, it's just a statement of fact. This is 2 + 2 = 4. It's not an attack on you and your purchase of the Xbox One. It is not saying the Xbox One is worthless. This is not saying it's against the law to be an enthusiast and own both a gaming PC and an Xbox One.
This is not even the first time this has happened. Sega was once in the videogame hardware business, now they concentrate on software. Again, not saying that's where Microsoft is going, but I'm not saying they aren't going there either. Their name is Micro
soft after all. No one saying the Xbox brand is dead in the water either. A couple of years ago people were calling for Nintendo to concentrate on software, and look how they've turned it around.
But - to the question of is the Xbox One a failure? Maybe "failure" is harsh, but due to the massive loss in market share from the previous generation, it is certainly not a "success."