You keep going on about this same point about how the XSX would have changed things, and that maybe the case but we don't know.
We literally have a break down of XBS vs. PS5 sales month to month leading up to NOV, and the gaps early on started right after Xboxs last win which was right when Microsoft announced X supply issues, and those earlier gapes were so small Xbox clearly would have won those months if the X has stock.
Then before November we got the announcement not just from Phil Spencer that Xbox will be supply constrained this holiday AND going into 2023, we also got Xbox France, and another country (forgot the thread) having execs say there is not enough supply for the X to meet demand (well france said XBS but it's clearly not the XSS that was supply constrained.)
Let's be frank here, the Xbox Series sales gap widening is due to incompetence.
But what your not understanding is people are looking at the strategy MS used during the holidays of relying on XSS + gamepass + discount. Which clearly has not worked to keep up with competition.
Why would XSS+Gamepass_Discount by ITSELF keep up with the PS5 when the Series S is widely known as the digital-only weaker entry level thing, and many people actually want PS5/Series X level graphics?
You're using the same strange logic people did saying that people were buying the XSS because they couldn't find a PS5, despite wanting a PS5 exclusively for capabilities and/or games.
The Xbox Series S by itself propelled the XBS during a low stock X November (outside of Black Friday) to sell over 800K consoles. That's the best performance we will ever see the Series S do without support, period.
I have no idea why people though XBS would win with XSS alone, originally, people were expecting a win because they believed Microsoft would have a crap load of stock ready for Nov, that they ended up backtracking on. So I have no idea how it flipped to XSS alone outselling the PS5.
It was the "OTHER" people that said that MS' strategy was the correct one due to the cost to the consumer and that Sony should have copied them. So now all of a sudden that's not the case now? I been told people on this forum that the XSS was a mistake, yet here we are.
None of this makes sense.
The only strategy MS had after backtracking on their promises of big X stock this holiday, was to cut the S price from the start of the holiday season across both months near entirely, to make up for no X stock. That was always the case, and all those promotional threads were for that reason, those promotions were made so MS could try and cover for the lack of X to balance out XBS sales.
Yes, in one way Sony should have copied them, because in hindsight Sony was able to get PS5 production going faster and Xbox was not for the X, which many people predicted in the opposite direction months ago. So if they did a Series S console with the PS5 along with the PS5, right now their sales would be higher
Because Xbox failed to improve, now the XBS sales are lower.