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[Night Angel]

Couldn't we say the same for the Xbox 360 too though? There were multiple months in which the Wii sold double what the 360 did in NA alone. I want to even say there were a few months in which the Wii sold almost triple since I remember a non-Holiday month in which the Wii was over 800,000 for NPD.

You could, if you wanted to grossly misrepresent the argument. Aside from Chobel's (good) point, the 360 was a HUGE turnaround for MS and was much more successful than their first (failed) attempt. It was ahead of its main competitor for most of its life in key markets. We have yet to see what MS will do when they lose such a massive chunk of its market share in this arena.

EDIT: Sorry about the double post.

 

[serversurfer]

3rd party support is helping to sell the system as well as online subscriptions. If sales of the games remain pretty solid then yes, it should keep on getting support in/after 2016.

It will still get the support of blockbuster games with budgets big enough to chase the high-hanging fruit, sure. The support of smaller teams who can't afford to devote an entire additional team to take their sales from 100K to 110K? Maybe not so much.

"Better variety" depends on what someone is interested in but I agree that the Wii U is a better console to have alongside the PS4 than the Xbox One is since there's more differences in features & gaming content.

Yeah, that's what I was getting at. We have Gran Turismo, Forza, and Mario Kart. All great racing games in their own right, but two of them scratch virtually the same itch. If you already have Gran Turismo, would you rather have more of the same with worse graphics, or a completely different experience with a different art style?

The Wii U isn't going to "resurge" though in my opinion if it remains the price of a primary console ($300). As you said, many will find it good as a secondary console that compliments the PS4 but it needs to be a cheaper price before that view becomes popular.

Sure, the price will need to come down a bit more before the masses start to seriously consider it as a second console, but again, this is another area where they have a significant head start on their most direct competitor, the XBone.

To be clear, when I said resurgence, I didn't mean they'd suddenly go on to 75M sales or whatever. What I meant was that if we do find ourselves in a situation where the Wii U becomes "the obvious choice to complement your PlayStation," then it could start selling faster than the XBone does, and possibly earn itself a comfortable hold on 2nd place by the end of the generation. I'd consider that a resurgence from where most people currently have them ranked; "likely a distant 3rd place." /shrug

But aside from the original Xbox, we haven't seen how MS reacts when they have a console that is selling poorly compared to the market leader. Who knows what they are thinking right now with the Xbone.

They seem to be gearing up for a big fight with Sony, but it sounds like they'd be better served by gearing up for a big fight with Nintendo.

 

[ethomaz]

I don't know about you guys but I think this will be last time MS will try to compete in console business.

Yeap I don't believe in Xbone 2.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

I don't see Microsoft rushing out a new console early being much of a viable strategy. People didn't pick up a 360 simply because it was early, but because it was the better alternative when Sony ended up launching the PS3 which was just a huge disaster at first. What if the PS3 wasn't a disaster, and was reasonably priced AND more powerful, with a good UI, AND had capable early software? 360 probably wouldn't have seen that same level of success. There were a lot of folks that waited for the PS3, and then ended up picking up a 360 because it was a better choice given the price, power, online infrastructure, and software.

This current gen is more important than any others, as establishing a digital consumer base to carry forward into next-gen will be pivotal, imho.

Backwards compatibility is looking very real next-gen, and people will want to continue to use their digital lineups, including what they are getting from PS+.

 

[Night Angel]

I don't know about you guys but I think this will be last time MS will try to compete in console business.

Yeap I don't believe in Xbone 2.

Xbox 2: Electric Boogaloo?

No, really, what in the hell are they going to call the thing?

I'm imagining a scenario where the internet nickname for it is "the Deuce." Poor, poor MS marketing department.

 

[Averon]

To this day I still don't understand why MS made the XB1 so American centric. They were just asking to get blown out in Europe designing and presenting the XB1 the way they did.

 

[Hoo-doo]

Xbone will be replaced by Xtwo in 2017 at the earliest, maybe even in 2018. Console will sell between 30 and 40 million worldwide, so not a huge success, but more than OG Xbox and more than enough for MS to stay in the business (they've been making games for much longer than they've been making consoles, they are in it for the long haul imo).

MS' game division has a much better team than at Xbone launch, so gaming focused system with multimedia features and multitasking like Xbone with specs competitors can't match (hardware sold at a loss), crazy marketing, more paid exclusives, and same price as competitors. Boom.gif

So after a very unsuccessful venture with the XB1 they are just going to do it all over again? Invest billions in a newer version of a product that has proven to be wildly undesirable a few years ago? Taking losses out the ass while the PS4 starts dropping to mass-market prices?

I hope Nadella is more intelligent than that.

 

[Markitron]

I'm curious to see if MS have it in them to turn it around as well as Sony did with the PS3.

It only took the best hardware redesign ever and constant flow of high quality exclusives.

I'll buy an XB1 if they can manage it, they probably won't though.

 

[Prototype Viktor]

9 months in and we are talking about early retirement for X1 already? lol

Xbone the Tim Tebow of consoles

 

[BriGuy]

I'm curious to see if MS have it in them to turn it around as well as Sony did with the PS3.

It only took the best hardware redesign ever and constant flow of high quality exclusives.

I'll buy an XB1 if they can manage it, they probably won't though.

I'm more worried about how they're going to attempt to reverse their fortunes. These are the same people that released a fricking HD-DVD add-on to try to take the wind out of the PS3's (and Bluray's) sails. Microsoft has no problem waging wars of attrition, so look forward to plenty of formerly multiplatform games becoming Xbox exclusive.

 

[ethomaz]

9 months in and we are talking about early retirement for X1 already? lol

How much time after release the talk about Dreamcast retirement started?

 

[Markitron]

I'm more worried about how they're going to attempt to reverse their fortunes. These are the same people that released a fricking HD-DVD add-on to try to take the wind out of the PS3's (and Bluray's) sails. Microsoft has no problem waging wars of attrition, so look forward to plenty of formerly multiplatform games becoming Xbox exclusive.

Whilst I do share your concerns, I think the days of 3rd party exclusives are long gone. Now that the dust has settled I am assuming Titanfall was not the success it was expected to be? Genuinely curious, if anyone has any somewhat recent numbers handy.

 

[gundamkyoukai]

I'm more worried about how they're going to attempt to reverse their fortunes. These are the same people that released a fricking HD-DVD add-on to try to take the wind out of the PS3's (and Bluray's) sails. Microsoft has no problem waging wars of attrition, so look forward to plenty of formerly multiplatform games becoming Xbox exclusive.

That is not going to happen , games to expensive to make now and no 3rd party company wants less money or to hurt there IP.
MS could have gotten away with that before this gen started but the numbers out now and they getting destroy .

 

[gioGAF]

I'm more worried about how they're going to attempt to reverse their fortunes. These are the same people that released a fricking HD-DVD add-on to try to take the wind out of the PS3's (and Bluray's) sails. Microsoft has no problem waging wars of attrition, so look forward to plenty of formerly multiplatform games becoming Xbox exclusive.

How is this supposed to happen? They don't have quality first party studios like Sony had with the PS3 and the farther behind the Xbone falls, the harder it will become for them to buy exclusives.

 

[1st Course]

To this day I still don't understand why MS made the XB1 so American centric. They were just asking to get blown out in Europe designing and presenting the XB1 the way they did.

MS execs just don't get it. Instead of trying to expand into emerging markets like most other companies they spend even more money on the US, an already very saturated market with little to non growth opportunities.

Companies like GM and Apple saw great success in emerging markets recently. China is actually the #2 market for apple now and on track to surpass the US as #1 eventually.

 

[klee123]

I'm more worried about how they're going to attempt to reverse their fortunes. These are the same people that released a fricking HD-DVD add-on to try to take the wind out of the PS3's (and Bluray's) sails. Microsoft has no problem waging wars of attrition, so look forward to plenty of formerly multiplatform games becoming Xbox exclusive.

People said the same shit in the past and making predictions about the "huge" third party exclusives that MS is going to get before major events like E3 etc. Most of them ate crow.

With these numbers are out, it'll be even more difficult for major publishers.

 

[LastGamer84]

I'm more worried about how they're going to attempt to reverse their fortunes. These are the same people that released a fricking HD-DVD add-on to try to take the wind out of the PS3's (and Bluray's) sails. Microsoft has no problem waging wars of attrition, so look forward to plenty of formerly multiplatform games becoming Xbox exclusive.

I think people have been assuming MS was going to moneyhat some exclusives since this before this generation started. They figured even with the higher price point - MS would just throw money at EA or whoever to secure a big exclusive to spite Sony. MS as a company has bigger reserves of funds than Sony. The problem is, they already tried this with Titanfall, and it backfired. It wasn't the blockbuster they needed it to be.

Now, Sony has the sales lead WW. No third party in their right mind is going to give them more than token exclusive DLC. Nor is MS as a company going to authorize spending the crazy amount of money it would take to make say Dragon Age or the next Mass Effect exclusive again. The new president of MS may have said some kind words about the Xbox division, but knows full well that division has to turn itself around without pouring even more money into that pit.

At this point, MS should concentrate on making sure Nintendo doesn't eat their lunch. One more price drop of $50 would probably tip sales back in the favor of the WiiU. The Xbox One doesn't have the exclusives it needs to entice most people to adopt it as their primary or even secondary console. As a third party machine it's tolerable, but not great. Now everyone and their friends are on PS4, so it doesn't have that "well my friends have it so I'll get it" perception to keep it going.

 

[Coulomb_Barrier]

So, what is their goal, then? Why are they going to plough billions of dollars into launching another system so soon after they've just done the same for the Xbox One? To beat Sony - a Japanese electronics manufacturer that's otherwise in dire straits? It just doesn't make sense.

Well you've alluded to the fact that Xbox One is a multi-billion dollar product in your post.

You don't pump billions into a product so you can end up with 140k average monthly sales in your strongest market and get outsold 4:1 in every major European territory bar the UK. No company can follow that business plan, it's suicidal.

So from an investor POV, if this is the reality, questions will start being asked. The investments in the product are not seeing any worthwhile return, and far from growing the install base to the hundreds of millions which was mooted before the start of the gen by MS, it looks almost a lock at this point that the userbase will actually shrink dramatically from the 80m 360 userbase last gen.

What was their goal? Well with the investment they made, they envisioned the Xbone in every other living room and for it to take the Western market by storm. It hasn't and it won't achieve this level of success so what their goal is now I really don't know.

 

[theprodigy]

What I meant was that if we do find ourselves in a situation where the Wii U becomes "the obvious choice to complement your PlayStation," then it could start selling faster than the XBone does, and possibly earn itself a comfortable hold on 2nd place by the end of the generation. I'd consider that a resurgence from where most people currently have them ranked; "likely a distant 3rd place." /shrug

They seem to be gearing up for a big fight with Sony, but it sounds like they'd be better served by gearing up for a big fight with Nintendo.

Not this crap again....just because the battle for 2nd is closer than the one for 1st doesn't mean it will be much of a competition.

And the idea of multi-console owners providing a significant boost is laughable.

 

[HORRORSHØW]

To this day I still don't understand why MS made the XB1 so American centric.

it's NSA funded.

 

[synce]

Obviously credit to BKK for finding this

Source appears to be GFK which is comparable to NPD for Europe



-----------------------

Remember that

PS4 2013 German YTD = 250,000
XB1 2013 German YTD = 100,000

Thus

PS4 2014 German YTD = 290,000
XB1 2014 German YTD = 70,000

Haha wow... I can't wait to see Japan.