BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Now that makes sense. It was a defensive move. But at what cost?
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VentureBeat: Microsofts Xbox and gaming sales decline 9%
- Thread starter Rymuth
- Start date
Simply Sami
Member
So you are forced to buy Scorpio? Last time I checked you aren't. Just like you aren't forced to buy a Neo too.
Unreal Champ
Banned
Putting all your exclusives on the PC isn't going to help your console either.
... or maybe they are keeping with tradition of announcing the Slim at E3 and release quickly after?
Should be interesting to see if the get an uptick when XB1 S comes out. Being the cheapest UHD Bluray player on the market should account for something.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
When has MSFT keep to anything 'tradition' in their console foray?
And by tradition, you mean, once?
The last comment we had about August officially from them, was 'slow pre-season'... now their 4th quarter fiscal is down, signs would point to that more.
But it could be either way as well.
Simply Sami
Member
They make very little on consoles. If people are buying the games on PC they still win.
MS don't really care either way as long as you buy their software.
You're the only person in the thread that carries any weight for the discussion as beyond purely discussion, and that's quite a comment to make. I didn't realize it was quite that level for them.
Delusibeta
Banned
Huh? August and September 2016 hasn't happened yet. We're talking April 2016 through to June 2016 here.
Is the $299 model also launching alongside the 2TB model? Because I have my doubts that a $399 model will sell gangbusters. Maybe they'll get a UHD bump but I seriously doubt that.
Mikey Jr.
Member
To stem the growth of the Playstation so they just don't completely run away from Xbox. I guess maybe it was better to take the hit now, rather than not saying anything, and everyone just defaulting to the Neo.
LordBaztion
Member
I don't expect MS console sales to rise considering their are heading towards a hardware agnostic platform.
StalkerUKCG
Banned
Yup, My mistake, Microsoft work July - June.
I mean 17 days isn't really enough time to lose 9% on 3 month of earnings unless they dropped off the charts after E3 which doesn't seem likely.
Still the results are poor.
Quantum Break - April - Xbox/Windows Exclusive
Dark Souls 3 - April
Destiny April Update - April
Fallout 4 Wasteland Workshop DLC - April
Doom - May
Fallout 3 Far Habour DLC - May
Overwatch - May
The Witcher 3 Blood and Wine Expansion - May
Mirrors Edge Catalyst - June
Fallout 4 Contraptions Workshop DLC - June
The Division: DLC 1 Underground - June - Timed Xbox Exclusive
The period had some fairly big titles and content patches that should have kept steady business for them. The competition did launch strong titles like
Ratchet and Clank - April
Uncharted 4 - May
Which could have somewhat impacted sales for those months since they where both high profile titles. More so than anything Xbox had outside of maybe Quantum Break which was a mixed bag review wise
I mean 17 days isn't really enough time to lose 9% on 3 month of earnings unless they dropped off the charts after E3 which doesn't seem likely.
Still the results are poor.
Quantum Break - April - Xbox/Windows Exclusive
Dark Souls 3 - April
Destiny April Update - April
Fallout 4 Wasteland Workshop DLC - April
Doom - May
Fallout 3 Far Habour DLC - May
Overwatch - May
The Witcher 3 Blood and Wine Expansion - May
Mirrors Edge Catalyst - June
Fallout 4 Contraptions Workshop DLC - June
The Division: DLC 1 Underground - June - Timed Xbox Exclusive
The period had some fairly big titles and content patches that should have kept steady business for them. The competition did launch strong titles like
Ratchet and Clank - April
Uncharted 4 - May
Which could have somewhat impacted sales for those months since they where both high profile titles. More so than anything Xbox had outside of maybe Quantum Break which was a mixed bag review wise
nhlducks35
Member
Microsoft fiscal year is July 1-June 30
I believe this isn't even the first time Matt commented on Microsoft's current situation with such tone either. Yeah, it's..."interesting" (NPD-GAF memes live on!) that the situation is seemingly on this kind of level, or even just around it.
Iacobellis
Junior Member
Without coming off as rude, what is Matt known for when it comes to this discussion?
vpance
Member
It's a short term pain for the hopes of long term gain strategy. But as long as Steam is in the way it'll continue to be difficult for them.
therealbigrich
Member
I was thinking the same thing ... Thought I was going crazy for a second
Lionel Richie
Member
The decline is referent to the months prior to that announcement, although it was already a rumor, I guess? I'm really curious as to how the Neo announcement is going to reflect on the PS4 sales.
They released both the Xbox 360 Slim and the E right after E3.
Delusibeta
Banned
There's a big problem with this argument: Xbox Live Gold. PC gamers aren't going to be paying for Gold, and last time Microsoft tried to get PC gamers to pay for Gold it backfired horribly. Microsoft is basically looking for a complete vitalization of the Windows 10 Store if they're going to offset the potential loss of Gold subscriptions.
Matt is a developer in the know in the industry. His word is considered basically law on these sort of subjects, and he weighs in when he feels it's relevant. Stuff he has perspective on that can sometimes be pretty high level.
Goose_Se7en
Banned
Mattrick fucked up the brand so much. They are still people, who believe that they can't use their used games on the machine. I'm calling it now...unless Scorpio provides a crazy boost MS has lost this generation of console wars. They can't tout MAU all they want but we all know that's bs.
Last gen Sony rallied and came back with a strong effort put forth by their 1st party efforts and by their strong markets hate in other regions outside of NA.
Unfortunately MS with Xbox doesn't have that. NA is "their" market and they clearly aren't outselling Sony here. It's not all doom and gloom for MS tho. They have Scorpio, they have the Xbox One S at a lower price point and they also have quality games.
Hopefully Spencer and Co. can turn this ship around. My fear is that MS leadership may wanna spin offthe Xbox division and I personally don't want that.
Last gen Sony rallied and came back with a strong effort put forth by their 1st party efforts and by their strong markets hate in other regions outside of NA.
Unfortunately MS with Xbox doesn't have that. NA is "their" market and they clearly aren't outselling Sony here. It's not all doom and gloom for MS tho. They have Scorpio, they have the Xbox One S at a lower price point and they also have quality games.
Hopefully Spencer and Co. can turn this ship around. My fear is that MS leadership may wanna spin offthe Xbox division and I personally don't want that.
Welfare
Member
LMAO at Scorpio being a reason for why it is down. Xbox One sales in the US were down 22% YoY for the Apr - Jun period and it was available for even less money this year than last year. Xbox One's last year were at least $349 and had trade in deals. This year they were available for at least $279.
We also know UK sales are down 15.8% in volume YTD in May, and was down 27.4% in revenue. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1224063
Only down 9% YoY is actually surprising. Thought it would be worse.
We also know UK sales are down 15.8% in volume YTD in May, and was down 27.4% in revenue. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1224063
Only down 9% YoY is actually surprising. Thought it would be worse.
therealbigrich
Member
Well they did announce a really cheap system in the S that also does new things with games that are coming out this year. I think MS might be thinking that the games they show are good enough that ppl with out gaming PCs will go out and buy the X1 S.
LegendofLex
Member
Both Sony and Microsoft want an uptick in hardware units sold and an increase in the average selling price per unit, and that's probably the real business reason behind their upcoming refreshes.
Microsoft just needs it.
Microsoft just needs it.
Banjo-Kazooie
Member
High profile releases for comparison
April - June 2015
Dark Souls 2
Mortal Kombat X
SOD: Year One (probably didn't sell much but included since 1st party)
Wolfenstein Old Blood
Project Cars
Witcher 3
Elder Scrolls Online
Batman Arkham Knight
April - June 2016
Quantum Break (sold horribly)
Dark Souls 3
Battleborn (bombed on everything)
Doom
Homefront (lol)
Overwatch
Dead Island DE (lol)
Mirror's Edge (bombed)
Lego Star Wars: TFA
Pretty sure Witcher 3 last year alone probably sold more copies than this years lineup on Xbox. Then you had Mortal Kombat and Arkham Knight (albeit only a week of tracking but still).
Only thing saving this year is Overwatch but even that's only been out a month. The rest of the high profile releases this year have bombed from the sales data we have seen.
April - June 2015
Dark Souls 2
Mortal Kombat X
SOD: Year One (probably didn't sell much but included since 1st party)
Wolfenstein Old Blood
Project Cars
Witcher 3
Elder Scrolls Online
Batman Arkham Knight
April - June 2016
Quantum Break (sold horribly)
Dark Souls 3
Battleborn (bombed on everything)
Doom
Homefront (lol)
Overwatch
Dead Island DE (lol)
Mirror's Edge (bombed)
Lego Star Wars: TFA
Pretty sure Witcher 3 last year alone probably sold more copies than this years lineup on Xbox. Then you had Mortal Kombat and Arkham Knight (albeit only a week of tracking but still).
Only thing saving this year is Overwatch but even that's only been out a month. The rest of the high profile releases this year have bombed from the sales data we have seen.
Yeesh. Didn't know it was that bad.
Developer that has access to things that are telling that Scorpio is Xbox's last chance?
I thought he was working high up at Microsoft.
therealbigrich
Member
I think if they make it you have to go through MS store they wouldn't need Gold. Basically on Xbox you can go through BB, Amazon, Gamstop etc to buy games and they take a cut . By eliminating that (if possible) it would eliminate the need for Gold on windows imo
Goose_Se7en
Banned
Agreed. I expected Abdiel to mention that Matt is or was in fact someone who had intimate knowledge of the ins and outs of the Xbox division. No disrespect to Matt of course, I have been on here long enough or lurked long enough before that to recognize Matt.
michaelius
Banned
This quarter only had few weeks of impact from Scorpio annoucement - next one will be more interesting
Well 4 months isn't a long time to wait for the $299. I will add that the Samsung UBD-K8500 which I believe is the cheapest UBD player on the market is retail $399 on sale for $369. I'm sure the value of having a game machine will be worth the $30 for an XBO S for those in the market.
Welfare
Member
XB1S comes out this quarter. Sales will be up.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Yeah, you are probably right then. Think this was held off for the new fiscal being beginning of August this time?
The Xbox is in a precarious position, and if the division delivers another big disappointment for MS...you have to ask why they would keep banging their head against the wall.
The tidbit specifically about gaming from MS Earnings
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Investor/earnings/FY-2016-Q4/press-release-webcast?wa=wsignin1.0
(To avoid superflous researches: not that far from the bottom of the page).
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Investor/earnings/FY-2016-Q4/press-release-webcast?wa=wsignin1.0
(To avoid superflous researches: not that far from the bottom of the page).
Hm, interesting.
(not that you have to answer, I'm just thinking out loud)
Wonder if they are they hoping for "new console launch" kind of numbers? Or just "incremental console iteration" numbers? I guess knowing what they hope/expect out of Scorpio would also let us know if it sells well enough to keep the division or not.
I have a feeling the MS Xbox division will see more decline with their recent Project Helix strategy of melding Xbox and PC platforms. The whole initiative is based on building up a big install base first, even at the expense of sales. MS gives up revenue from Xbox One hardware and also by not putting exclusives on Steam. So I would expect this trend to continue as they instead focus on converting users to Xbox Ecosystem (X1 + PC) rather than just selling X1s and increasing game attach rates.
soundscream
Member
Thread title should say revenue not sales, since they are different things.
Delusibeta
Banned
But that would only be replacing the console licensing fee, not Gold.
bitbydeath
Member
They lost it long ago (well actually they did achieve second place though), they're around 25m units behind PS4, no catching up from that.
Dunno, probably just has to do with 4K BR drives and/or production.
Well Microsoft had Xbox bring its games to Windows (I have doubts it was an Xbox/Spencer decision, it had to come from Nadella), so they have to have known that would have a direct impact on Xbox consoles sales for the future and Scorpio. I don't think they expect Scorpio to be an "Xbox 360/PS4" type seller.