Which console will win in the years to come? We will probably never find out. As before, Microsoft would like to avoid publishing the delivery sales figure of its own consoles of Xbox Series X/S.
The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles hit the market two days ago. According to Microsoft, it will be the most successful console launch in the company’s history. More consoles were sold in a 24 hour period than ever before.
“Thank you for supporting the largest launch in Xbox history. In 24 hrs more new consoles sold, in more countries, than ever before. We’re working with retail to resupply as quickly as possible. You continue to show us the connective power of play is more important than ever,” said Microsoft’s Phil Spencer.
Thank you for supporting the largest launch in Xbox history. In 24 hrs more new consoles sold, in more countries, than ever before. We’re working with retail to resupply as quickly as possible. You continue to show us the connective power of play is more important than ever.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) November 12, 2020
The success of the new consoles depends less on demand in the first few months. Rather, the production capacity is the decisive factor. According to previous information from Spencer, it will only be clear in a year which company can convince more with its own offer.
But even in the years to come, the success of the Xbox Series X and PS5 cannot be compared with one another. At the beginning of the end of the console generation, Microsoft got off to a very bumpy start with the Xbox One, which quickly led to Sony having a clear lead in the race for the most successful console with the PS4. In the course of this, Microsoft announced that it no longer wanted to publish sales figures.
In the new generation of consoles, the Redmond company would like to hold on to it: “I know it seems manipulative and I’ll apologize for that, but I don’t want my team’s focus on [console sales],” said Spencer. “The primary outcome of all the work that we do is how many players we see, and how often they play. That is what drives Xbox.”
Spencer apparently understands that the increased focus on the PC can result in fewer people being involved with the console. ” Putting our games on PC becomes a reason that somebody doesn’t have to go and buy an Xbox Series X,” he said. “I’ll hold fast to this. We publicly disclose player numbers. That’s the thing I want us to be driven by, not how many individual pieces of plastic did we sell.”
The consoles seem to be no longer in the focus of the Redmond company anyway. Rather, the company would like to compete with streaming competitors such as Amazon and Google.
“I think the people who want to pit us against Sony based on who sold the most consoles lose the context of what gaming is about today. There are 3 billion people who play games on the planet today, but maybe [only] 200 million households that have a video game console. In a way, the console space is becoming a smaller and smaller percentage of the overall gaming pie,” concludes Spencer.
