After months of debate about Xbox’s future as a few of its massive console exclusives jumped ship to PlayStation 5, we’ve got our clearest proof but of why Microsoft is experimenting with a new multiplatform strategy: fewer and fewer persons are shopping for Xboxes.
The tech big introduced in its third-quarter earnings that Xbox Sequence X and S income is down 30 % year-over-year. It blamed the nosedive on a “decrease quantity of consoles bought” in the course of the begin of 2024. If that appears like a repeat of final yr, it’s as a result of it’s. “Xbox {hardware} income decreased 30% on a powerful prior yr comparable, pushed by decrease quantity of consoles bought,” Microsoft reported again in April 2023.
In February, Grand Theft Auto VI mother or father firm Take-Two claimed in a presentation to traders that there have been roughly 77 million “gen 9″ consoles in folks’s houses. It didn’t take followers lengthy to do the mathematics and speculate that Microsoft had solely bought round 25 million Xbox Sequence X/S consoles to-date. That places it forward of the GameCube however behind the Nintendo 64, no less than for now. Given the outcomes this quarter as effectively, it doesn’t look like Recreation Cross and Starfield have moved the needle a lot.
Possibly that can change as soon as Name of Obligation, which Microsoft acquired final fall together with the remainder of Activision Blizzard, lastly makes its strategy to Recreation Cross. Diablo IV solely simply arrived on the Netflix-like subscription platform this month. However given the truth that the destiny of Xbox Sequence X/S seems to be locked in at this level, it’s simple to see why Microsoft is taking a look at different locations it will possibly put its video games.
Sea of Thieves, the final of 4 video games on this preliminary volley to return to PS5, dominated the PlayStation Retailer’s high sellers record final week. If gamers there proceed to flock to the live-service pirate sim, it’s not onerous to think about Microsoft bringing one other batch of its first-party exclusives to the rival platform. Whether or not which means newer blockbusters like Starfield or the upcoming Indiana Jones recreation will sometime make the journey stays to be seen.
For now, even when the Xbox Sequence X/S gross sales have gone from unhealthy to worse, Microsoft has made it clear it’s not abandoning {hardware} altogether. Earlier this yr, the corporate promised its subsequent console could be the “greatest technical leap” but in its {hardware} historical past. And Xbox president Sarah Bond just lately stated the corporate “stays dedicated” to backwards compatibility and recreation preservation for gamers’ present and future libraries.
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