It's not often that you see global corporations concede to the competition, but Xbox head Phil Spencer has suggested that the console war is over already. Speaking at the 2015 GeekWire Summit, the suit admitted that the PlayStation 4 already has a "huge lead" over the Xbox One – and he isn't sure that it can ever be overcome.
"Y'know, I don't know," he responded when asked if Microsoft's box could ultimately triumph. "Y'know, the length of the generation... [Sony] has a huge lead, and they have a good product. I love the content, the games line-up that we have." The Redmond firm hasn't been quite so eager to update its figures, but last November it said that it had shipped almost 10 million consoles. As of July, Sony's tally sat at around 25.3 million units.
Spencer went on to explain that his team aren't motivated by beating the PS4, but by "gaining as many customers as we can". He also talked about the lingering impact of some of its decisions – apparently there are plenty of people who still don't think that the Xbox One can play used games. That's obviously a big problem.
But we reckon that the issues for Microsoft reach far beyond that. At the end of the day, the reason that it's getting trounced so heavily is because it barely has a presence outside of North America and the UK, while Sony utterly dominates in continental Europe and Asia. In fact, the platform holder pointed out recently that it has 90 per cent market share in some countries, which is absolutely staggering when you stop and think about it.
Either way, it's surprising to see Spencer come out and suggest that the generation is essentially already over as a contest – especially considering we're not even two years in yet. Having said that, with the PS4 getting a price drop in North America today, it's probably the right mentality to have. Microsoft needs to start building for the next generation – we can only hope that Sony keeps its foot on the gas.
[source youtube.com, via videogamer.com]
Comments 41
I feel for Mattrick a little bit. The guy clearly said some stupid things, but it seemed like he was merely executing on Microsoft's 'living room domination' ambition with the original vision of the Xbox One. It backfired and he got it wrong, but I'm not convinced he's the sole party to blame.
Phil Spencer, for example, had a very high position at Microsoft while the console was being designed, and I refuse to believe he had no input. Maybe he was telling a board room that they were going in the wrong direction in meetings every morning, but I think if my bosses absolutely refused to listen to me for the entire time that it takes to design a console, I'd eventually leave.
Anyway, I'm getting off topic. Just my two cents, though I obviously don't follow Xbox quite as closely as PlayStation so maybe I'm wrong.
Well, good luck trying to win customers who already have a PS4. >_>
I am done with Microsoft and no Scalebound (; or Rare Replay is going to win me back.
Unless they give me one
The line up for the X1 is really good this holiday, but what do we have beyond that? Scale bound and Crackdown? I would like to see Microsoft invest in some more development studios and really give it a go. Still happy both systems are doing well, as I prefer console gaming over PC gaming I want the market as a whole to thrive.
I think that MS will ditch the One and either drop out of the console market or rush a new system, whichever choice will bite them in the ass. People are no longer ok with 4 year generation cycles
At least Microsoft is seen as being in competition with Sony; Nintendo can't even reach that level of momentum.
At the end of the day, though, for any brand, "winning" isn't what matters, just turning a profit.
@SonyInfinity I flick between IGN and Pushsquare, but level-headed comments like these are what led me to become part of this community. I also hope Xbox pulls something awesome out of the bag. Sony needs to be kept on their toes!
@Fath I would argue that in this time of social media being perceived as the winner is extremely important as it relates to turning the most profit. Casual gamers will flock to what is perceived as the best place to play, whether it actually is or not is a latter of opinion. They all want to win because they all want maximum profit.
@SonyInfinity
Scalebound, Crackdown 3, Sea of Thieves, ReCore, Quantum Break and Gears of War 4 for starters. Surely there's unannounced games as well. Xbox One definitely has plenty on the way beyond this holiday.
I would be surprised to see SoT, Recore, and maybe even Gears next year, maybe by next holiday season. I am talking about on a monthly basis is all. I feel like there has been a pretty long drought, but I guess no worse than what the wiiu has suffered.
Sure the ps4 doesn't have huge exclusives every month, but it does give a nice variety of exclusives every month, even if they aren't big name block busters, more choice is always better IMO, even if it is obscure indy titles. Like I said though, all a matter of opinion and I really do believe both consoles have great choices in the exclusive department now and in the future.
@DominicanGlory Why? It's not a sucess like the PS4, but it's no Wii U either. I think they'll move to the next generation just like they usually do.
@SonyInfinity
MS tends to put its eggs in the holiday basket, I definitely agree with that. If it has plans to get most of those games I mentioned out in 2016 though, some will have to be earlier than the holidays. New IPs like ReCore, Quantum Break, SoT and Scalebound would be better off releasing in the late winter/early spring to early-summer window. Crackdown would be a good September or October release and obviously Gears is one of the few exclusive franchises big enough to survive the November onslaught of multiplats.
@Gamer83 I get that they want they big hitters near the holiday when presumably people are buying more games, but I also think releasing something like a Halo in the dregs of the summer would be HUGE. No competition, people dying for something to play, and a big news franchise. As it stands now it has to battle against Fallout, CoD, Battlefront, etc. I just don't feel like Halo is a juggernaut when going up against titles like that. Definitely think it was smart of Sony to release a game like Bloodborne and Uncharted during a time when it has room to breathe, with little to no multiplat competition.
@SonyInfinity Video games aren't the only industry out there, and history has shown that it's possible, at least with judicious government protection, to have a reasonably stable market shared by multiple strong companies. Do you really think social media has so fundamentally changed the zeitgeist as to make this model unworkable?
If so, then maybe the government needs to start stepping up its game in monopoly-busting in this modern day and age. If there's any engine driving these sort of markets to this end, it's connectivity lock-in, and that's something that seems viable to tackle from a regulatory perspective. Sony players only being able to play with Sony players is a principle that's taken as a given in modern consoles, but at heart it's a pretty anticompetitive practice. Imagine the outrage if phone carriers collectively decided that their customers would only be able to place calls to other customers of the same carrier- it seems crazy, but the same principle is being blindly accepted for online play on consoles, as I understand it (I'm actually pretty behind the times on modern gaming, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).
Maybe but the Ps4 still lacks great exclusives (other than Bloodborne, Uncharted, Until Dawn and Infamous) while the X1 still has a few better ones. If you ask me, Sony must release some Japan only Ps4 games like atleast Phantasy Star and God Eater to the west, make good quality games (either AAA or Indie) with atleast an enjoyable story and/or gameplay and maybe, I don't know, sequels? I mean there's Bloody Roar 5, Crash 4, Legend of Dragoon 2, Dark Cloud 3, New motorstorm game, Modnation Racers 2, Parrapa the Rapper 3, Bust a Groove 3, there's a lot of sequels they could make that could help the Ps4 with its exclusives problem.
@SoulsBourne128 You couldn't have picked a nicher list of titles there.
Xbox is still competitive in North America.
However they have a small market in Europe and absolutely nothing in Asia.
Their best chance is to wait it out until the next gen, hoping that Sony stumbles somewhere along the way. It really is Sony's war to lose, because as of right now they are killing it.
I'm a Nintendo fan, but PS4 is (as the PS2 was) a amazing console.
I'm actually worried that Microsoft may jump start the next generation too early because they feel that this one is lost
Why do they call it an Xbox One? Because when you see it, you turn one degree, and walk away.
@DualWielding
omg! that would be horrible. PS4 and Xbone are only now starting to get good.
(T-T )
@TheMightyPunram
you have to be pretty far away to avoid something with a 1 degree turn.
but yeah, I like my Xbone, but I feel like it was totally Microsoft's fault that it started so badly. And as much as I like Phil Spencer better than any of the previous guys, I'm pretty sure he was in with MS until they saw their business strategy just implode under the gaming community's rejection. It's your fault MS. YOUR FAULT!! now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go play on my Xbone... ( ;^. ^)
I don't blame him, the PS4 is killing the competition this generation.
even thou the xbox one is worse in term of sales numbers if you compare it to last gen its still a massive achievement
@Utena-mobile
I still want to pick up an Xbone, but I'm waiting for it to get a bit cheaper. I'm just glad they backtracked on all those HORRIBLY anti-consumer policies.
Yeah the reveal really screwed things up. Yeah xbone has halo 5 soon but the TMCC fiasco basically killed the hype. It DOES seem that MS has learned their lesson. I think their focus is trying to earn trust again.
I'm gonna be a bit skeptical about Phil's comment. Do we really think Microsoft will back down and give up this easily and not wanting to control the console market? All that American money and pride to be beaten by a Japanese company?! No way. Next E3 we will see the 'true' xbox... slimmer, an upgraded graphics card and hololens vr, and cheap as chips entry price. If I was Sony I'd work harder, faster and keep producing innovative sought after products. Bring an updated slimmer ps4, faster chip and VR with unbelievable gaming world's. Don't let your guard down .... keep bringing amazing consoles like playstation 4.
Well, it's true. I'm glad to see Microsoft still trying to catch up, though. I honestly think the XBOX ONE has a better holiday lineup than the PS4. In all, however, I love both systems (including the Wii U), and I cannot wait for the future games for all of them.
To be fair to MS, it's not as bad as some people make out. The PS1 ended up selling 102 million or more units compared to the N64's 32 million. The PS2 ended up selling 155 million to the GC's 21 million. It's even worse when you realise that over half those sales for the Nintendo consoles were just in America. Remove American sales from the PS2 and it still sold over 103 million. Remove the same from the GC and it sold just 9 million. The point here is that internationally they did even worse than it seems at first glance, it really is just America propping them up.
It's not just about hardware sales, though, it's about attach rate, total software sales and how long they're supported for. The Xbone can still be perfectly fine in those regards whereas Nintendo's consoles always fall flat there as well. The Wii was a big sales success but most games outside of fitness and Mario sold very poorly and the system was succeeded by the Wii U way before the release of Xbone and PS4 even though it also released later than the 360 and PS3. Again, shifting lots of units isn't good enough when most people stopped playing on it years ago and only ever bought 2 or 3 games.
I don't think the Xbone is in that terrible position yet. It does have the "Nintendo problem" of mainly selling in just America and doesn't even have the support of Japanese sales. However, it's in a much better position to receive multiformat games, it's also going to benefit from Microsoft's infrastructure (as seen in things like how it has unlimited cloud storage) and links to Windows 10.
Not that big of a thing. Playstation 3 didn't beat the 360, but Sony didn't drop out of the market...they learned from the mistakes and made the PS4 which is beating the XONE. Microsoft is still doing good, they just need some bigger games and franchises...what is their mascot???...master chief???...come on. X-box had some good exclusives, then they dumped them on the 360 which brought new ones, but were then dumped (Blinx, Voodoo Vince, Tork, Viva Piñata, Banjo Kazooi, Toe Jam And Earl, Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic, Brute Force, Whacked, Kung Fu Chaos)...some of these they could have kept going, and they could have even made the Amped, Fusion Frenzy and Project Gotham Games going (Apparently ended all of them), and even continued their NFL Fever and other sports titles from the X-box era. I'm sorry to say that I hated Halo and Gears Of War...do like the Fable games though, but I just didn't see anything to amaze me or even want an XONE yet. The 360 had a lot to offer, and since PS3 didn't get it all, I bought the 360 too...now, it seems Sony and Microsoft switched seats.
@JLPick
You may hate Halo and Gears but millions of others out there love them.
@TheMightyPunram Wow, talk about dumb jokes just going completely over peoples' heads.
@JLPick Actually, even with the failures of the ps3 at its release, it was still able to catch and eventually surpass the sales of the 360. In all instances except the release of the pS3, Sony has been very smart in giving customers the kind of console they want while also having a clear, and concise, message as to what it is for. Playing games better than its competition and appealing to the core gamer.
The PlayStation 4 will absolutely dominate 2016.
@SonyInfinity Did not know that. Every time I heard about the PS3, it was always being put down and I was being told that it never came close to the 360. I kind of wondered, as I chose the PS3...but got mad when some of the games didn't come out that I wish would have (having kids, I wished for a little more kid titles like Ice Age Continental Drift Games, Your Shape, Spongebob Hero Pants and some of the others). Other than all of that, I'm glad the system did good, I just thought it came in 3rd place. What place did the Wii come in? If the Wii beat microsoft, then I'm incredibly happy, since I hate Microsoft for all they do...having that I went through two 360 consoles that kept on breaking (one wouldn't connect and starting deleting downloads, the other just wouldn't read a single game disc and also started to erase downloads).
@JLPick The original Wii out sold them both, as it was the second best selling console of all time. The problem was it didn't do as well in the software sells department. Many were happy with their Wii Sports and little else. Sony and Microsoft both paid dearly last generation, Microsoft for the RRoD fiasco, costing in the hundreds of millions I have read, and Sony for starting out bad due to the high price and eventually having to sell some units at a loss.
"So...I think got you beat, I think I got you beat. Yeah! Yeah! Yeeaaahh!
@blah01 Keep your opinion to yourself. I have an Xbox One and enjoy it.
@blah01 Sales: While PS4 is outpacing the XB1 now, they are both outpacing their predecessors. Games: Pretty much the same games with the exceptions of some exclusives on both systems. Not a big deal though. People can live. Hardware: Sure PS4 is more powerful but XB1 is not that far. So thanks. I will enjoy my "inferior" console.
@TheMightyPunram That face though.
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