Xbox One sets sights on 400m sold, Xbox 360 aims for 100m (and why that's probably bad)

[jackninja1]

Xbox One sets sights on 400m sold, Xbox 360 aims for 100m 

 

Microsoft has gone on record and say that they want to sell 400m Xbox One's and a total of 100m Xbox 360's of which currently 77m have been sold.

 

This is possibly a very, very bad thing. In this topic I wont try to hate on the One's features like Xbox TV but I want to explain why 400m Xbox One's sold could be bad for the gaming industry.

 

Firstly, Microsoft needs a miracle to sell an other 33m 360's. While some consoles remain very popular even after the announcement of their successor another 33m consoles is a lot. They will probably have to drop the price of the 360 way down to make it even remotely interesting.

 

Secondly Microsoft aims to sell 400m Xbox One's. Now this could be very bad news for 2 reasons I think:

 

1) Microsoft wants to keep the Xbox One in the market longer than the Xbox 360 (the 360 will be in total 8-10 years on the market):

This is the worst possible scenario. It has been proven that the Xbox One on launch will have the specs of a mid-range low-end pc. It isn't as powerful as an PS4.

So the One is being put in the market while it is already behind current generation technology. This can lead to the One slowing down gaming technology like new image technology or that games will have lower res textures because the One can not handle high res textures. Now this wouldn't be a problem if the console had a lifespan of 2 years. Microsoft could then release a console with for that time current generation technology. But since the lifespan of the console will probably be as long if not longer than the Xbox 360 the Xbox One will be massively under powered by the time it is EOL or when a successor is announced. This will lead to (as I said) a stagnating game market where games are held back because of the hardware for which they are designed.

 

2) The market accepts the One and everyone and his dog buys one:

This might look not bad and it could very well be a good thing, but its probably not. When Microsoft sells 400m Xbox One's in 8 - 10 years they clearly had a great success with the console. You can conclude than that the market wants a device that isn't necessarily focused primarily on gamers but that is also targeted at people who for example want a browser and skype on their tv and don't want to buy a high-end tv. While this isn't a bad thing for "typical consumers aka your/my mom" this could lead to a bigger focus shift towards "casual" consoles with built in tv box and browser and where gaming isn't the primary feature. When Microsoft than launches their successor of the One, the main focus will not be on gaming but on "casual things", and then, why would they release the next One with high-ends specs when a low end specced machine also sells very very well. And then (as I said in reason 1) the gaming industry and the gaming "development" (not the creation but the overall level of for example textures and other things). 

 

While I have to admit, it is a lot of future talk but it isn't bad to look ahead. Also if Microsoft manage's to sell 400m consoles but they are only bought by gamers they might focus towards a more "gamer friendly" console.

 

I hope that I have informed you enough. It wasn't my intention to hate on Microsoft or on the Xbox One, I just wanted to inform you and give you my opinion about that.

 

A like is appreciated and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.

 

Source: http://www.slashgear.com/xbox-one-sets-sights-on-400m-sold-xbox-360-aims-for-100m-24283466/

 

 

[911^NEmeSis]

Way too ambitious imo. Well personally I don't really think the non touch, sensor based stuff is going to kick in. Perhaps the PS4? (Maybe 100ish M is possible?)

 

Well I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

P.S. Over 10 years for a console is kinda pushing it? A lot!

[Whiskers]

They've officially lost the plot now.

 

There is not a hope in hell that they will sell that much. I doubt they'll even sell half that.

[jackninja1]

Way too ambitious imo. Well personally I don't really think the non touch, sensor based stuff is going to kick in. Perhaps the PS4? (Maybe 100ish M is possible?)

 

Well I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

P.S. Over 10 years for a console is kinda pushing it? A lot!

Yeah thats my problem, 10 years is way to long for a console on the market, im curious how they are going to play it off and manage it.

[Legion]

10 years for a console , well it'll be nice to have improvements to my PC games for a year or two before consoles get in the way again.

[911^NEmeSis]

Yeah thats my problem, 10 years is way to long for a console on the market, im curious how they are going to play it off and manage it.

Dunno maybe we'll see some sort of upgrade part that costs like the same price as the console that upgrades it's performance.

Maybe the console will be partly locked with limited performance that costs $$$ on the Xbox arcade store thingey to unlock lol.

[Lukiose]

Good, start selling it as a house cable tv box, let it take over as it's primary feature and hope Microsoft gtfo of the console industry. Then we'll have one less console maker to worry about

[GamerDad]

Good, start selling it as a house cable tv box, let it take over as it's primary feature and hope Microsoft gtfo of the console industry. Then we'll have one less console maker to worry about

It isn't a cable box. You must plug your cable box into the X1. The name is a misnomer. To use it fully, you need the Xbox One, plug in your cable box, attach your external harddrives, plug in the kinect (won't work without it) and hope no more add-ons get released.

 

[EChondo]

400 million? I've been reading 1 billion sold over a course of 10 years, so 100m a year;

http://www.vg247.com/2013/05/24/xbox-one-microsoft-aims-for-1-billion-lifetime-sales-100-million-xbox-360-units/

[IPCharger]

Even if they make a good comeback on E3, the first impression is the most important, and they f*cked that one up.

[cDNA]

I think microsoft looked in the wrong direction to increase sales. Because if they had made a balling console with really amazing specs, ssd, awesome graphics. Even more expensive, a lot of pc gamer could have turned to console. Because frankly if you can have a console that is truly more powerful than your pc, that supports keyboard and mouse, how many of you would buy one? I would definitly ask myself the question.

[AaronSmooth]

They would be lucky if they could sell as much the Xbox 360 did.

[Homicidium]

400 Million? WAAAAY too ambicious! They can be glad if they sell in equal number like the X360 did. 

I mean, I do kinda understand the route they're trying to go with it, but it the end a lot of people already have a TV and some even a Smart TV, so they don't need another device that does the same things. So I'll personally think that the sales will even take a step back compared to the X360

[Vanderburg]

Well, if they've sold 77m 360 units, they need 23 million, not 33, but that's still a lot.

[KieranThePCGuy]

That is a lot of units to sell, and after the information I have heard about Xbox One, I'm not sure that they will sell that many.

[Artorias]

There's no way they could do that. As of right, w/ the "Always On" feature, they already lose to Sony on 3rd world market segments. If they want to aim a 400m sales, then they must aim at world market sales rather than focusing on western market sales. Sure, the Xbox 360 is famous in the west, but they're really struggling to get sales on eastern markets since Sony dominates it. We all know that a lot of 3rd world countries are in the east which doesn't have that great and stable internet connection.

[MdX MaxX]

400 million they say.

 

The PlayStation 2, the greatest selling console of all time, sold 155 million.

 

Microsoft wants to sell 2.5 times that.

 

...

 

What have the folks over at Microsoft been smoking lately?

[infallday]

So they aim to sell 400m, i honestly don't think they will sell more then 10m, unless they make a come back at E3 which i doubt.

All MS has to do is show off some games to calm the masses. People will realize that both systems are more or less equal(ly crap) once again and resume their brand allegiances...If they really don't have any games to show, then they might as well scrap it before launch.

[DarKnoob01]

I personally think that now is the perfect time for valve to spring in with a cheap gaming pc and with all the flack that sony and Microsoft are getting about their new consoles, I wouldn't be surprised if the "steam box" will be able to get a pretty big slice of the console gaming pie. 

[SirReallySam]

I personally think that now is the perfect time for valve to spring in with a cheap gaming pc and with all the flack that sony and Microsoft are getting about their new consoles, I wouldn't be surprised if the "steam box" will be able to get a pretty big slice of the console gaming pie. 

Yeah actually that would be pretty awesome :3

[silencerbob]

I can see integration being a big thing.. Imagine if all hotel rooms got an Xbox One.. You can log in with your own savegames which are on the cloud.

[SirReallySam]

I can see integration being a big thing.. Imagine if all hotel rooms got an Xbox One.. You can log in with your own savegames which are on the cloud.

That would be cool yes, but... Gaming laptop :D

[excalibrax]

Heres an idea to see how much of an bullshot idea this is. the 2010 estimate of US households. : 114,825,428.  So your looking at at least 1 xbox in every us household. PLUS European households estimate 194,625.000. so thats add those together and its only 309,450,428 still 100 million shy. Even give it a 25% rrod rate and then you have the 400 million sold.

[Nicktrance]

10 years for a console , well it'll be nice to have improvements to my PC games for a year or two before consoles get in the way again.

 

I think a 10 year lifespan is exactly what they're aiming for... that's probably why they plan to use cloud gaming, when the hardware get's too outdated they just switch to offloading most of the processing to the cloud...

 

the current gen lasted longer then the one before it and etc. console life spans are set to get longer and longer to the point where they either become obsolete or become tiny boxes with very little performance as all performance is driven by the cloud.

 

In other words you better hope your ISP improves their infrastructure immensely in 5 years or so or you're screwed...

 

OR maybe they plan another issue similar to RROD to happen just outside of warranty so people have to buy a new one :P.

[infallday]

This won't affect the average console gamer much. My roommate mainly uses his 360 for netflix anymore anyways, so he'd likely just watch TV if the net was out. In fact, even when i played 360/PS3 a lot, it was for multiplayer 95% of the time (and yes, Live was and is miles ahead of PSN). No net=screw playing with these damn controllers without my buds.