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Will Microsoft Ever Reveal Xbox Hardware Sales Again?

Video Games Are Dumb

Video Games Are Dumb

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,033
Milwaukee, WI
In October of 2015, less than two years after the launch of it's new console, Microsoft announced it would no longer disclose Xbox One hardware sales. To this day, the last official numbers from 2014 remain at 10 million, and the controversial choice has essentially been forgotten about. That's not to say we have no idea where the Xbox One currently sits. Third party developers and accessory makers have given a recent estimate of 50 million. But without pressure from the media or their stockholders, Microsoft hasn't remarked on their decision ever since.

Now comes the Xbox Series X, a new generation and new opportunity for Microsoft to win the console space. And if the Xbox Series X does become a record breaking success, will Microsoft change it's mind? Or will they continue to promote service numbers while keeping hardware a relative mystery?

Will we ever see official numbers on the Xbox One ever again? And if so, will we ever see them divided by SKU? And has this decision to hold back numbers helped the Xbox brand?
 
Thiago

Thiago

One Winged Slayer
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,671
Probably not. They don't even provide MAU numbers anymore.
 
Naga

Naga

Alt account
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Aug 29, 2019
7,850
They will when it sells well again.
Just like when Sony stopped updating Vita sales.
 
Cactuar

Cactuar

Banned
Nov 30, 2018
5,878
If they're good they'll be crowing from the rooftops. If not, well, you saw what happened.
 
elenarie

elenarie

Game Developer
Verified
Jun 10, 2018
9,798
ThiagoJG said:
Probably not. They don't even provide MAU numbers anymore.
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For the best. Really stupid KPI that could mislead investors. Activision Blizzard are stuck with it and paying the price, so to speak, glad we're dropping that going forward.

To volatile and does not indicate long term health of the business, just short term swings that create bad investor culture.
 
RoninStrife

RoninStrife

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,002
Yes.
But only if their winning. Business is business, and it's great business to tell people you're winning.
 
Welfare

Welfare

Prophet of Truth - You’re my Numberwall
Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,912
I expect them to mention sales at launch and for 2020, purely as a comparison to Xbox One.

2021 and beyond, I think they will if Xbox starts doing really well again, and can sell 10M units every year or so. All depends on if they can hit close to the sales pace the PS4 and Switch managed.
 
Hamchan

Hamchan

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
4,964
Game Pass numbers are probably more important to them now but if the hardware sales are good, might as well put out a press release.
 
Shalashaska

Shalashaska

Prophet of Regret
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
1,424
If they start selling like a PS4 or Switch you can bet they will definitely start mentioning it again.
 
Banamy

Banamy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,402
No, and you'll see sony going away from that too. All about those monthly active users.
 
FlintSpace

FlintSpace

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
2,817
Of course they will when they're winning the numbers game. Whatever stats that makes a great headline.
 
henhowc

henhowc

Member
Oct 26, 2017
33,460
Los Angeles, CA
Maybe at investor calls or certain milestones if they are beating the competition but not as frequently as before.

Didn't they used to post a press release whenever they won an npd or something?
 
Border

Border

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,859
How long did it take for Sony to give up on publishing sales of the "Playstation family"?
 
pswii60

pswii60

Member
Oct 27, 2017
26,667
The Milky Way
Video Games Are Dumb said:
As long as the Nintendo Switch is a success, I'm not sure there's much a difference.
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Well there is obviously a difference which is why both Sony and Microsoft are investing so heavily in services and their wider ecosystem.

Microsoft's gaming revenue alone was actually higher than the entire revenue of Nintendo last fiscal year. Just think about that for a moment. Because console sales are important but they only tell part of a story.
 
PlanetSmasher

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
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Oct 25, 2017
115,541
pswii60 said:
Winning what though?

The next generation is a platform/ecosystem war, not a console war. And so console sales only tell part of a much bigger picture which will be defined by everything related to the Xbox platform/ecosystem, including PC and xCloud players.
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They'll start revealing console sales numbers when their consoles sell more units than Sony's. That's the long and short of it.
 
OG_Thrills

OG_Thrills

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,655
Damn Silly said:
Like everyone, they'll report if/when the numbers are good and won't when they're bad.
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There is a new notion that somehow, the reporting of hardware numbers is in itself a bad thing. But the mental gymnastics you have to do to make that narrative work is a task in and of itself. Especially when you consider that the company still releases statistics they deem positive.

The above quote represents business 101. If they storm out of the gates next generation and sell a lot of consoles XBOX will announce that because it builds momentum and mindshare. If they don't get off to a good start, the math will get convoluted and the PR smoke will start to rise.

Sony did the same thing last generation. No company in and outside of gaming will spill on bad numbers unless they're forced to.
 

Deleted member 8784

User requested account closure
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Oct 26, 2017
1,502
We'll get the headline grabbing "fastest selling in history" so and so's, but I think the days of reporting hardware numbers are done. What use are they when you're making money from PC users, XCloud users and all of the rest as well?
 
Windu

Windu

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,619
idk maybe? Microsoft as with any company only shares stuff that puts them in a positive light.

Also, I do believe it when they say that their main bar of success is how many users they have using their game services. Their gaming business is in growth mode atm, which means building a large customer base at the expense of more profits and total sales numbers.
 
Chaos2Frozen

Chaos2Frozen

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Nov 3, 2017
28,025
Especially if they're winning.

Hell, I'll bet it'll be like the good old days of console warring when 360 was leading the PS3
 
bane833

bane833

Banned
Nov 3, 2017
4,530
pswii60 said:
Winning what though?

The next generation is a platform/ecosystem war, not a console war. And so console sales only tell part of a much bigger picture which will be defined by everything related to the Xbox platform/ecosystem, including PC and xCloud players.
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I mean they have a bit more than half the revenue of the Playstation division. It´s pretty obvious that the whole ecosystem stuff isn´t doing much so far.

And you better believe they would be shouting Xbox Series X sales from the rooftops if they were higher than the PS5´s (but as we all know, that´s not very likely to happen).
 
Alandring

Alandring

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Feb 2, 2018
1,841
Switzerland
elenarie said:
For the best. Really stupid KPI that could mislead investors. Activision Blizzard are stuck with it and paying the price, so to speak, glad we're dropping that going forward.

To volatile and does not indicate long term health of the business, just short term swings that create bad investor culture.
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Why? I don't think it's important for a console or for a entire publisher, but for a single game (for example, Battlefield V or Star Wars Battlefront), I think it's interesting to know how many people play it every month. For a GAAS, I think it's more important than the total number of players or even more important than the number of sales.
 
pswii60

pswii60

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Oct 27, 2017
26,667
The Milky Way
bane833 said:
I mean they have a bit more than half the revenue of the Playstation division. It´s pretty obvious that the whole ecosystem stuff isn´t doing much so far.
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PS Plus subscriptions make up a gigantic chunk of that revenue. I'd say the services and "ecosystem stuff" is doing pretty damn well for PlayStation. Expect those numbers to blow up further when they're further expanded in to the cloud and PC next generation. And I'd judge Microsoft on the next generation when they're finally in their stride with content and services, we're not there yet.
 
H-I-M

H-I-M

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Apr 26, 2018
1,330
We all know why they stopped doing it and unfortunately I don't see them ever getting ahead again.
We'll still have NPD leaks tho.

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