There is so much wrong in this It's not even funny. The PS3 sold more than the Xbox 360 did in the end so no it didn't tie or beat them. That's with the PS3 launching a year later too and with Sony screwing so much up out of the gate.
Also the more powerful console isn't the one that sells more every time. That has been proven false a few times now. Microsoft will need far more than a more powerful box to outsell the PS5. I mean it's not like Xbox One X's are flying off the shelves more than the PS4 is right now. Most people don't care one bit about which box is slightly more powerful.
In the end Microsoft can still make plenty of money even if the PS5 outsells them again. Both are focused on different things right now and both can have success doing those things.
I believe this is simply false. I believe in core gaming (this board) the most important thing is power and there's not even a close second is the crazy thing.
Go look in the next gen RDNA thread, people want so bad for PS5 to beat next Xbox (or a few people vice versa). Why do people want that
so bad if it's not important? How about every console has a bunch of "secret sauce". Some wanted so bad to not admit Xbox was less powerful than PS4. Some wanted so bad that PS4 Pro wouldn't be less than X1X (remember FP16 secret sauce?"). People REALLY wanted a Switch Pro on here. People REALLY wanted the Wii U to be more than it was in technical terms.
It matters to core gamers. A lot.
I forever remember something Jaffe said. He said something like I wish graphics or machines would reach a level where nobody cared so we didn't have to dedicate 70% of our production time to pushing graphics envelopes and we could just focus on gameplay.
I though to myself, but dont you get it dude, you dedicate 70% of your team's time to that because
that's what's important to people.
X1X I was wrong about, it did worse than I expected. But there is a lot of positivity around Xbox brand and I think it plays a huge part. It's really something you can be proud of owning. Is there a product with a higher "Q rating" than X1X? Q rating is used for beloved celebs, example, Keanu Reeves has a really high Qrating right now LOL. X1X is almost universally liked and seen as a good product.
How bad straights would Xbox brand be in without X1X? I think it'd be pretty bad. The 1.2 TF base machine trying to keep up in 2019 would have been absolutely brutal. At least now Xbox fans have the option to upgrade to the best console experience so it's tougher to criticize.
And oh yeah if you say power doesn't matter again, how much was Xbox mocked for weak in the beginning? I mean every thread about a 720P Xbox One game was many many pages. Every new multiplat that was inevitably deficient on Xbox got it's DF thread where Xbox was raked over the coals. Another comment I remember was it came out that one of the games on Halo MCC wasn't 1080P or something like that, and I just remember somebody commenting like "Cant even do 1080P on last gen game, Xbone is the worst". It was brutal. Dont say it doesn't matter. Any consumer faced with "these two machines are the same price but one plays games in a higher resolution etc" made the PS4 an absolute no brainer.
I think the thing is X1X cant take advantage of it's power, because it just has to play the same games gussied up. The other thing is it's 499. I wonder sometimes if the story would be different if MS went for a more mass market price for X, maybe 8GB RAM, some more noise and a matte finish (more like PS4 Pro), and 399. But I still think the product is a success.