NeoGAF - is Xbox dead?

Is Xbox dead?

  • Yes, as of today

  • Yes, as of when they announced their multiplatform plans

  • Yes, as of the first major round of layoffs/closures (Tango etc.)

  • Yes, as of when they announced all their games would hit PC day one

  • Yes, as of the Xbox One reveal

  • No, they are not dead yet, but they are headed there in a few months

  • No, they are not dead yet, but they are headed there in a few years

  • No, they are not dead yet, but they are headed there with their new hardware

  • No, and they won't be


Results are only viewable after voting.
To the people who voted, "No, and they won't be":

Why don't you think they are heading out the door? Are you considering Xbox as a brand instead of a console, and thinking the brand will be fine? Or do you think the consoles are going to stay in the game? I'm not saying anyone is wrong, but I am genuinely curious what the reasoning is. It's easy to understand why some people would say, "No, but it is heading there," or even "Yes" in some situations. I just want to understand the perspectives from some of the, "Hard no," crowd.
I don't think the console is causing major losses so why would they. They could still innovate in ways that sony can't like dual boot windows and xbox.
 
Dead as a console, dead as a brand soon too.
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I don't think the console is causing major losses so why would they. They could still innovate in ways that sony can't like dual boot windows and xbox.

Business don't operate solely on losses. If it isn't making enough profit, then a product can still be cut.

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The Xbox Series sold the most units at launch (that's Year 0 on the graph), but halfway through its lifecycle it is on par with the Xbox 360. You might think that is good since the Xbox 360 is widely regarded as the best console Microsoft has released. However, there were between 30-45 million console gamers worldwide in 2009 (Year 4 for the Xbox 360), while there were between 168-268 million console gamers as of 2024. This means that Microsoft met the same number of sales with the Xbox Series consoles as a nearly two-decade-old console did when the older console had less than 18% of the total worldwide console player-base that the Xbox Series consoles have.

NOTE: The approximate console gamers is a much wider range now because there are vastly more consoles sold overall than in 2009, and there is far more overlap - meaning people will purchase more than one of a single type of console, and/or more than one console brand.

This chart looked like progress until the Xbox One's end-of-life. At this point we see a regression. Since Microsoft has shareholders that they have to answer to, staying in the hardware market would be a tough sell without some major plan to bring people back. And since exclusives no longer seem to exist with Microsoft, I don't see how they could convince more people to purchase an Xbox (a real Xbox, not the, "My watch is an Xbox," nonsense). The people who have a large Xbox library AND who don't want to migrate to PC gaming (people like adamsapple adamsapple for example) would likely continue to buy the same hardware so long as their library remains playable, but Microsoft has to get new gamers to purchase their console. That's the part where I don't understand their vision. Nothing they are doing appears to be heading towards a position where Xbox (the hardware, not the brand) will make a resurgence. It appears that they are heading towards being a third-party publisher.
 
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What you don't get about Microsoft is "It's always their call!" Sega was forced off the shelf at the electronic stores and toy stores because they had no money to keep products on the shelf. Microsoft can keep Xbox on the shelves long after your gone and your grandchildren have moved on if they want too. Microsoft won't remove products from the shelves unless they want too. They buy the space, the store doesn't decide what sits on a shelve. Now, what might happen is Microsoft might pull its products from the store shelf because it doesn't think those stores are relevant anymore. I thought this day would never come but, digital downloads have sped up a lot of things. I still think MS won't pull its products from store shelves because they want the Xbox presence around.

Well MS hasn't pulled the plug yet, we are getting at least one more gen out of Xbox
Microsoft has the financial power to keep releasing Xboxes and Surfaces until the end of time. But they are out. Nobody wants to invest in that ecosystem anymore now that the competition has it all. We don't even know the numbers of the Series X sales (without the cheap ripoff). It may be the case that people are mostly out by now, not in the next generation. And that's a 500€$ machine. Can't imagine the market size for a 1.200€$ Xbox aside from HeisenbergFX4 HeisenbergFX4
 
Microsoft has the financial power to keep releasing Xboxes and Surfaces until the end of time. But they are out. Nobody wants to invest in that ecosystem anymore now that the competition has it all. We don't even know the numbers of the Series X sales (without the cheap ripoff). It may be the case that people are mostly out by now, not in the next generation. And that's a 500€$ machine. Can't imagine the market size for a 1.200€$ Xbox aside from HeisenbergFX4 HeisenbergFX4
They aren't out yet unless you know something that came down the pipeline very recently
 
They aren't out yet unless you know something that came down the pipeline very recently
What I meant is that releasing a new box doesn't makes you "in". If nobody buy your stuff you're out. Did the Surface succeed 15 years ago or something? No. Are they out? Yes. Do they keep releasing that stuff? Yes. Are the out, then, if they keep releasing that tablet that nobody buys? Again, yes. They are out. iPad won, period. As I said, they have the money to keep releasing consoles and tablets until the sun dies out, but they are completely out. The public isn't there. The trust isn't there.
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If nobody is buying your console…you no longer have a console business. You have a charade.

Doesn't matter if MS releases a new Xbox. They would have a console business in the same vein as Homer Simpson's computer "business".
 
What I meant is that releasing a new box doesn't makes you "in". If nobody buy your stuff you're out. Did the Surface succeed 15 years ago or something? No. Are they out? Yes. Do they keep releasing that stuff? Yes. Are the out, then, if they keep releasing that tablet that nobody buys? Again, yes. They are out. iPad won, period. As I said, they have the money to keep releasing consoles and tablets until the sun dies out, but they are completely out. The public isn't there. The trust isn't there.
star trek GIF
While they very likely will flop I wont try and guess what they are content with sales numbers wise
 
I think that following an old MS plan they slowly migrated Xbox step by step from being a traditional console and being focused there to becoming MS's gaming division with a multiplatform approach with Windows as their only home platform.

I think their future "consoles" will end being all 3rd party manufactured home and portable console shaped PCs running Windows and their PC game store. So once they discontinue Series X/S they'll stop being console platform holders.

I think they will be way more successful in this way, specially once they start releasing all their games day one in PS5 and once they stop including their games day one in GP, at least outside the Ultimate tier.

By doing these changes they not only will increase their revenue, becoming a closer third position -may even become 2nd- in the fight for the top grossing companies in gaming: they'll also start being profitable and will start to slowly recoup they gazillion billions they lost in the three decades of Xbox (not counting the almost $100B spent in acquisitions).
 
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I just came back from the biggest electronics store in my area, I haven't been there in 2 years.
It used to have the gaming section right at the entrance, a big corridor with PlayStation games, consoles and accessories on both sides, the next corridor the same layout for Nintendo and at the end of the Nintendo corridor, next to the 3rd party accessories, it had a display case with 1 or 2 Xboxes and a few games and accessories.

But now... It was a really depressing sight.
The gaming section is at the end of the store, no gaming decorations like before, a half corridor for Playstation, the consoles stacked up in a corner, almost no games, official accessories shelves were nearly empty. Nintendo was about the same, but had plenty of accessories.
Not a single Xbox, Xbox game or accessories in sight.

It's like gaming in general is dying, Xbox is just leading the way. 😢
 
I was actually surprised to see this at my local target. Sony and Nintendo had the biggest physical presence of games. Right above the games where the digital redemption cards are located xbox actually had the biggest presence there. It's like they had just as many games to sell but they were all digital redemption cards.
 
What I meant is that releasing a new box doesn't makes you "in". If nobody buy your stuff you're out. Did the Surface succeed 15 years ago or something? No. Are they out? Yes. Do they keep releasing that stuff? Yes. Are the out, then, if they keep releasing that tablet that nobody buys? Again, yes. They are out. iPad won, period. As I said, they have the money to keep releasing consoles and tablets until the sun dies out, but they are completely out. The public isn't there. The trust isn't there.
Disagree with this.

Steam Deck sold 4 million. Is it dead?

Steam Deck 2 will cause excitement when it comes, same for new xbox.

Surface line is dead, sure. Nobody knows when a new one will come.
 
Disagree with this.

Steam Deck sold 4 million. Is it dead?

Steam Deck 2 will cause excitement when it comes, same for new xbox.

Surface line is dead, sure. Nobody knows when a new one will come.
Yeah "dead" to me means no more

Are people not buying the current one? Obviously not

Will people buy the new ones? Remains to be seen

Outside of that everything else is just warriors doing their thing
 
Yeah "dead" to me means no more

Are people not buying the current one? Obviously not

Will people buy the new ones? Remains to be seen

Outside of that everything else is just warriors doing their thing
Going by the leaks, a 5080 equivalent system for $1500, can play steam games.

I think its gonna be appealing.

Xbox is out of selling hardware to casuals is my takeaway from this. People who buy games on monthly basis and subscribe to GP will be catered to.
 
They will not INTENTIONALLY kill it, you mean?
it is not impossible for some switch to be flicked in the future that borks existing Xbox consoles which happened in an innocent fashion. The only way this can be avoided is if Microsoft was kind enough to patch out the need to sign in. That was the entire point why many of us see the need to sign in as a bad idea. And yes, PlayStation does that too. No need to remind me. But Xbox is the one with the more likely chance to abandon their hardware of the two right now.
That's a massive class-action lawsuit in the making, no way they would ever do it.

Easier to just kill the store after some years pass like they did with the XB360 one.
 
I was actually surprised to see this at my local target. Sony and Nintendo had the biggest physical presence of games. Right above the games where the digital redemption cards are located xbox actually had the biggest presence there. It's like they had just as many games to sell but they were all digital redemption cards.
Retailer gaming is dying. I think people just order physical games and consoles/accessories online now.
 
Retailer gaming is dying. I think people just order physical games and consoles/accessories online now.
Yeah definitely dying, razor thin profit margin and shelf space required. I was just surprised to see a selection of xbox games as digital download cards the equivalent to what sony and Nintendo had physically at the target.
 
Disagree with this.

Steam Deck sold 4 million. Is it dead?

Steam Deck 2 will cause excitement when it comes, same for new xbox.

Surface line is dead, sure. Nobody knows when a new one will come.
The Deck probably had different goals than the console business of Microsoft. Anyhow, agree to disagree.
Going by the leaks, a 5080 equivalent system for $1500, can play steam games.
I'd love this. But let's see how many more do. And how a machine like that benefits someone besides Valve.
 
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Disagree with this.

Steam Deck sold 4 million. Is it dead?

Steam Deck 2 will cause excitement when it comes, same for new xbox.

Surface line is dead, sure. Nobody knows when a new one will come.

Steamdeck could sell like shit and PC gaming will still be fine.

Same can't be said for Xbox platform.
 
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Sony doesn't do this because it knows that surrounding itself with an echo chamber undermines its assessment of reality.

A bunch of idiot fanboys claiming Redfall is a GOTY doesn't help the company in the real world.
Look who agrees with me:



The beginning of the video is her talking about contaminated feedback
 
Xbox died the moment they revealed the XBOne. A joke of a reveal with a clear disconnect with customers of the 360 and the leadership posing as gamers when in fact they are simply puppets of a corporate juggernaut. XBOX has been on life support ever since that showing with injections of cash from the MS coffers keeping it alive....alive but brain dead.
 
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