No surprise to see a console practically given away for free getting high sales, this must have cost MS a lot of cash.
I hardly call $300 free. I'm sure Microsoft took a loss on the consoles for November ,and will for December, but it was probably within the realm of what it might cost to do a massive marketing campaign.
They needed to change the mindshare, folks need to se al of their 360 friends now playing on the One. They needed PS4 users to give the One a shot.
Once they get done with the holidays, they need to see if their Input One strategy works. I can tell you it is a huge part of why no one in my family buys and plays Wii U games. Having One box to bounce from TV to Netflix to Games to Apps to Socialize makes keeping within the ecosystem a pretty nice benefit.
I don't know if it will continue to work for everyone, but this is the plan, as far as I can tell.
But yeah, you won't see a ton of Microsoft crowing because it will lead to exactly the discussion you are trying to have. The problem is, I don't get a share of any profits from a console manufacturer, So I would prefer they error on the side of adding to the install base, which provides a player base which provides publishers the confidence to fun developers to create for my console of choice.
As far as I'm concerned, the XB1 has been teetering on going full Dreamcast if the momentum didn't change. I think it was a pretty wise move to for Microsoft to spend capital on changing that momentum.