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[SenkiDala]

That's quite low I think. Means if they usually sold 100 consoles they now sell 176, this is not even the double before "no exclusives out" and "huge exclusive out", I thought it would have been at least 300/500%. I saw a few people getting an XSS or XSX for Starfield.

It is really sad this game is locked on XSX when you know that Xbox consoles don't sell well and the game would have been successful on PS5... And the goal is that the game is played by as many people as possible right ?

 

[Horseganador]

Well, if in August Xbox sold 26,000... it would be about 6,500 weekly and it rose 76% the week of Starfield it would be 11-12k, it seems to me to be a real sales increase that is quite discreet for the years-long hype that Starfield had.

 

[yazenov]

Weird flex for a week-on-week?

Let's see the sales for the whole month at least. A 1-week bump in sales is like celebrating prematurely, as there is no indication that the increase in sales will be sustained for 4 weeks. It's like a blip in the radar.

 

[TonyK]

Do you think next announced Microsoft games can be also system sellers? Even if I want Hellblade 2, I don't see it as a system seller. Same for all the rest of the announced first party titles, except maybe Fable?

I mean, I like them, but they don't seem like a The Last of Us or God of War level of system selling but like a Returnal or Ratchet&Clank level, good games but not system sellers.

 

[Flutta]

Looks like Phil was right. For UK at least, let’s wait for US numbers. Think it will be same story there.

 

[azertydu91]

Do you think next announced Microsoft games can be also system sellers? Even if I want Hellblade 2, I don't see it as a system seller. Same for all the rest of the announced first party titles, except maybe Fable?

I mean, I like them, but they don't seem like a The Last of Us or God of War level of system selling but like a Returnal or Ratchet&Clank level, good games but not system sellers.

What was the sales of the last Gears of war?I know it used to be a system seller but I haven't followed the few past entries.

 

[Elysium44]

Do you think next announced Microsoft games can be also system sellers? Even if I want Hellblade 2, I don't see it as a system seller. Same for all the rest of the announced first party titles, except maybe Fable?

I mean, I like them, but they don't seem like a The Last of Us or God of War level of system selling but like a Returnal or Ratchet&Clank level, good games but not system sellers.

They will sell systems to someone. I mean to say, nobody should be looking to one game to be the magic bullet. It needs to be a succession of good games for a trickle of new Xbox buyers to become a flood. Starfield has undoubtedly moved plenty of Xboxes to new buyers. It's not going to be enough on its own but it's a start. I originally bought my first Xbox 360 purely because of Forza Motorsport being exclusive, a few other games too but mainly that franchise. Previously I'd bought an OG Xbox in 2005 purely because of one game, OutRun 2. And then I discovered loads more great games on Xbox afterwards so I stayed and Xbox had a long term customer. I also preferred the controller to the PlayStation one.

Forza is pretty much the only thing that keeps me around on Xbox. I use my Series S mainly for backwards compatible games. I've never been into its other big name sellers like Halo or Gears of War, at all.

 

[Portugeezer]

Could have been a lot higher had it lived up to the hype.

 

[MisterXDTV]

Weird flex for a week-on-week?

Let's see the sales for the whole month at least. A 1-week bump in sales is like celebrating prematurely, as there is no indication that the increase in sales will be sustained for 4 weeks. It's like a blip in the radar.

They just launched a new Series S SKU as well (a terrible deal) but it still moves hardware....

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Xbox just needs to continuously deliver and it will grow just fine everywhere - in consoles, GP subscriptions, on PC.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Xbox just needs to continuously deliver and it will grow just fine everywhere - in consoles, GP subscriptions, on PC.

 

[RoboFu]

Percentages alone is always such a bs statistic. 76% could be anywhere from 0.76 Xboxes to 76 Xboxes to 7 billion+.

 

[Woopah]

As expected, Starfield's hardware impact came when the game launched, not weeks before.

Weird flex for a week-on-week?

Let's see the sales for the whole month at least. A 1-week bump in sales is like celebrating prematurely, as there is no indication that the increase in sales will be sustained for 4 weeks. It's like a blip in the radar.

I don't think it's a weird flex, WoW is a perfectly reasonable comparison when talking about a game launch.

 

[Pelta88]

I remember when XBOX would dominate the UK charts for quarters at a time, or month in month out. Before the back and forth with their competitor resumed.

So it's kinda strange to PR for a 7 days sales increase.

 

[Muddy]

This guy is smart still trying to hype up Starfield I see.

Just for reference.


26k + 76% = 45.76k

To seem impressive, XB would have to jump by at least 300% equaling 104k by the end of September.

It’s weekly jump of 76%.

26K is monthly. So weekly Xbox sold around 6.5K.

So around 5K more consoles sold this week.

What Xbox is selling in a month the PS5 is doing in a week.

 

[Thirty7ven]

We have the sales from last month, and if all they got was a 76% bump on first week that went down the following week, then that’s not nearly enough for what was hyped as the biggest release for Xbox since Halo 3.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

P

it was someone’s poor attempt at humour

Hey, I give myself solid 7 Phil Spencer’s out of 10 for that one.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Looks like Phil was right. For UK at least, let’s wait for US numbers. Think it will be same story there.

He is wrong. Great games sell consoles but they need to be a sustained effort over time - each time a huge exclusive drops people will remember there are other exclusive games and decide now it’s the time to buy.

 

[Unknown?]

Still down yoy.

 

[adamsapple]

GG Todd, Phil and the teams.

 

[NikuNashi]

So looking at the Series X only to take the new S model out of the equation Starfield managed to boost Xbox sales by 46% in it's launch week... That's not a lot considering how badly Xbox has been selling in the UK this year. 23% Down on 2022 for the year so far.

If it maintains this boost that would change things but I imagine it'll drop back down.

It already did drop off, it went from the best week Sep 2nd to 4th best ending Sep 9th. So the bump is already on the decline.

 

[Bond007]

Who didn't expect some sort of sales increase.
The real question how does it compare to other launches for reference- maybe Halo?

 

[t_wilson01]

Think of supply chain and logistics. You guys don't think logically so you make silly statements.

There's an almost certain chance that there wouldn't even be stock available for the xbox to increase sales by 300%. Retailers and even Microsoft UK and distribution partners ike techdata wouldn't hold that much stock.

Sheesh

Are you implying that Series consoles have been sold out that there's not enough inventory to cover a sales increase for even one week?

 

[yazenov]

I don't think it's a weird flex, WoW is a perfectly reasonable comparison when talking about a game launch.

Have we had any similar articles mentioning WoW of hardware increase comparisons for Sony and Nintendo during a game launch? I'm genuinely curious.

 

[SenkiDala]

I think that MS should become a publisher at this point. Xbox is basically over, they're preparing little by little all of their services to be included in TVs, in Smartphones, saying that we won't even need boxes anymore. Just stop it and bring Gamepass on PS and Nintendo consoles at least through the cloud. If Starfield doesn't sell or generate enthusiasm, nothing ever will.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I think that MS should become a publisher at this point. Xbox is basically over, they're preparing little by little all of their services to be included in TVs, in Smartphones, saying that we won't even need boxes anymore. Just stop it and bring Gamepass on PS and Nintendo consoles at least through the cloud. If Starfield doesn't sell or generate enthusiasm, nothing ever will.

Nintendo and Sony will never let gamepass on their platforms. Sony is already looking to expand their platform outside of just console.

GamePass is dead long-term and Sony knows it can preserve B2P for quite some time as it tries to flex into other business areas, like PC games, pro controllers, VR, eSports, TV/Movies, headsets, monitors etc

 

[Horseganador]

Xbox has gotten into what a puddle:
Option 1: Get ahead of Sony and release a new generation in 2026-27... it would be more powerful than PS5 pro but the visual difference on the screen would be minimal with cross-gen games and a more powerful PS6 on the horizon.
Option 2: Hold on with what they have now until 2028.
Option 3: Release a Series X pro along with PS5 pro and piss off the developers even more.

 

[jezhumphrey75]

all the sony boys in here i see.

 

[Roxkis_ii]

Growth is better then decline.

Xbox accolades remind me of kids drawing. The drawing itself is meh, but you pat the kid on the head and you stick it on the refrigerator.

While this increase may not seem like much in comparison to other companies, I'm sure Phil is in his executive chair looking proud, like "Yeah, I did that. "

 

[StealthGoblin]

Decent result but it won’t make the Xbox meet the same sales as PS5 for the month. Needs to be 300% across the month.

 

[Team Andromeda]

Well done to the team

 

[Elysium44]

Growth is better then decline.

Xbox accolades remind me of kids drawing. The drawing itself is meh, but you pat the kid on the head and you stick it on the refrigerator.

While this increase may not seem like much in comparison to other companies, I'm sure Phil is in his executive chair looking proud, like "Yeah, I did that. "

I mean if you borrow billions and generate growth of a few hundred million in revenue then it's growth but it's probably terrible business. Have any Wall Street types ever gone over these numbers and questioned whether it will ever add up?

 

[Porticus]

GG Todd, Phil and the teams.

Yes man! GG

Are you gonna get those checks at the end of the month?

 

[Cyborg]

I want raw numbers...... while 76% seems like its a lot we don't know from what.

 

[Roufianos]

Expected more, but hopefully it creates some momentum and MS start being more competitive. Sony need a kick up the ass.

 

[Roxkis_ii]

I mean if you borrow billions and generate growth of a few hundred million in revenue then it's growth but it's probably terrible business. Have any Wall Street types ever gone over these numbers and questioned whether it will ever add up?

Well to look over the numbers, Xbox would have to provide them lol. The best people are going to get are kids drawing (water down and filtered stats), but they will never show you a real repot card. Plus with MS backing, Xbox doesn't have to worry about the market putting them out of business. It's only poor companies and people who have to worry about mistakes and missteps.

 

[Banjo64]

Nintendo and Sony will never let gamepass on their platforms. Sony is already looking to expand their platform outside of just console.

GamePass is dead long-term and Sony knows it can preserve B2P for quite some time as it tries to flex into other business areas, like PC games, pro controllers, VR, eSports, TV/Movies, headsets, monitors etc

Correct. Growth has stagnated. Why would Sony or Nintendo provide inroads for them to continue growing at their expense and provide motivation for them to continue buying third parties?

 

[yazenov]

Hudo congratulations to the shareholders.

 

[Hudo]

Hudo congratulations to the shareholders.

Oh shit yes. I congratulate the shareholders! (I was too busy pitying the shareholders in that Square Enix stock drop thread)

 

[Bernoulli]

Hudo congratulations to the shareholders.

 

[Kenshin775]

Do you think next announced Microsoft games can be also system sellers? Even if I want Hellblade 2, I don't see it as a system seller. Same for all the rest of the announced first party titles, except maybe Fable?

I mean, I like them, but they don't seem like a The Last of Us or God of War level of system selling but like a Returnal or Ratchet&Clank level, good games but not system serelease.

I don't see anything huge that will move units until Call of Duty drops on GP Day 1(assuming the deal goes through). There are a couple games that could be hits though and sell some units.

Hellblade had about 6.3 million players as of 2021 per Google search. Its probably close to 10 million by now thanks to Gamepass. If the next game reviews well and Xbox does a good job marketing the game like they did for Starfield I can see people buying an Xbox for it. even if they haven't played Hellblade 1.

Also these games are not 1st party but Persona 5 Tactica and Persona 3 remake may oddly attract a lot of people that have never been in the Xbox ecosystem. Persona 5 is at 9 million sales(edit: before someone quotes me yes I know its all Persona 5 games including Strikers)and now Xbox will have marketing and subscription rights with a Day 1 release for the next two Persona games.

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

all the sony boys in here i see.

I've been trying to tell them that they should let the MS guys be in denial in peace. At this point even stating the obvious is just unnecessarily cruel.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

It’s true what they say. Software sells hardware

 

[Tsaki]

Well, if in August Xbox sold 26,000... it would be about 6,500 weekly and it rose 76% the week of Starfield it would be 11-12k, it seems to me to be a real sales increase that is quite discreet for the years-long hype that Starfield had.

Depending on when the August cut-off day is, the 76% might be partly already accounted in the 26k. At least the September 2023 sales thread will be the most interesting between PS and Xbox until the next Gears of War releases. Gotta wait a month for that though

 

[Kvally]

Let's see how September is looking vs 2022 yoy. Maybe it sends a message to Microsoft that games do sell consoles?

They never said games didn’t sell consoles

 

[Saber]

Would be great if not for the down in sales, months worth of it.

 

[bxrz]

Seems kinda low. If they got 3x'd by PS5 in August, a 76% increase hardly closes the gap.

There is no world where a 76% increase is "low"

 

[Heisenberg007]

Percentages alone is always such a bs statistic. 76% could be anywhere from 0.76 Xboxes to 76 Xboxes to 7 billion+.

Approximately 5,000 consoles in this case.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Let's see how September is looking vs 2022 yoy. Maybe it sends a message to Microsoft that games do sell consoles?

Microsoft knows this. Why do you take their BS "on demand narratives™" PR, at face value?

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

This would be more impressive if Xbox sales weren't declining by heavy amounts the months prior. Basically, a 76% increase is just making up for a portion of declines seen accumulated prior.

I'm interested to see how well console sales can be maintained outside of the launch period, particularly if supply is good. That will be more of a test to the game's selling power.

Percentage increase is relative to the base number

The base number was poor, so +76% is much less significant than the OP is trying to sell us

TBF, it's not the OP telling us this. It's Chris Dring. AKA the dude that for whatever reason directly compared Starfield player count to sold copies of GOW and TOTK.

And got the player count timeline wrong (6 days, not 2 days). And the GOWR copies sold & timeline wrong (5.1 million in 4 days, not 5 million in 7 days).