Phil Spencer: Xbox More Focused on Player Engagement Than Console Sales - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 30 June 2021 / 2,211 Views
Head of Xbox Phil Spencer in an interview with IGN said Xbox is more focused on player engagement than about console sales. Xbox Game Pass has been helping Xbox grow the engagement of players and they are still able to continue to turn a profit.
"The number one metric that we can look at to see if our business is actually growing is, 'are people playing more on the platform?' There’s nothing about review scores, there’s nothing about retail sales of console, or retail sale of games," said Spencer.
"The number one sign that our platform is healthy and growing is actually engagement on the platform from players, and that is what Xbox Game Pass is growing. So, our business continues to grow and continues to be profitable at Xbox, and we're very proud of that."
Microsoft has been expanding the number of platforms Xbox games are playable on. They now release all first-party titles on PC on day one, as well as available on Android and iOS via Xbox Cloud Gaming for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members. Microsoft also has plans to make Xbox Cloud Gaming available on smart TVs in the near future.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Last I checked the Series X/S is selling better than any Xbox console while also offering more options for how to play their games but lets ignore that part when throwing shade at console sales.
Who is throwing shade at console sales? People want to know why MS can't release their console sales data. Then those great sales # you hold religious belief can be publicized for all to see. Just like their GamePass numbers which they more recently stopped publishing. The laws of physics didn't suddenly change to justify stopping publishing both of those. OK, you say they are doing great, why not publish that?
Because units sold means nothing to their buisness model.
Now thats just nonsense, and taking the PR to the extreme. Of course units sold matters, they don't create hardware for no reason. Every unit sold is another customer entering their ecosystem. Just the traditional viewpoint of it being the only metric is no longer true.
Of course it means something, its just not there primary method anymore. You can sell 200m consoles but if only 5% sign up for GP than its useless. GP is everything for them.
Spencer hasn't said that console sales don't matter. They clearly matter, otherwise they wouldn't be selling consoles at all. But, XB's position is that console sales are not the important success metric. They're saying "player engagement" because that represents the number of people that can be monetized. If you take PR speak out of the way, the numbers they care about are GP subscribers, and people playing XB stuff that they haven't yet converted to GP subscribers (because that's the low hanging fruit for growth). Combine those two groups, add PR spin, and they call it "player engagement".
At this point, it is clear that MS isn't just saying "Gamepass" to take the focus off of console sales. It is definitely their focus. Frankly, I like it. They're taking a cautious approach to cloud gaming so as not to poison the well like Stadia almost did, but it appears that they're going to be able to make that work well too.
Realistically, I have no interest in buying more boxes to sit below my TV. I don't buy DVDs because they're no longer practical. The same is about to be true for games.
To be fair it’s true they don’t care if they sell a single console as long as game pass sells that’s all that matters
You think without xbox they will keep getting more gamepass subscriptions?
Moseskyle is right. Xbox is not a console anymore, it is a platform, an ecosystem. What they are working on is to get independant of the console as the bearing pillar of that ecosystem. Play gamepass via your pc, your phone, your tv.... They are manufacturing consoles because and as long as they are a significant means to bringing in people to the xbox ecosystem (or as long as they see a value in the positive reputation of the brand xbox in the core audience which will care for a console and would deem it a negative if Microsoft didn´t have one), but once console is a niche in the gamepass subscriber base (and I am sure that point will come within a decade), they will stop developing and manufacturing them.
I doubt it. If microsoft plays it safe or thinks that gamepass is their future, they won't last too long. People want AAA games and exclusives. Most people don't want a backlog of older games and few releases of main stream exlusives. Nor do they want that cell phone experience.
If they make that mistake and don't deliver yearly on exclusives, gamepass sales will plummet. In my opinion ps5's lead will be even greater than last gen.
No what am trying to say is that all
Microsoft cares about is game pass subscriptions first n yes they want console salesbut I bet you any money if someone asked Phil would he prefer 100m consoles sold or 60m GP full paying subscriptions I bet you can guess which one he would take in a heartbeat
The way gamepass has been hyped is like the second ciming of christ. And I feel a lot of people are jumping in cause of the hype. However if the games don't come on a steady basis, I feel that the number of subcriptions will drop heavily.
They need to do as good as sony when it comes to blockbuster exclusives otherwise a lot of people will lose interest in gamepass I believe.
If you haven't realized but MS have a fair amount of 1st party studios currently working for them and are not slowing down on AAA productions. Also tons of 3rd party support.
If my product wasn't selling as well as my competitors of course I would try to downplay the importance of sales to look better.
Sure, MS down play console sales now because they are not in the lead. We have seen time and time again the comments that Greenberg makes on twitter when he can brag about sales and stick it to Sony. It's just that he's got nothing to say now.
Xbox were never in the lead in any generation. So why did they share numbers when they were never number 1? Hmm
When were there number 1 ?
I never said they were.
I don't see myself buying future consoles. The cloud is the future.
Damn i hate being right. Been saying this for years.
In other words, sales aren't that great. At least compared to PS5 and Switch.
Essay Pro