Microsoft: 'Xbox has Lost the Console Wars' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 July 2023 / 7,155 Views
The FTC vs. Microsoft case in the US is set to start this morning and Microsoft in a filing says Xbox is in third place in the console market, behind Sony's PlayStation and Nintendo.
"Xbox has lost the console wars, and its rivals are positioned to continue to dominate, including by leveraging exclusive content," reads the filing. "Xbox has consistently ranked third in consoles behind PlayStation and Nintendo."
The filing adds, "Sony is the dominant player in consoles. Sony PlayStation, for over two decades and through five generations, has been leading console both worldwide and in the US. Sony's gamer base is [redacted] as large as Xbox's worldwide, and [redacted] larger in the United States.
"Xbox's console has consistently ranked third (of three) behind PlayStation and Nintendo in sales. In 2021, Xbox had a share of 16% while Nintendo and PlayStation had shares if [redacted] and [redacted], respectively. Likewise for console revenues and share of consoles currently in use by gamers (installed base), Xbox trails with 21% while PlayStation and Nintendo have shares of [redacted] and [redacted], respectively."
Thanks, The Verge.
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 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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That's MS own doing. They had a really good run with the 360. They were very well positioned and then they blew it with the Xbox One unbelievable stupidity. A new generation with very few high quality exclusives and that's the result. MS has no one to blame but themselves.
Sony also has better brand-power. - Deservedly so with a good track history of quality games and hardware.
Even during the 7th generation when Sony's online network got hacked and imploded, where Sony had no games for years, where the Playstation 3 was higher priced and didn't really offer a tangible visual or performance improvement over the Xbox 360, where they released later, where they removed features like OtherOS/Backwards compat, they still managed to beat Xbox.
Microsoft absolutely fumbled with the Xbox One and Sony capitalized on it, that's competition. - But even when Microsoft resolved the Xbox One issues, they just can't seem to gain enough traction.
I don't think they're blaming anyone. They're just stating a fact.
I can hear the violin. They are in third place because they deserve it, you make your own success in the world.
But... they aren't whining, just stating a fact before a judge to prove they don't have dominant market power?
Overall, it's accurate information Xbox is giving here, though there are a few outlier generations that go against their claims, Xbox was 2nd place in gen 6 as OG Xbox beat Gamecube, Nintendo was 1st place in gen 7 with Wii, not 2nd, and regardless of rather you pit Switch against PS4 or PS5, it'll likely be the #1 console that generation. Overall though, the ranking is Sony 1st, Nintendo 2nd, Xbox 3rd, if you average up all generations including PS1 vs N64 before Xbox entered the market. Sony sold 87m on their weakest generation of the 5 generations they have been a part of, compared to 24m as the weakest for Xbox, and 13m as the weakest for Nintendo. Sony also has the strongest single generation of the 3 as of now with PS2 selling 158m (remains to be seen if Switch can surpass it).
Yeah, only way Xbox would be 3rd in gen 6 is if you include handhelds.
Their position in their market is their own doing. From the very beginning, they arrogantly thought they could buy their way to the top when they decided to go into the video game market and were shocked when they got laughed out of the room by Nintendo. They are culturally clueless in their dealings with Japan - really, with any part of the world outside of the Anglosphere. They had a good thing going with the 360, and blew that because they wanted the Xbox One to be a set-top box instead of focusing on gaming. But even there, they moneyhatted a bunch of Japanese developers to keep contend off of PS3, which resulted in losses for the companies that threw in with Microsoft, and it got them a whopping 1.5 million lifetime sales in Japan, which is less than the Saturn sold in the United States.
No surprise since this whole gen felt like MS was solely focusing on buying Activision rather than supporting their own system and fans.
Again with the "Sony is the dominant player in consoles. Sony PlayStation, for over two decades and through five generations, has been leading console both worldwide and in the US." Someone should have told Sony during gen 7 this.
Yes, it's very inaccurate information. PS1 and PS2 yes. But PS3 did not win the US, let alone globally. And now, with Switch, Nintendo will have won four generations to Sony's three. So I don't get what they're talking about at all. Sony is definitely and unquestionably the second-most successful console gaming company on the planet, and will likely stay that way forever. But to say they are basically the Babe Ruth of consoles when Nintendo is a thing is just factually wrong.
Microsoftis talking about home consoles here. PS1, ps2 and ps4 won. We don't know about the ps5 yet. Nintendo only won during the wii generation
There were two generations before the PS1 that Nintendo has won.
Yes but sony and Microsoft weren't in it. Do you agree that Sony dominated most of the home consoles generations? PS1,PS2 and PS4. Only one they lost was PS3 to the Wii
I can not disagree with a fact.
Xbox One sold more than Wii U. Xbox sold more than GameCube. Xbox 360 outsold PS3 in the US and sold overall the same as PS3. It's not that bad as stated. Though, Xbox Series struggles hard against PS5 and Switch after a decent start. That's the thing I would worry the most.
You know, they saying "Xbox has Lost the Console Wars" does not give me much confidence in the brand. Someone at marketing is probably pulling their hair after reading this statement...
lol yes we know. Playing the victim's card doesn't work tho.
still the new kid on the block, its about profits? im sure they would like to be #1 but profits will keep them around
Glad to see they’re actually admitting their mediocrity in the dedicated video game industry despite being a corporation many times the size of Sony and Nintendo combined. These guys are so out of touch with the video gaming industry that they struggle to even get the basic facts about it correct.
The major problem with Microsoft is their strategy is to imitate Sony with minor differences. Nintendo learned from their mistake after one generation with Gamecube. Microsoft keeps repeating it again and again expecting a different outcome. Their idea of a different strategy is “Let’s throw more of our money at it!” That’s why they’ll never have a winning idea like an NES, a Gameboy, a DS, a Wii, or a Switch.
On another topic: a multi-trillion dollar conglomerate - especially one with sub-mediocre instincts about the console industry - should never be cheered on by video game fans to swallow up more major third party companies.
Well with that attitude...
Same thing with VR, Microsoft saying they are waiting for it to grow, rather then getting their foot in early and making it grow.
With VR if they wait for it to become big then all the talk will be on the already available VR sets.
With consoles, why say this? It doesn't install confidence in partners as well as show your employees confidence... Just like what Jim Ryan said about losing CoD would kill playstation, Sony Devs looked at him like "what are we, roaches?"
They're telling this in front of a judge in a court
Of course that's what they're gonna tell a judge if they're trying to acquire Activision
They want the judge to see them as worse off than they actually are
What do ya think they gonna say to the judge? "Oh we're doing fine; we just want to get even bigger; so let us acquire Activision, please"
Ya guys never argued in front of a judge before? Lol
Hence the pushed forward to Digital/Streaming.
It's not sony or nintys fault as to why u are third in consecutive console eras, even with Bethesda Zenimax family at ur side u made crap and made it crappier hello redfall
We know that for a long time.
We're only in the beginning , how could they call for defeat already.
They really like to pretend like the PS3 was a huge success.
Yes PS3 lost but not by a huge margin. PS1, PS2 and PS4 dominated. PS1 outsold the n64 by 70 million, PS2 outsold the gamecube by 130 million, PS4 outsold the wii u by over 100 million. They really dominated so Microsoft are correct
They said that Sony was always leading worldwide and in the US. The PS3 was almost 20mil behind the X360 and similarly far behind the Wii and also behind the Wii worldwide.
Therefore they are not correct. But that's not the only wrong thing they said. The Xbox outsold the Gamecube and was second and not third in homeconsoles in it's generation and the XOne outsold the Wii U by a ton.
And then the Switch has been ahead of both from 2019 up until 2022. Sony has not been consistently #1 and Xbox #3 for the last 20 years.
The guy who's writing this crap needs to get fired. Nintendo dominated every single gen on home & portables since the 8 bit days with the only exception being PS1 & PS2 gens on home consoles. Besides that Sony is was and always will be 2nd in every single gen after Nintendo. Sony fanboys don't like being told the truth but that won't change that fact. Wii destroyed PS3, Switch keep destroying PS4 and Switch's successor will again destroy PS5 in time. Deal with it, Nintendomination every gen.
Wii U didn't exist? I thought that was completely with the PS4 ? PS1 destroyed n64, PS2 destroyed gamecube, wii beat the PS3 quite comfortably, PS4 destroyed the Wii U.
When you are more concerned about putting ps out of bussiness instead of improving yourself,nice strategy by the xbox trio!!!
They lost console wars and they supportes their fanboys so much, microsoft is the only one giving the most batshit insane fanboys a hand in making them relevant, dinner with them, fly them to events, pose to photos with them, following them, etc.
You dont see Sony and nintendo execs and pr doing shit like this.
Except Nintendo killed Sony with Switch
Killed which one? PS5? Because the PS4 absolutely destroyed the Wii U
wiiu killed itself
Approve this and allow them to buy another 2 major publishers.
