Microsoft Reveals It’s Lost the Console Wars: “We’ve Consistently Ranked Third behind PlayStation and Nintendo”

Tsing

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Is Microsoft planning to make an Xbox Series XX or XXX? Maybe not, as the company has admitted that it has "lost the console wars" as part of a new document that stems from the FTC's new case against Microsoft's pending, $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, something that the U.S. regulator clearly doesn't think is the greatest idea. "Xbox has lost the console wars, and its rivals are positioned to continue to dominate," reads one portion of the document highlighted by The Verge, while another points out how Xbox has "consistently ranked third in consoles behind PlayStation and Nintendo." Many Xbox fans are calling this a shame, reasoning that Microsoft has delivered some very nice hardware this generation.

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Context is relevant. These weren't marketing documents aimed at Xbox fans. The FTC is trying to block an acquisition, so it seems that it'd be to Microsoft's advantage to downplay its position in the console market relative to its rivals.

The Verge is capitalizing on that to score some cheap clicks.
 
Yeah yeah MS: we are a poor poor company with a poor mans gaming department. Reality: 2 billion profit last quarter.
 
I have a hard time believing that. I see Xboxes everywhere. Maybe they're 2nd behind Playstation but I can't imagine that Nintendo is beating them.
 
Depends on how you look at things, in terms of units, Switch is the 3rd best selling console of all time. I dont know how that translates into software sales, money and such.
 
MacLeod said:
I have a hard time believing that. I see Xboxes everywhere. Maybe they're 2nd behind Playstation but I can't imagine that Nintendo is beating them.
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If you look at lifetime console sales, Microsoft barely makes the top 10 with the 360. They really need better exclusives if they want to make progress.

Not releasing the anemic Series S would have also helped their cause this gen.
 
Is the console war really a zero sum game? Aren't people allowed to own more than one console of a different branding?

I mean, I get that people love to look at it as Black vs White, it's just kind of the way we are wired to think of things. But I would say Nintendo has made a very good run not really aiming to compete against anyone - they just kind of do their own thing and focus on putting out good games that people want to play.
 
Denpepe said:
Not releasing the anemic Series S would have also helped their cause this gen.
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I don't see why. It plays games just as well but at $200 less. I would think it would sell more Xboxes to people that would like one but don't care enough to shell out $500 for one.
 
MacLeod said:
I don't see why. It plays games just as well but at $200 less. I would think it would sell more Xboxes to people that would like one but don't care enough to shell out $500 for one.
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And it also hold all your games back as they need to perform similarly on both while the series S is about as powerfull as the previous gen but with an SSD.
 
Denpepe said:
And it also hold all your games back as they need to perform similarly on both while the series S is about as powerfull as the previous gen but with an SSD.
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No the series S doesn't "hold back"

The X is targetted at 4K & the S at 1080p.

Only problem is the memory limitation for which they can use the new "texture streaming rate" parameter introduced to support 8gb Nvidia cards

The real problem is "unoptimized PC ports" that target 1440p for the X, then there is no way they can run comfortably at 1080p on the S
 
Marees said:
There is no techincal explanation of how a Series S holds back games.
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Id Software’s lead engine programmer, Billy Khan, says, “The memory situation is a big issue on the S. The much lower amount of memory and the split memory banks with drastically slower speeds will be a major issue. Aggressively lowering the render resolutions will marginally help but will not completely counteract the deficiencies.”
 
Denpepe said:
Id Software’s lead engine programmer, Billy Khan, says, “The memory situation is a big issue on the S. The much lower amount of memory and the split memory banks with drastically slower speeds will be a major issue. Aggressively lowering the render resolutions will marginally help but will not completely counteract the deficiencies.”
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Agree the memory is a bottleneck on Series S

But majority of installed Nvidia cards have 8gb or less of memory. If a game can be optimized for a 8gb card at 1080p then it can be optimized for series S also & vice versa
 
Marees said:
Agree the memory is a bottleneck on Series S

But majority of installed Nvidia cards have 8gb or less of memory. If a game can be optimized for a 8gb card at 1080p then it can be optimized for series S also & vice versa
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Sure, other then the fact that the series S was made for 1440p and not 1080
 
Ok, so the funny part here; looking at revenue, which is probably a better metric than number of consoles sold or what not.

2022 revenue figures (estimated)

Playstation $27.0B
Xbox $15.5B
Nintendo $14.0B

A company that only very rarely puts out any games and has some hardware, but a pretty small chunk of the market
Valve $13.0B

Now, company that doesn't make any gaming hardware, owns no developers or publishers, doesn't have any first party games, and is largely seen as irrelevant when talking about gaming
Apple $86.8B (Gaming-related App Store Revenue only)

Looking at it with that perspective:
Would Microsoft's acquisition of Acti/Bliz harm Sony? Yeah, it probably would. But would it harm gaming industry / gamers as consumers in general? No, probably not.
 
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