Microsoft is betting on its new Xbox One X to turnaround the state of its marred consumer gaming division, notably affected by Sony who has grown market share of its PlayStation to reportedly over 65%.
Since the raging success of the original Xbox 360, Microsoft’s gaming division hasn’t fared quite so well – the tech giant hopes to ‘get back in the game’ with its new Xbox One X, claimed to be “the world’s most powerful console”.
Microsoft claims that the Xbox One X is 40% more powerful than any other gaming console on the market – featuring six teraflops of internal graphical computing power, which far surpasses the 4.2 incorporated in Sony’s PlayStation4 Pro.
As reflected in its recent earnings report, Microsoft does not reveal exact Xbox sales numbers.
As the market for PC gaming continues to escalate, it seems Microsoft’s consumer gaming division, is not only in competition with consoles such as Sony’s PlayStation, but also the suite of high-tech PC gaming hardware that is continuing to rise in demand.
At Tuesday’s Xbox One X unveiling, Microsoft announced it will now focus on live service and high-end hardware, to turn around the flagging fortunes of its video game division.
In September, Microsoft promoted Xbox Chief, Phil Spencer, to Executive Vice President, making him one of the company’s ‘inner circle’ of advisors, and directly reporting to CEO Satya Nadella, as opposed to Windows Chief, Terry Myerson.
Xbox Head, Phil Spencer, affirms that Microsoft will begin shifting its focus away from hardware sales to the development of more first-party software:
“We need to grow, and I look forward to doing that. Our ability to go create content has to be one of our strengths. We haven’t always invested at the same level. We’ve gone through ups and downs in the investment”.
The tech giant has already begun to shift its strategy, by debuting services such as ‘Xbox Game Pass’ which enables users to access and directly download a library of over 100 games for a flat fee of US$9.99/per month.
Spencer claims that such decisions are just the beginning of Microsoft’s efforts to turnaround its gaming division:
“Microsoft will probably debut a streaming service that doesn’t require a console for some types of content in the next three years”.
The 1TB Xbox One X will retail for A$649 in Australia, which is actually more affordable than in America, where it sells for US$499 (factoring exchange rates and sales tax).
Some market commentators speculate Microsoft may release a 500GH Xbox One X, which will be even cheaper.
The new Xbox One X gaming console features a new HDD, for quicker loading times. A more powerful processor is also tipped to provide the console with ‘unprecedented’ audio and 4K visuals.
