Xbox sales are getting smashed by Sony’s PS4, now Microsoft has moved to hide the extent of the damage that Sony is inflicting on the Microsoft console by removing official sales figures from their quarterly financials.
The latest sales figures for the big games consoles don’t make particularly good. From a global perspective the Xbox One is lagging behind the PS4 with 12.8m lifetime sales as opposed to the Sony machine’s 23.2m. Putting that into a bit of perspective come the sales of the Wii U hitting 9.7m over its lifetime – that’s really not far off the Xbox One.
In the past it’s been common practice for Microsoft to give out their sales for Xbox consoles, on rare occasions they have bragged about it.
What they have admitted is that hardware revenue is down year over year because of declining Xbox 360 sales.
When pressed further about why exactly the console stats are hidden, Microsoft revealed that going forward, consoles shipped will no longer be a “primary metric for success” from now on, with the company instead using high-margin Xbox Live user data as its primary stat.
In other words, Microsoft is done pretending like it’s going to catch PS4, and wants to avoid quarterly headlines reinforcing the fact that the Xbox One is always so far behind.
Even Ogilvy PR Microsoft’s PR Agency are refusing to talk about how far sales have declined in Australia.
Fortune Magazine said that ever since Call of Duty stopped breaking its own sales records, Activision is now hiding exact launch figures under a bushel.
Many retailers were expecting a boom holiday period for Microsoft because of the release of Halo 5 and a few other exclusives that they hope will boost Xbox One sales.
So what’s the odds of Microsoft going back to releasing sales numbers if there’s some new surge of console sales during that period. “I doubt it said one analyst”.
Across the board Microsoft hardware is suffering Surface Pro sales are down 35% Windows phone sales are down 54% with some insiders claiming that Xbox sales have tanked by over 40%.
Microsoft has been cagey about its Xbox One stats especially over the past year, masking figures by saying “Xbox units sold” and giving a big number which includes both 360 and One sales, with no indication of the split. Previously, Phil Spencer has said that Microsoft is focusing less on the “competitive” side of the console war, and more on user engagement. This reporting shift certainly reflects that.
