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XBox (Games)

Xbox Is Bleeding Out (gizmodo.com) 42

Posted by msmash from the game-over dept.
Microsoft's Xbox consoles were conspicuously absent from Black Friday's winners, failing to crack the top three in U.S. sales during one of the retail calendar's most important weeks. According to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, the PlayStation 5 captured 47% of Black Friday week console sales ending November 29, followed by the Nintendo Switch 2 at 24% and -- somewhat remarkably -- the NEX Playground, a Kinect-like Android device aimed at children, at 14%.

Microsoft ran no promotions on its consoles during the period. The Xbox Series X currently retails for $650 following this year's price increase, up from its $500 launch price in 2020. Sony, by contrast, discounted the PS5 by roughly 40% at some retailers. Piscatella noted on Bluesky that products without price promotions typically see no seasonal lift. Costco has removed Xbox consoles from its U.S. and UK websites.

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Xbox Is Bleeding Out

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  • RAM shortages (Score:3)

    by peterww ( 6558522 ) on Tuesday December 09, 2025 @12:10PM (#65846067)

    Sony bought up a ton of ram while it was cheap, so they can keep churning out units at a discount. Microsoft didn't have a large pool of excess ram, so their units are actually getting more scarce. Hence the price increase rather than decrease.

    • Re:RAM shortages (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Guspaz ( 556486 ) on Tuesday December 09, 2025 @12:17PM (#65846099)

      Xbox was dying long before the RAM shortage started. The writing has been on the wall for a long time now. The infamous and confusing "This is an Xbox" marketing campaign started over a year ago.

    • Re:RAM shortages (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Comboman ( 895500 ) on Tuesday December 09, 2025 @12:17PM (#65846101)

      So why didn't Microsoft buy up ram while it was cheap too? They should have had a far clearer picture of how AI datacenter build-outs would affect ram prices than Sony since they are deeply connected with OpenAI.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rujiel ( 1632063 )

      I think it's more than that, Microsoft doesn't want to participate in making game hardware anymore. Even before the xbox one was released, MS wanted it to be an online-only console and reneged on that due to fan backlash. Just like with their OS, they have made it harder and harder to operate offline, with the eventual goal that you don't have your own hardware, you don't own your own games, you will rent everything indefinitely. They massively hiked prices for their online passes too.

  • Microsoft has been laying people off and scaling back other efforts in the pursuit of AI. Can't help but wonder if they're eyeing XBox (at least the physical consoles) as the next sacrificial lamb at the altar of Copilot.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      At least customers asked for Xboxes.

      It will be interesting to see how bad the AI bubble burst kicks MS.

  • Microsoft is probably looking at integrating Xbox into Windows 11 somehow. I give up on trying to figure out what Microsoft's future plans are. They all seem to lead to the same place, enshitification and privacy raping.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hadlock ( 143607 )

      Consoles have a 7 year life, the Xbox One came out in 2013; it should have seen a fully new hardware design in 2020. So they're 5 years overdue ("series" are hardware refreshes, not a true "next gen" redesign) Microsoft has never been able to turn around the story of the failed launch the product is likely dead at this point. Microsoft wanted to own the media landscape and at this point they've given up on that vision for 5+ years.

    • That already happened. Windows 11 has an XBox app that lets you stream console games from your PC if you have an XBox Game Pass Gold subscription.

      It really seems like Microsoft is just giving up on new hardware and leaning in hard to cloud streaming.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Mousit ( 646085 )

      Microsoft is probably looking at integrating Xbox into Windows 11 somehow.

      They don't even need to go that far. Virtually all the Xbox games are no longer console exclusives, including formerly flagship games like Halo. They're all available cross-platform now, mostly for PC (though some are also on other consoles too). PC-wise they're either through the Microsoft Store or often via 3rd-party stores like Steam and such--the entire Halo series is on Steam for example.

      Viewed in that context, buying an Xbox console only makes sense if you aren't the type to have your own gaming

  • Call me when... (Score:3)

    by Tailhook ( 98486 ) on Tuesday December 09, 2025 @12:37PM (#65846171)

    Xbox has been dying for 20 years now.

    I know hating on Xbox is the approved take, but Microsoft isn't going to walk away from their cut of the console market in your lifetime.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      I am not sure about that.

      Microsoft isn't a hardware company, going back to add on cards in mice for XTs, Microsoft has always used hardware to push software.

      We see the ROG Xbox Ally and the pushing of Xbox branded content in Windows 11. I think all suggests that while XBox as brand and XBox 'titles' are not going away Microsoft is testing the waters for options that don't include them sell hardware. Those options range from pure PC based / Windows software plays to partnering with OEMs to build gaming ori

    • I've always wondered if the XBox unit is net profitable over the past 25 years. The red-ring-of-death problem had to consume multiple years of profits.

      • It was probably minimally profitable even with the Xbox 360 hardware issues. Still Xbox was a small part of MS so there was not a lot of profit pressure on them. Then MS started acquiring major developers. Activision Blizzard was a $69B purchase alone. Now MS has more profit expectations of Xbox.
    • Except many actions of MS says otherwise. For example, MS and Asus just released their new gaming handheld Asus ROG Xbox Ally X. It does not play Xbox games. It plays PC games. MS has been telling the consumer that ”Everything is an Xbox" from smart phones to PCs.

    • Xbox has always been weak, and likely has never been profitable, and hardware has never really been Microsoft's thing. Xbox getting only 10% market share, however, is new territory. This may be leading to more pain than Microsoft is willing to take. Back in the Genesis days, would you have thought that Sega would ever walk away from consoles?

    • It's so sad, yet so true. Xbox is basically dead as a brand, it feels like anytime soon, MS will just pull the plug and exit the consoles market. But yet again, it has felt that way for the past 20 years, so maybe...
      I was subscribed to Game Pass for many years, and it gave many hours of fun. So, I'll remember it fondly... but no sane person can recommend it. So sad...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      Xbox has been dying for 20 years now.

      I know hating on Xbox is the approved take, but Microsoft isn't going to walk away from their cut of the console market in your lifetime.

      Nope, Microsoft is going to let it wither and die a slow, undignified death as they drain every penny they can out of it.

      It's been the strategy with their gaming software for years now. Buy up a successful studio, kill anything that made it successful, release half arsed sequels that are DLC'd, P2W'd and generally geared to maximise profit over enjoyment and when that is no longer working, sack any remaining staff and shelve the studio. Case in point, Bethesda.

      They've already said they have no interes

  • Microsoft is looking for the door with the Xbox and will be using these numbers to justify integrating Xbox gaming with Windows to move away from the hardware game. Nothing lasts forever folks...

  • Then phones. Now Xbox. In future years it'll be Surface tablets and notebooks. Microsoft are shit at hardware.

    • I own a current gen Xbox and the hardware seems ok.
      The previous gen was ok too.

      • yeah I wouldn't say they're shit at hardware. They just don't do as well as Apple, Sony, Nintendo, ..

    • They made that one mouse everyone liked. Remember that?

      • Never liked their mice. Logitech was always better.

        But I did like their ergonomic keyboard for my work PC.

        • Had the same Microsoft mouse for 15 years. Very basic model, nothing special at all. Then I go for a week away to travel to a different nation as this South-American country where I live has no Dutch embassy. How the mouse managed it I don't know, but it seemed to have found a way to drop from my desk and break into pieces and yet no-one touched it.

          Must have been a miracle of sorts... \s

          Been using a wireless Microsoft keyboard and mouse combo since. Again, no complaints, both do what they are supposed to do

  • The Original Xbox and the 360 were amazing pieces of tech for their time and could be again.

    MS could rescue the whole division by just committing to a rerelease of one of those consoles alone. Give me a refreshed OG Xbox with a user partition that I can install homebrew on like it 1999. Release the games on physical discs for $25 and drop the dumbass addition charge for online multiplayer. Watch Crimson Skies take the world by storm. Halo:CE rises from the dead in 2026. Dead or Alive III with online multipl

    • This works well-ish on Nintendo Switch. I have access to almost all of the Nintendo titles from the old days, plus a lot of independent games that are retro-style.
      I pay for a few months of subscription here and there, not all the time since I don't play games all the time.
      All of the past titles should be playable on new consoles, since it should be bytecode compatible. I don't see the problem with a subscription service where you can play any and all titles whenever you want.
      Playstation screwed up entirely

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by flink ( 18449 )

        Playstation screwed up entirely by cutting off PS1,PS2 titles on the PS3 due to incompatible media or whatever. I don't know if those older titles would be bytecode compatible even if you could load the discs. That may have hurt PS3 adoption a little bit, but in the long run it really didn't make that much of a dent.

        The original run of PS3s (hardware revs A & B) had full PS1&2 hardware comparability.

  • You heard it here first. Microsoft will sell Xbox/Microsoft Gaming to Valve and divest itself of all gaming interests to focus on AI. This will also be the deathnell for Windows after the continued failures of Windows 11 and whatever 12 will be. The trojan Horse of Proton will lift Linux to the forfront of desktop acceptance.

    Film at 11!
  • Soon they will be solely a software gaming division.
    • That's even worse for them. None of the studios that they bought are making games that anyone really loves or will fondly remember twenty years from now. They paid a shit ton of money for studios cashing in on past successes are the ones who will be left holding the bag. Some might still manage to sell titles in the millions, but they really on exist until something better comes along and disrupts the market. Halo, GoW, or other Xbox mainstays haven't been relevant in years and none of the studios they boug
  • XBox, I believe, is ready to be a software certification like Plays for Sure was when Microsoft was losing in Digital Music to iPod/iTunes. XBox is dead is my prediction. I have owned 3 of them and now wish I had been on Team PlayStation. I won’t be moving to PC gaming.
  • MS didn't plan well and got hit with tariffs and high ram prices, now their consoles are so overpriced it's pointless to even attempt to market them and better to just keep pushing Gamepass.

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