Ben-DutkaSony's lead over Microsoft in the current generation is a bit of a surprise to many, and even the Xbox One manufacturer is unsure if they can close the gap completely.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer spoke during a panel at the 2015 GeekWire Summit (as cited by Videogamer ) and when asked if he thought Xbox One could catch PlayStation 4, he answered:
"You know, I don't know. You know, the length of the generation… They [Sony] have a huge lead and they have a good product. I love the content, the games lineup that we have."
Spencer went on to say that the well-documented policy reversals at the start of the generation left a bad taste in people's mouths. As such, Microsoft "fundamentally lost the trust" of their most loyal customers. Most would agree with that. Added Spencer:
"Whether it's always-on, used games, whatever the feature was, we lost the trust in them that they were at the center of our decision-making process. Were we building a product for us, or were we building a product for the gamers? And as soon as that question came into people's minds and they looked at anything, whether it was the power of our box, our launch lineup, microtransactions, any of the features that you talked about, what you find is very quickly you lose the benefit of the doubt. You lose your customer's assumption that the reason you're building your product is to delight them and not just build a better and more maybe manipulative product."
All of that is spot-on, Phil. If only you could've realized it before the sh** hit the fan when you announced Xbox One. After PS4 was announced, one analyst said Microsoft had best bring its "A-game" and that's not what happened. The announcement meant with a ton of flak and even though MS quickly back-pedaled, we wondered if damage control was enough .
Obviously, it wasn't. All of that led to PS4 getting a huge lead out of the gate and it might stay that way.
They lost the trust due to a number of reasons. The xbox 360 was a truly good system, and i'm sure the xbox one is too (although i'm a playstation fan at heart and always have been), however, if it was simply just one portion of the system, i'm sure that microsoft would have kept much of their fanbase, but that was not the case. They got greedy and demanded too much from their fans that quite frankly no one feels is justifiable. Ads on start up, no used games (games are expensive as it is), more expensive for a less powerful system, paying for online, the system had to be always connected online, getting banned online would mean your entire collection of games is now useless, they expected the user base to never truly own the games but to be simply purchasing a rental of it. they completely and utterly bent over their user base. This all came far too soon for and all at once. Everyone acknowledged how greedy it was becoming. I'm sure the xbox one is in all honesty a good system, but because of the onslaught of what they tried to pull upon its release, it may sell well some day, but it will never catch up to the sales of the playstation.
and that clip at e3 during the playstations release when sony put up "how to lend a friend a game" really solidified sony's dominance.
Last edited by coldbore on 10/9/2015 12:04:56 PM
The Xbox 360 fell apart like a Chinese motorcycle.
I think they lost customers' trust long before the Xbox One launch when Xbox 360s were dropping like flies. I had plenty of friends who vowed never to buy another Xbox.
Truth… I gave up the MS ghost after my 5th 360. It didn't matter to me what the XB1 was about because I will never buy a Microsoft console again.
I know I'm not the only one but as a brand I never felt that sort of "welcoming spirit" with Microsoft as I do with Nintendo or Sony.
Last edited by MRSUCCESS on 10/9/2015 1:47:15 PM
Plus they have the crappiest version of all games.
Yep. They had all the classic console problematic indicators to predict huge losses. And that they did, even more so than I imagined.
One may say "but MS is doing better with XO than they did with 360 though" That's fine BUT that's throwing out the recognition that they lost tons of the momentum they had by building up their brand the prior gen and then handed it straight over to Sony.
MS has lost every territory this go around and from a numbers perspective it's extremely unlikely they could ever catch up and surpass Sony in any territory in total sales as of now, assuming this gen lasts a standard 6 or so years.
Though I expect they've learned from their mistake and will get it right the next go around. I'm concerned that Sony may not be able to recover again if they misstep in the future as they had with PS3.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 10/9/2015 7:06:56 PM
Don't pull the damn pity card right before the holiday season. What a cheap move.
Most powerful console, was cheaper, developer love, game diversity, proven PS3 amazing support and the PS4 was truly created with gamers in mind, for the players. This all equals consumer/gamer confidence that their hard earned money won't go to waste.
They focused too much on the be all for the user. Their initial release focused too much on hey look, TV stuff, and ignored the games too much. What little we did get on games was the complete opposite of what gamers wanted. X1 was never designed to be for gamers. It was for MS to take over the living room. They backpeddled and made a great system, but alienated too many gamers.
PS4, for the players.
XB1, for the played.
That's what you get for constantly troll your customer base, every time I read a new article about the XBoxOne I just couldn't believe they were serious, fortunately for them (and their fans) they changed, because if they would go with the original plans they wouldn't even sold one third of their current sales number.
Don't pull the damn pity card right before the holiday season. What a cheap move.
I think they lost customers' trust long before the Xbox One launch when Xbox 360s were dropping like flies. I had plenty of friends who vowed never to buy another Xbox.
Most powerful console, was cheaper, developer love, game diversity, proven PS3 amazing support and the PS4 was truly created with gamers in mind, for the players. This all equals consumer/gamer confidence that their hard earned money won't go to waste.
They focused too much on the be all for the user. Their initial release focused too much on hey look, TV stuff, and ignored the games too much. What little we did get on games was the complete opposite of what gamers wanted. X1 was never designed to be for gamers. It was for MS to take over the living room. They backpeddled and made a great system, but alienated too many gamers.
They lost the trust due to a number of reasons. The xbox 360 was a truly good system, and i'm sure the xbox one is too (although i'm a playstation fan at heart and always have been), however, if it was simply just one portion of the system, i'm sure that microsoft would have kept much of their fanbase, but that was not the case. They got greedy and demanded too much from their fans that quite frankly no one feels is justifiable. Ads on start up, no used games (games are expensive as it is), more expensive for a less powerful system, paying for online, the system had to be always connected online, getting banned online would mean your entire collection of games is now useless, they expected the user base to never truly own the games but to be simply purchasing a rental of it. they completely and utterly bent over their user base. This all came far too soon for and all at once. Everyone acknowledged how greedy it was becoming. I'm sure the xbox one is in all honesty a good system, but because of the onslaught of what they tried to pull upon its release, it may sell well some day, but it will never catch up to the sales of the playstation.
and that clip at e3 during the playstations release when sony put up "how to lend a friend a game" really solidified sony's dominance.
Last edited by coldbore on 10/9/2015 12:04:56 PM
That's what you get for constantly troll your customer base, every time I read a new article about the XBoxOne I just couldn't believe they were serious, fortunately for them (and their fans) they changed, because if they would go with the original plans they wouldn't even sold one third of their current sales number.
Truth… I gave up the MS ghost after my 5th 360. It didn't matter to me what the XB1 was about because I will never buy a Microsoft console again.
The Xbox 360 fell apart like a Chinese motorcycle.
PS4, for the players.
XB1, for the played.
I know I'm not the only one but as a brand I never felt that sort of "welcoming spirit" with Microsoft as I do with Nintendo or Sony.
Last edited by MRSUCCESS on 10/9/2015 1:47:15 PM
Yep. They had all the classic console problematic indicators to predict huge losses. And that they did, even more so than I imagined.
One may say "but MS is doing better with XO than they did with 360 though" That's fine BUT that's throwing out the recognition that they lost tons of the momentum they had by building up their brand the prior gen and then handed it straight over to Sony.
MS has lost every territory this go around and from a numbers perspective it's extremely unlikely they could ever catch up and surpass Sony in any territory in total sales as of now, assuming this gen lasts a standard 6 or so years.
Though I expect they've learned from their mistake and will get it right the next go around. I'm concerned that Sony may not be able to recover again if they misstep in the future as they had with PS3.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 10/9/2015 7:06:56 PM
Plus they have the crappiest version of all games.