Microsoft loves consoles and will make more, but the console market is stagnant, Spencer says.

The new Xbox commercial where everything is an Xbox makes so much sense now doesn't it?

This may have not been the best time to launch a mid gen console. lol :P

Anyway, I think many have noticed this trend.

Any thoughts SW?

The Story.

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Xbox, PlayStation, And Nintendo Console Market "Isn't Growing," Phil Spencer Says

Microsoft loves consoles and will make more, but the console market is stagnant, Spencer says.

By Eddie Makuch on November 15, 2024 at 5:55AM PST

The video game console market "isn't growing," Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in a new interview, and that's part of the reason why you don't need an Xbox to play Xbox these days.

"The console space all up isn't growing, across all of them [Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo]. We love those customers, but in terms of continuing to expand and grow Xbox, it's about PC, it's about cloud, and it's about making our games more available in more places," Spencer told Rolling Stone.

Just because the console market isn't growing, that doesn't mean Microsoft is abandoning consoles. Spencer said Microsoft will "definitely do more consoles in the future," as well as "other devices."

None of this is a surprise, as Microsoft has already confirmed a next-gen Xbox that promises the "largest technical leap" in Xbox history. As for the "other devices," Spencer may be referring to the Xbox handheld device that is a "few years out."

Also in the interview, Spencer reiterated that Microsoft is probably not planning a mid-gen Xbox refresh, like Sony did with the PS5 Pro. He said, "We don't need to do incremental hardware for our own benefit. Does a new device really give you a unique experience on screen in some way?"

Years ago, the leap between the original Xbox and Xbox 360 was significant in terms of graphics and performance, Spencer said, but these days "it's harder to show the benefits" of more powerful hardware alone.

A new "This Is An Xbox" ad campaign reminds people that Xbox is no longer limited to being a piece of plastic under your TV. Your phone is an Xbox, as is your TV, and any number of other devices, because Xbox games--and Game Pass--are available in those places. Spencer said he understands some part of the Xbox audience enjoys the "simplicity of a single box, single platform, single game." But the reality is that, "Today's largest games are bigger than any of the individual platforms."

He said the Xbox platform should be about games, characters, and worlds, as opposed to any one dedicated device. "That's how we think about Xbox today," he said.

It is true. Hardware advancement is coming to a crawl. Some gamers are still foolishly wait for "true" next Gen games 😂 and the younger generation are not into console wars like the old farts. Also Xbox claim of greatest generational leap for their next system is fodder.

It's not growing because of xbox lagging behind 😆

It's not stagnant, it's MS can't get market share from Sony or Nintendo.

They are too used to just have 90% of a market (Windows) They don't know how to actually compete and take market share

I'm glad they will still be making consoles.

But I wonder how they will grow the market? They already have PC, console, mobile, TV apps, cloud... They have all that today and have had it for years. What else is left?

Agreed except for the bolded. ;o

SuperMighty NextBox MonsterBox will be outer worldly strong baby!! lolol :P

Tons of 1st party games in the pipeline to sell on all those game playing devises, I guess. :P

@SecretPolice: Basically a continuation of what they have been doing.

are Ps sales,xb sales and Nintendo sales down?

If so he's correct.

Bu bu bu xbox........xbox is covered with gaming everywhere........Sony will follow.

getting more games and services on PC.. getting more people to understand and adopt cloud gaming.. getting their own mobile store on Android and iOS..

there's still tons of work to be done in those areas and plenty of room to grow..

Phil says whatever is convenient for him at that time. He should take ownership for Xbox's failures instead of making excuses.

@girlusocrazy:

Correct but there's been only a trickle of games that came out so far. As time goes by more and more of these 1st party games will be completed and available for sale.

We'll see how it all goes in the next few years, I guess.

I don't think you spent enough time writing that response. Especially the first sentence.🙃

I.E we make more money selling games on more than one platform. The fact that Sea of Thieves and COD Black ops 6 topped PS5's sales charts solidifies the fact that Xbox's pivot makes more sense, especially when games from Square-enix and Stellar Blade have suffered in sales due to being exclusive on PS5.

Not that I'm aware of, they've been telling us they've sold more than the same point in the last generation.

Look, you haven't been here long so I'm gonna cut you a break on this one but if you ever, Evah... bring logic into SW again, well, I dunno but something, something or something's gonna happen!! lolol :P

You're saying MS has only released a trickle of games this gen?

Yup, most of their billions invested in new studios/new games in the last year or two have yet to hit the market. Got a few coming in the next month or two and 2025 will be stacked.

Or is there something I'm missing?

@SecretPolice: I'm surprised, I thought they had a lot in the pipeline already to release this generation. A lot of their studios did not release much in the latter part of the Xbox One gen and people thought they were saving everything for the Series.

@girlusocrazy:

I'm talking about the New studios just acquired.

But yes, we've had the Halo/Forza/Gears and others from the old studios but seems to me 2025 and on we'll see a lot of games from those new studios hit the market.

Edit: We got the new MS Flight Sim in a few days and one from a new studio, Indi, next month, I think.

@SecretPolice: The new studios were already putting their games everywhere... I guess it is just business as usual.

Right, with more games is the point. Sheesh. lol :P

• Age of Mythology: Retold - September 4, 2024
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• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - TBA 2024
• Towerborne - TBA 2024
• Doom: The Dark Ages - 2025
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• Project Maverick - TBA

@SecretPolice: What do you mean more games? Were they altering plans to hold games for a specific strategy? Are there somehow more games than originally planned? Or is this just their normal development/release cycle? I feel like these are just the same games that were already planned, targeted at the same audience they were targeting already.

System selling exclusive games are also taking too long to come out and are practically being drip fed to gamers now. Hence why Sony has been trying to moneyhat as many third party games as possible. But that isn't going to happen as much anymore since devs and publishers like Square Enix are disappointed in the sales and at best some companies only want to do "console exclusive" with a day and date PC launch.

I've been working in a middle+elementary school lately and I am surprised at how popular PC gaming is among the Gen Alpha crowd. I listen to some of their conversations about PC specs and when they see me using my Legion Go for work they recognize it as a gaming PC and not a Nintendo Switch. I'm early Gen Z and I was basically the only PC gamer as a kid in school.

yes, all these games are intended for Day One release on console/PC/cloud (as they've been doing for years)..

but, according to their statements, the number of new gamers to reach on console is stagnant.. but there is a lot of room for growth on PC and cloud.. they plan to reach those gamers with more content, improved services, and marketing..

@Antwan3K: I see, hopefully we can hear about those things soon and how they would improve things compared to today.

Xbox has no games! !LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!

Phil is right but some folks are just too stuck in the old ways.

Well if true it is growing for some.. its xbox hardware sales that are down...but when you market it as not needing one it seem silly to claim no growth.

Microsoft's problems are not Sony or Nintendo's problems.

@Pedro: https://www.statista.com/outlook/cmo/consumer-electronics/gaming-equipment/game-consoles/worldwide#key-players

I mean looks like the industry is expecting growth to me.........but MS can't compete and take away market share.

It would be different if console growth was projected to DRASTICALLY decline in the next few years, but there's still growth projected all the way to 2029

If the console market is just a tug of war for same userbase, then it is stagnant. The industry revenue is growth is less than inflation according to your sources.

@Star67: Uncle Phil is right. Add up all consoles sold this gen and compare it to consoles sold last gen. Its pretty much the same. The generation before that is the same too. Meanwhile handheld gaming is booming and revenues are going through the roof. Mobile gaming revenue is 2x all of consoles and pc combined. This is the reality.

@Pedro: I mean either compete or GTFO right? seems like MS is getting out.

There's other studies

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/gaming-console-market-102420

Fortune is looking at a 5% growth leading up to 2027, but that was back in 2019 and things change.

The percent of growth is going to fluctuate, but the biggest thing is the industry shrinking or showing signs of shrinking, and that isnt the case.

MS just can't compete

@blaznwiipspman1: stealing market share from the established players is hard. MS has tried with four different console generations and has failed. I would quit too or move onto something else

We are talking about console gaming stagnation and you have been validating the point with every response. 🤷‍♂️

MS leaving console gaming is a loss for console gaming not a gain. I am not sure why you believe that is a win and is pushing for a major competitor to exit.

@Star67: and yet Xbox mau numbers are through the roof, revenue is through the roof, people can't get enough of Xbox, we're everywhere baby even on firestick. How does that feel?

Sony sold more consoles but they aren't doing too hot, having to resort to remasters and remakes to stay above water.

Also, you forget but in consoles Xbox did really well with 360, as the number 2 console.

@Pedro: You're putting words in my mouth, never said anything about MS leaving being a good thing. So please don't do that. Not a good look for you.

5% growth isn't stagnation. If MS doesn't want to compete that's fine they can leave, but let's not pretend they are leaving because the market sucks. They are leaving because they can't compete.

The projected growth for vehicles is like 3% but you don't see Ford saying they aren't going to make cars anymore

@Star67: You stated MS can't compete and if they can't compete to GTFO. Why would make such a claim if you didn't view it as a good thing?

5% growth is from a report 5 years ago as you have stated. The original link with recent numbers show much lower and as low as 1.7% for next year.

Cars are not the same market as console gaming. Don't use incomparable markets. Drivers are not shifting to other means of transport.

Microsoft literally just said they have new console hardware on the way.. they aren't "leaving"..

Xbox has simply recognized the same thing PlayStation has recognized: the cost of making games is rising while the pool of console customers is staying relatively the same.. hence why both Xbox and PlayStation are expanding their reach on PC and cloud..

Xbox is just moving at a faster rate in that direction because: 1) they do have a smaller footprint in the console space than PlayStation, and 2) their parent company, Microsoft, has a clear interest in supporting Windows PCs and the cloud (Azure)..

you are trying really hard to make this into a "console war" thing when it's just a simple reality the industry as a whole is facing.. game publishers and developers on the whole are trying to find ways to reach more customers..

@SecretPolice: It's true. The business model that consoles operate under is antiquated.

Why should my cost of entry to play God Of War be $500 or $800?

Imagine if other industries had that model:

• Oh, you can't stream Netflix, because you have a Toshiba TV, and Netflix only runs on Samsung and LG.
• You can't put BO gas in your car, because only GM and Toyota vehicles work with that gas.
• You want Deadpool vs Wolverine on Blu-Ray? Sorry - you have a Sony Blu-Ray player, and that movie only plays on LG players.

It's ridiculous. I have zero doubt that Sony will eventually have to do what MS is doing now - any device can be a "Playstation", just like any device will be able to be an "Xbox".

@Star67: “stealing market share from the established players is hard. MS has tried with four different console generations and has failed. I would quit too or move onto something else”

You’re fixated on console sales numbers, as if that were ever the only metric for success. The income from software, services and subscriptions has always dwarfed the income from console sales…and in fact the cost of consoles has often been a negative.

What ms are doing is increasing the scope for users while decreasing the cost for delivering the games through a console.

LOL. Xbox is stagnant, not console industry. Phil Spencer crying like a baby. What a schmuck

@loudheadphones: did you notice that Xbox is remaining in the hardware business?..

Glad I got away from Xbox and cut my losses. MS should just become a third party publisher, with main focus on windows.

Phil is a well known liar, so I won't believe a word he says until I see these consoles with my own eyes.

This. Consoles are old dead weight at this point. They will go the way of the VCR soon enough.

@blaznwiipspman1: this was for the post that got locked lmao. Person buying a ps5 for the first time has many many exclusives to play. Sonys first been bumping out games since launch. And most of those games are on os plus nòw. From God of war to hfw2 and more. On top of third party exclusives. On top of Xbox games. Psvr2 on top of those exclusives not found on xbox.

I don't think he is wrong. Hardware has never been less important in my opinion than it is now, with it only really mattering to the most elite PC crowd that push the limits with ultra-widescreen monitors and other crazy shit.

We're just not seeing the return on our investment like we used to. PS5 Pro is proof of this; not because it's bad hardware, it just sort of futile at this point.

"Generations" might be a thing of the past now. What we need to see are sideways jumps, more innovations in different areas.

I've felt this way for a while; we see advancement, sure, but it's at a diminishing return, and pales in result compared to the investment required.

So while the difference between 2000 visuals and 2010 visuals might be pretty significant, the difference between 2010 and 2020 less so, and 2020-2024 I can barely see any real "wow never seen this good" before.

This is why I would like to see more advancements and improvements in art direction, gameplay innovation, performance optimizations (that don't require better hardware, but are just better quality), and things like AI (both AI that we've had in games for a while, and AI that's been talked about recently).

Not in the industry, though, so spoken from a place of ignorance.

I think it's fine if the consoles serve as a target for developers to aim for, but the games are then released on PC as well. Buying specific hardware just for games is a bit of a tough sell. And given the time investment required by console type games it's not reasonable to expect "normal" people to have time for that. It's not possible to compete with phones and laptops in terms of scale.