Microsoft CEO Praises 'Market Leading' Sales Of Xbox Consoles In 2022

With the stock shortages this gen this gen could provide the lowest number of sales for over 20 years, both playstation and xbox will be lucky to ship 60-70 million each by the end of this gen. Also he said they were the market leader for "new gen consoles this quarter" which means the switch is still outselling both, so does this mean nintendo aren't having stock shortages like every nintendo fan says they are.

This is good news all round though, good news for xbox as they are gaining some market back which they lost during the xbox one gen, but also for Sony as it should make them pull their finger out their a**e, they don't need to offer say one games but atleast this should make them change their refund policies, add some reward points system, add cloud streaming on android devices, stop charging £70 for exclusives, buy more studios like square and sega, make some decent live service games based on loved franchises like Killzone, go all out on pc by offering exclusives on release, even partner with Microsoft for some deals like bringing Bethesda games to playstation for games in return, and for the love of god remove the fixed microphone sound coming from the controller so I can have it through the tv instead.

Not that hard considering PS5 is much harder to buy. XSS is readily available in stores. I got my Series X in store 2 week before Xmas 2021.

The Series S was a stroke of genius and its good to see Microsoft providing healthy competition again after a generation that amounted to bad publicity, cancelled projects, studio closures and the only positives really being a backwards compatibility program born of desperation.

@UltimateOtaku91 I think the Switch outselling both is a case of both hardware availability and strong software lineup. Series X|S doesn't have the latter (e.g. yet another drought for the 1st half of the year) and PS5 doesn't have the former.

It has outsold PS5 in that time frame in Europe and NA. I wonder if they start reporting unit sales.

I'll save everyone a reply and say I actually doubt it.

I mean Playstation has real stock shortages and sells out immediately. Microsoft paying the bill for chip priority. Hope microsoft doesnt stop the rewards program ever as i havent paid for a single thing this gen

It's fantastic to see this news, they never expected to be number one in console sales, outselling Sony and Nintendo as I understand. It only proves their anti consumer strategy is working, offering Game Pass for excellent games at bargain prices.
And the key thing is you can still buy the games should you wish to. It's the best if both worlds.

Yes they are a corporation that want your money, but they are doing it in a consumer orientated way offering value and services people want.

@Rmg0731 Their is no such thing as chip priority you pay for, you need to learn this.
Any company there is has preferential customers, and they are such due to the size of orders they place, and the facts are Microsoft have larger orders with AMD then Sony does. If Sony was more preferential testament they need to place bigger orders with AMD consistently.

@Kooky_Daisuke PlayStation is king 😈

@S1ayeR74 I agree. I expect that the 'chip priority' that everyone is talking about is actually MS paying upfront for chips that they will require down the line, this in turn causes AMD to send sold chips to MS. MS have simply paid upfront for a product and therefore will take delivery of it ahead of others who have not.

As chip prices fall in the future it could mean that MS are overpaying on some of their stock as they have purchased at a rate that has changed, but it will still be worth it to get 'chip priority'.

@Snake_V5 Alright Mister Ed Haha

@JetmanUK That's still placing orders, it's not paying for 'chip priority', they are not paying extra money just to have a priority position, they are just placing bigger orders, it's common business practice being spun into something it isn't and is actually illegal I believe.

@Snake_V5 Yeah sure whatever.. Man the Sony fans are triggered by this story lol.

It’s good that Xbox is going well as well as the other two. Remember gamers it’s these three in competition that normally gives us the best results for gaming.

@S1ayeR74 I'm only playing 👀

@UltimateOtaku91 if I recall other news correctly: Xbox series X|S is, despite supply shortages, outselling every precious Xbox console at this point of their lives.

Supply shortage or not, Xbox is supply AND demand are both higher than ever.

@Tharsman

It is still surprising me that it's outselling the 360 with a worse selection of games and not having the 1 year advantage vs ps3 during that time, while having the advantage of the ps3 reveal fail.

PS5 really screwed up. They still have the advantage of better games at the moment, but they can't capitalize on that with short stocks. Now when xbox gets its chunk of games, if they're good, sony will have a hard time.

@S1ayeR74 Agreed, that's the point that I was making.

Market leader in so much that Switch outsold it, I'm bemused as to why they deliberately try to ignore the other console.

Thing is for Xbox and PS5, their sales are limited to availability and to which comes out on top but it seems PS5 is more sought-after. Still it's great to see Xbox doing so well given how the Xbox One stalled so badly and its better for the industry to have 3 healthy competitors

@RevGaming I don't think it's that surprising at all. The average consumer will easily go for a series s gamepass combo. I hear a lot of people, even life long playstation fans getting their first ever Xbox (granted as second console but still) because of gamepass. Microsoft made a very smart move to prioritize the series s over the x, especially now they can gain a lot of ground now and got all the positives on their side.
A lot of people underestimate the power of the series s. For average Joe the graphics don't matter as much, not everyone has a 4k TV and the ssd isn't a problem if you play like 2 or 3 games at once at most.
Later on with more games out they will prolly sway over some more hardcore gamers, so I expect a pretty close Gen this time, especially seeing the markets where Xbox did bad last Gen, Europe and Asia, are doing way better than last Gen and are a lot closer.

@Rural-Bandit Yes but I'm talking as of right now.

Deathloop, Ghostwire, Miles, HFW, GT7, Ratchet, Returnal, Demon Souls, Sackboy vs Halo, which is dying and FH5 as their "next gen" AAA exclusive offerings.

Like the only explanation for xbox outselling is the supply. Especially when people have their ps4 library and it would make sense for them to get a ps5.

When it's 2024, the conversation will be another one, but as of today. It is only happening because of chip shortages.

@Lavalera

It's the supply like I mentioned above. You already said it's their second console. Yeah. This gen will be a close one. I expect something like 80m for xbox vs a bit over 100m for PS5, but I wish that only happened because xbox released high end games, not because they were cheap and attracted cheap customers. I hope it's not a Netflix vs Cinema theaters kind of situation.

@Rural-Bandit let's be fair, it's on the charts that Xbox exec's were sharing and whilst I accept Playstation and Xbox are closer competitors there will be people who play Switch over the others. The generation argument is largely meaningless and there's no reason to ignore it

@RevGaming if you consider gamepass subscribers as cheap people you should also include average Joe which only plays minecraft fifa fortnite or war zone on a console (which is the majority of gamers). Sure Xbox needs to have more exclusives and they working hard on them, but I have no doubt games like starfield, hellblade 2 avowed and such all are going to be successful. For me the only Sony game this generation that made it worthwhile to buy my ps5 was horizon. It's not like all games they release are for everyone either. Just like rural explained above.

@Royalblues ikr lol. A lot of Sony only fans like to tell themselves that it's only due to chip shortages instead of the actual smart business decisions ms made combined with the shortages.

@RevGaming they do have tons of games. Anyone that has never owned an Xbox before has a giant catalog of exclusives. There is also a beefy library of games you can’t play on any other console if you skipped the entire Xbox one generation.

And of course: the lure of Game Pass is big. Regardless how any given person feels about it, playing games like Forza 5, Halo Infinite and Flight Simulator for free day one is a big allure. Add to add some big day one third party games, and nearly the entire EA back catalog (anything over one year) and there is tons to play with little investment. So I’m not surprised by the sudden Xbox demand this generation.

Edit: there is also the series S on top of all I noted. Cheap, good enough for a big chunk of the player base, and it is not a giagantic monolith. I actually seen non-hardcore players say they have zero interest in either the XSX or the PS5 due to their gargantuan size, but the XSS (plus game pass) is perfect.

Also remember the majority of games sold on any console are third party games, not the first party exclusives (unless you are Nintendo, that is…) Exclusives might go a fair distance to differentiate the offerings, but at the end, it’s the Call of Duties, Fortnites, Assassins Creeds and sport games that people buy these consoles for.

@JetmanUK Ah fair enough, I see many trying to claim Microsoft are somehow paying extra money for chip priority, as an extra on top of buying chips. Because of the silly rumour.

@Royalblues You're the one that had the mienfoo avatar right? Didn't you just try to stir the pot on pushsquare's article about this topic? I'm just saying it's due to stock. Again. Stop jumping to conclusions about how I feel. Consider being ignored.

@Lavalera Not really. They are the whales for those games. I never said anything about upcoming games. I meant as of today and the current sales.

@Tharsman what catalogue of exclusives? Lets be honest. For 3 straight gens, the only memorable ips xbox has had are forza, gears and halo. It's still is btw (Today, April 27 of 2022). Starfield will be the start of a change and I am super glad it's turning out to be that way. I'm not saying there isn't demand or a higher demand. I am just saying it beat ps5 because of stock.

I am not really getting into if the exclusives sell consoles. There are multiple factors where having the best exclusives matters a lot. Nintendo is not an exception. It's the clear answer that they matter.

@Rural-Bandit

We gotta try to be a bit more objective here. Gt7 didn't do more harm than good. It's selling very well. My friends are asking me if they should buy it. It's doing something. Gt sport was worse and it sold over 10m. The rest of the games, well you just don't like, but that doesn't mean neither have really have offered great games. Maybe for you it hasn't, but for me, I would have basically half of the games I have bought this gen without sony games. Ps5 has the clear upperhand with games and I'm being objectively here. Metacritic publisher doesn't mean much. You can put out a 90 rated game and the other can put out 5 85 and the first one would win. It doesn't say the scale of those games either. Doesn't say if they were exclusives (Psychonauts and Deathloop).

Idk why you brought game sales. Microsoft can't even get to 10m with their most famous IP, much less with the others.

Ubisoft wishes it could do what Sony does. Or What Capcom, Rockstar, Fromsoftware does

Yes Xbox is being more "pro consumer" than sony atm, but when it comes to games, as of today, I don't believe anyone who says xbox has as equally good exclusive games. In 2021, yes, equally as good, but I'm counting nov 2020 games and the ones that came this year too for this perspective

@RevGaming if you are stuck in “halo/Forza” even when I mentioned a third title already, I’m not sure why you even visit this site.

Like them or not, there is a nice library of games across all the gens that are exclusive to Xbox. Fable, Gears of War, Crackdown, Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Ryse of Rome and many more.

@Tharsman

Is the third title Gears?

So... halo, gears and forza?

I'm just messing with you but it's the truth. That's changing and that's why I'm here.

@RevGaming flight sim

@Tharsman I'm going to dismiss that one. It's barely a video game for me. Kind of like Detroit Become Human.

@RevGaming when you trying to figure out why people buy stuff, you don’t get to dismiss things you don’t like, unless you don’t really ever want to find out the answer.

Anyways on my previous reply gave you more games you can’t play in any other console other than an Xbox. They might be older games but for someone that never had an xbox before, they are new games.

@Rural-Bandit Both ori are on switch, right? I get the whole is better to play it on the X, but switch has more appealing exclusives atm (and I don't like them that much, not for me). I was just trying to say as of today. The gap for games is big.

I just think that 3 ips for 3 gens is embarassing. I remember the xbox all stars battle royale memes. Now, Glad they acted quickly and listened.

Returnal was never supposed to be a Ghost or Horizon. It was an indie studio making its triple A game. They did a fine job. Shame that it's difficulty affects their sales, but that ain't changing according to the developer. If $70 is too much, they will reduce to $60 again. Let the market dictate if it's too much. If people like paying $70, well tough love.

I think many people have misunderstood me. All I said is that xbox is outselling ps5 because of supply because it's not outselling it with the games. They wouldn't be beating them with the current released games. I never said xbox will never have the games or anything like that. I said as of today, supply is the only reason. Everyone started jumping on the console war bagon.

While I'm sure there are casual gamers who might, the majority of people aren't going to drop $500 on a console just because they can get it now. If somebody wants a PS5 they won't 'settle' for an Xbox Series X/S, especially if they have a sizeable PS4 library built up which can be played on PS5. Stock does play a role but I don't think it's the only factor, MS has done a pretty decent job turning things around from the dreadful start of the Xbox One era. Backwards compatibility, great hardware, Game Pass, all this stuff has put Xbox in a better light. I don't think, when it's all said and done, that Series X/S will outsell PS5 once stock issues are sorted but I do think this gen is going to be a lot closer, and that's a good thing. We've already seen Sony back off some decisions this gen that I don't think it would have during the PS4 days and that's because MS, and Nintendo for that matter, are much more serious competition than back in 2013-2017.