written by Derrick Smith
So, according to Xbox Head Phil Spencer, console sales will not be a determining factor in the success of the Xbox brand, nor will publicizing sales numbers, even if their recently released next-generation hardware Xbox Series X and S outsell the PlayStation 5. Really?
Of course, consoles sales numbers did matter during the early stages of the Xbox One…until the competition ran wild and ridiculous with it massive numbers. Yet, despite what appears to be a incredible start for the Xbox Series X and S, Spencer and company are sticking to their guns.
In a recent interview with The Guardian Phil stated:
“I can promise you that I won’t do that,” said Spencer. “I know it seems manipulative and I’ll apologize for that, but I don’t want my team’s focus on [console sales]. The primary outcome of all the work that we do is how many players we see, and how often they play. That is what drives Xbox.
“If I start to highlight something else, both publicly and internally, it changes our focus. Things that lack backwards compatibility become less interesting. Putting our games on PC becomes a reason that somebody doesn’t have to go and buy an Xbox Series X.
“I’ll hold fast to this. We publicly disclose player numbers. That’s the thing I want us to be driven by, not how many individual pieces of plastic did we sell.”
As mentioned before, the Xbox Series X and S are off to an amazing start since launching November 10th, and hopefully this impressive momentum extends well into 2021.