Xbox head: I don't know if we can beat Sony

4.7
As this console generation nears two years-old, it's no secret that Xbox has spent the entirety of that time playing catch-up to PlayStation. Sony's platform started off with a huge lead in sales, and while Xbox may have closed the gap to some degree, PS4 still holds a sizable advantage. In fact, it's so large that Microsoft's top brass questions whether it can ever recover.

At the recent GeekWire Summit, when asked whether Xbox One could beat PS4 this generation, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said "You know, I don't know. You know the length of the generation... [Sony has] a huge lead and they have a good product. I love the content, the games line-up that we have."

Understandably, Spencer chalks a good chunk of the sales disparity up to losing consumer trust before the console ever launched. "I feel really good about the position and the product and the brand right now, but I was at the GameStop Manager's Meeting about three weeks ago and I'm sitting with 5,000 GameStop managers in Las Vegas and they'd come up and they still have customers that walk in the store that think that the Xbox One won't play used games."

Spencer elaborated "Just to be clear, Xbox One has always played used games from day one. But that perception that gets set early on, because consumers have five seconds to internalise your brand and your message and then they move on. They're not going to spend time to read what we say afterwards. 'Oh Xbox One, that's that thing. If I want it I'll go buy it and if I don't I won't.' Regaining that trust and the mindshare with the customer, the gamer, is incredibly difficult."

Reversing that mindset feeds directly into Xbox's ultimate goal these days: Gaining as many customers as it can. Spencer says that his team isn't even motivated by beating Sony anymore. According to him, it just wants to build a platform that's for the consumer, not for the people making it. He thinks that doing that will gain back that trust, which will, in turn, lead to more people adopting the Xbox One.



Posted:
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: http://www.videogamer.com/news/spencer_i_dont_know_if_xbox_one_can_beat_ps4.html

Comments

"Xbox head: I don't know if we can beat Sony" :: Login/Create an Account :: 44 comments

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XboxPosted:

Well maybe one day but PS4 is out here killing shit right now, and I'm a Xbox fan !

FamousPosted:

ODST
Famous Bring back original xbox games and I think Xbox may take the lead.


"may take the lead"....It's sad when even a moderator doesn't know much about the article or the situation. Let me lend some help.

1) While bringing back older Xbox games would've been nice in the beginning, we're now practically 2 years into the the current generation console era. Masses of people will not make the switch to Xbone from PS4 or buy an Xbone just because older games will be brought back. 2 years into this console's lifetime was enough time to place most retro gamers back onto their older consoles like the 360 or PS2. Not many people want older games anymore because the gamer base has already accepted that to play nostalgic games, they must play them on the console they were made on.
2) The gap between PS4 sales and Xbone sales is still incredibly large. The gap is so large because Microsoft didn't come to compete with Sony directly when they even first gave the concept of the Xbone as a "entertainment hub" or a sports and tv box in other words. Sony generated a massive following because Microsoft didn't come close to showing off the next generation of gaming, rather, Microsoft wanted to sell "innovative hardware" like the Kinect 2.0 and a console that was supposedly revolutionary for putting a cable jack on the back of the console (plus it was also $100 more too). Sony marketed correctly and gained a massive launch day number due to Microsoft not selling their console for gaming (which they soon followed with the next two years as trying to clean up their mess).


You don't need to make a comment like that. Being a moderator has nothing to do with someone opinion. A lot of 360 users don't want to switch as they see no point. I play 360 here and their and a lot of them talk about games. Lack of games is an issue and a big issue right now. Being able to play original Xbox games on the One I think will draw a lot of new buyers which will increase console says. Will it take the lead in the race? I don't know I would think in some way but I'm not sure. It's my opinion.

pyroboy926Posted:

I don't give a shit about sales so long as we get a good service.

MonkeyBooPosted:

I have 360 PS3 Xbox one and PS4, all in all I reckon Xbox can beat Sony in technology wise. But Sony's consoles look so much better, where's Xbox is the same constant design which is a brick basically.

DismissPosted:

Do people remember 360 and Ps3?

The exact same thing happened then. Ps3 took the lead for a while, Xbox was doing bad.

Going mid - end of those lives, 360 was superior. I'm pretty certain the same thing will happen here. The One and 4 will be out for A LONG time so a lot can change and it will.

ProPosted:

Xbox will beat Sony anyway. They are so much better with their technology and all the new things that they ar bringing out.

JastyPosted:

I'm glad too see announcements like this although it sparks un-needed drama. The companies against each other both respect video-games and that cool stuff, but players are the ones who give each-other bad names. It's all preference (i own a pc/ps4/xbox one) and I enjoy my xbox out of the three.

DismissPosted:

GR33NV3N0M
slapshot101 While the Xbox One has made quite a bit of strides in the past few months, I just think their whole direction they are going in, just doesn't work. I personally made the switch to the PS4, due to the fact Black Ops 3 DLC would now be on it 30 days earlier like it used to be on Xbox. Xbox used to have all the third party DLC and game exclusivity and thats what was awesome, it's the reason I didn't get the PS3. All the new "big" games like Destiny, Call of Duty, Battlefront are all Playstation games now, all while the Xbox keeps just focusing on first party games, which I have yet to see one from Xbox that I actually like.

Also not to mention that graphics on PS4 games tend to be better, they always are 1080, while the same games on Xbox are 720 or 820 scaled up, which really doesn't look as good. The only thing I will give to Xbox anymore is the user interface, or dashboard is a little bit nicer and easier to navigate but that might all change with the November update.


Yeah I'm with you on those points, I was always an x box fan boy original then 360 and loved it when the new consoles were released I had both, but sadly the only games I play on the one are dead rising 3 and project spark, ps4 now seems to have better deals with pubs/devs and better exclusives with games like infamous, God of war, uncharted all being some of my favourite games on console and can't wait to see what they will do in the future.


Both these comments. This is why I love reading comments. They're funny.

1993Posted:

Bought the PS4 then sold it in the 1st couple of days Prefer the XB1 tbh.

ODSTPosted:

Famous Bring back original xbox games and I think Xbox may take the lead.


"may take the lead"....It's sad when even a moderator doesn't know much about the article or the situation. Let me lend some help.

1) While bringing back older Xbox games would've been nice in the beginning, we're now practically 2 years into the the current generation console era. Masses of people will not make the switch to Xbone from PS4 or buy an Xbone just because older games will be brought back. 2 years into this console's lifetime was enough time to place most retro gamers back onto their older consoles like the 360 or PS2. Not many people want older games anymore because the gamer base has already accepted that to play nostalgic games, they must play them on the console they were made on.
2) The gap between PS4 sales and Xbone sales is still incredibly large. The gap is so large because Microsoft didn't come to compete with Sony directly when they even first gave the concept of the Xbone as a "entertainment hub" or a sports and tv box in other words. Sony generated a massive following because Microsoft didn't come close to showing off the next generation of gaming, rather, Microsoft wanted to sell "innovative hardware" like the Kinect 2.0 and a console that was supposedly revolutionary for putting a cable jack on the back of the console (plus it was also $100 more too). Sony marketed correctly and gained a massive launch day number due to Microsoft not selling their console for gaming (which they soon followed with the next two years as trying to clean up their mess).