Why is Microsoft so embarrassed to announce HW sales numbers?

Literally no other hardware manufacturer company whether it be Sony, Nintendo, AMD, Nvidia, Apple, Samsung, LG, Vizio, etc shy away from announcing how many HW units they sell. This is exclusively a Microsoft thing and it only conveniently started when they were getting absolutely slaughtered for the entirety of last gen.

With the news that Sony's PS5 is the fastest selling console in history it really begs the question: is Microsoft ashamed of their sales numbers? Because prior to last gen they were shouting their sales from rooftops.

There must be some fragile egos over in Redmond who are livid over the beating Sony hands them every single gen. When you've got people in charge who are this sensitive over sales figures it's no surprise that the Xbox brand continues to be a colossal failure and that these people make decisions out of anger and frustration rather than doing what's right for business.

Counting all the Xbox, PC and mobile devises playing their games, ya know, because that's what MS is all about this gen. would just embarrass Phony, and their meager BS Jive sales. So good on them, stay classy MS.

lol :P

Because nobody other than weird fanboys care about them.

But, but, I can play Xbox games on my 5 inch phone 😭

@SecretPolice said:

Counting all the Xbox, PC and mobile devises playing their games, ya know, because that's what MS is all about this gen. would just embarrass Phony, and their meager BS Jive sales. So good on them, stay classy MS.

lol :P

So out of hundreds of millions of PC gamers and mobile gamers....and dozens of Xbox gamers they've only managed to convince 23 million people to try GP. That number is obviously inflated with $1 trials too.

So if THAT is the number they're most proud of that is damning evidence of just how poor Xbox HW sales are.

Thinking companies are people.🤭

Lemmings are dumb enough to believe Microsoft would rather sell you a $1 GP trial on your phone than sell you a $500 console. The reality is they can't convince anyone to buy an Xbox.

Because in the real world outside of this place no one gives a shit

... about Xbox

I think the real question to come out the figures today is why do so few PS owners buy the exclusives.

Only 17%.

Given these games are world class works of art you expect that to be nearer 50% like Nintendo exclusives.

It's weird.

@NathanDrakeSwag said:

@SecretPolice said:

Counting all the Xbox, PC and mobile devises playing their games, ya know, because that's what MS is all about this gen. would just embarrass Phony, and their meager BS Jive sales. So good on them, stay classy MS.

lol :P

So out of hundreds of millions of PC gamers and mobile gamers....and dozens of Xbox gamers they've only managed to convince 23 million people to try GP. That number is obviously inflated with $1 trials too.

So if THAT is the number they're most proud of that is damning evidence of just how poor Xbox HW sales are.

Never mentioned GamePass but happy it's on your mind. :o

Anyway, the Software being sold and it doesn't require GP at all is what I'm talking about and perhaps some news at some point will reflect those sales. Unless again, if MS decides not to embarrass the comp. lol :P

I’m sure that this has already been discussed a number of times before. 🤔

@NathanDrakeSwag: Lots of manufacturers don't release individual unit sales. It's not that common in most industries - percentage increase/decrease, profit, and profit margins are more important.

You must be really unhappy with the "Xbox Is Crushing It Right Now" article... LOL!

At this point, it's because they don't care any more. Microsoft are pushing for hardware independence and scaling. The Xbox hardware are merely one among multiple access points to their software ecosystem.

"Bu buh but teh hardwarez swales". 😂 It has been years now that MS approach has changed, yet we still have folks like the OP acting like it is news.

@Pedro:

Eh, old habits and thinking die hard, I suppose.

Now if Xbox can't sell hardware, what makes you think they'll be successful anywhere else? Yeah, I'm sure people are lining up to play Elder Scrolls streaming over a phone. 🤣🤣🤣

You should not type when triggered by just seeing my name, otherwise you write nonsense like the above thinking you are making a point. 🤭

LOL! You people are ridiculous. The cult-level of delusion from your camp is on another level

The irony in your statements continue to be lost on you. 😂

They haven't for a while, if they are ever to resume I think they might want to at a more monumental event or milestone.

Microsoft needs to be proud of what they've done im sick of hiding in the shadows all the time.

If you sold this much you sold this much and be proud of it like nintendo, nintendo was proud of the wiiU there proud of virtual boy they do not give a crap BE PROUD and BE LOUD or get out of the industry.

Uh huh. You're the ones thinking that people wanting to play games on cheap ass dollar subs is going to be lucrative to Microsoft in any way. If it weren't for Minecraft, Xbox wouldn't be putting up much of a financial showing at all. 🤣 Xbox is purely operated on butthurt... powered by the fanbase.

Since you brought up Sony, real question: Did Sony ever reveal how many VITA units they sold (lifetime sales)?

I was curious about it but I never seemed to find any official numbers.

Why would MS care about sharing HW sales? They only care about software sales since that's the real goldmine is and where you want to be now than no later. Why do you think MS is so focus on GP & Xbox Play Anywhere in the first place? Not to mention xCloud is becoming a real thing.

Compare to Sony and Nintendo they are low and with Gamepass they are loosing hardware sales because it’s available on few platforms such as pc and mobile, few of my friends are skipping Xbox series x because they subscribe to Gamepass but only when games that they are interested are on it, MS will end up in another failure if they continue this path in my opinion i said the same crap Zune, Groove, mobile

It would probably be more detrimental at this point in time for them to do so. To reverse course and report underwhelming numbers wouldn't serve their purpose which is more services/software based.

They could do both, but it's likely that the sales are bad enough that there is no need to bother detracting from the main strategy.

Well if that was the case, why is Xbox lumping the software and game pass revenue together? We don’t really know how well the games are selling or how much revenue game pass is brining in. All we know is their combined number is below what PlayStation and Nintendo are showing, and the PS and Nintendo numbers are software only. Their “services” are also separate and reporting more revenue than Xbox.

Xbox thought it was important to show the hardware sales growth vs FY2019. I wonder why? And why didn’t they compare it to the last HW launch numbers? We know the answer to that question.

That's because what you're measuring isn't how many PS owners buy exclusives.

It just means a first party game accounts for ~ 1 in every 6 games that are bought on PS4/PS5.

---

Ex. First party sales accounted for 58.4M units.

If it were 17% of all owners, that would mean ~19.89M people each bought 3 first party games last year.

(ex. Miles, TLOU2, and GoT)

@NathanDrakeSwag: Your anger at ms for not releasing Xbox sales begs a more relevant question “How do we know that the ps5 is the fastest selling console in history”? 😎

Because their games business looks bad if they frame it around hardware sales, but looks wildly successful if they frame it around something else. Which is fine - businesses are about revenue, and if they've got a better indicator of their particular business model's success than people buying plastic boxes then that's the one they should show

Where is my angry chub? Oh here he is.😂

He captures your reaction to everything Xbox so perfectly.

@Pedro said:

Where is my angry chub? Oh here he is.😂

He captures your reaction to everything Xbox so perfectly.

I thought the angry chub was the one in your pants every time you defend Xbox. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Yikes! Now you are fantasizing over my "chub". Sorry, but I am not interested. However, it is interesting that is the first thing that came to your mind. 🤭

The emphasis cows put on physical hardware sales just shows how out of touch they are with the real world.

..or how committed they are to being Sony warriors.

At this point Playstation and Xbox have gone in completely different directions. Xbox puts an emphasis on the platform being hardware independent, while Playstation doubled down on traditional console gaming.

So why would MS present numbers that make them look like they are loosing a game they are not playing?

Because no company wants to brag about coming in 3rd place all the time. Now once XB comes in 2nd, MS would be calling for a news press conference.

@ProtossRushX: Good grief! So much drama there. 😅

Oh oh! I know because Sony fannies demands it?😬

Sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of me dunking on you again.🤣

Does Microsoft has any legal obligation to release its sales numbers to the public?

You are not good at comebacks but, if you believe you are, more power to you.😎

Dude nobody cares if they have to or not just do it get it out there nitnendo told us how many virtual boys and wiiU they sold why hide anything just say what you have and move on. This whole charade doesn't make any sense to keep things in the shadows. You sold this many tell people and move on we shouldn't be like everyones saying how much they sold except this guy this one guy won't tell us anything why not why won't he say it.

"Why is Microsoft so embarrassed..." can be asked for a lot of things, really.

Obviously the PS5 has no games as the OP is here talking about Xbox,...

They aren't purely hardware to push software anymore (Xbox), so they're gonna be more interested in users. Though they did start this quite a while ago, but if you think it's down to not releasing numbers due to lacklustre sales, I sincerely doubt that's the case.

Weird fascination isn't it? Sales numbers and consoles shipped yaddayadda. Weird ass people care about this. Some of you, specifically the PS crowd, need some anti psychotic meds.

Because it's not reflective of Xbox performance anymore. It's not an exclusive console.

The important figure MS released is Gamepass numbers, which is at 23M and growing... fast.

Because of Gamepass, Xbox players are spread over Xbox One, Xbox Series, PC, Mac and iOS. If you're smart you can finish this off by yourself, but if you need help, it means, hardware sales will lower (because Xbox gamers are spread out) and are therefore hardware sales are non indicative of Xbox performance.

Gamepass 23M as of April.

""Game Pass subscribers spend 20% more time playing games, play 30% more games, play 40% more genres." Bond also added that Xbox Game Pass subscribers also, "spend about 20% more on gaming overall.""

https://screenrant.com/xbox-game-pass-subscribers-play-more-games/

And this is as you say "without games". Every time MS releases a new game, Gamepass subs are going to go up substantially. Imagine how many will get it for Halo Infinate, alone.

Where as, Sony increasing the prices of their games is going to harm their base, because they won't be experimenting, playing different genres, so on and so forth.

They're probably embarrassed for PS fanboys... like everyone else is.