Was Xbox One Doomed to Fail Right From the Start?

Microsoft should remember it's already succeeded, especially with the uber-popular Xbox 360. So was setting a $200 million sales goal for the Xbox One a hill too steep to climb?

[Overload]

They don't have a worldwide presence and that will always set them off on the wrong foot.

[S2Killinit]

200 million? Have they ever reached 100? I think they should take it one step at a time.

[4Sh0w]

Xbox brand is doing great...it seems whenever X1 has good news like outselling ps4 for a few months in the US the attacks kick in from the haters.

Any company would love to be the market leader in sales but at the same time you can be very successful by making a highly competitive product and methodically building on that. We just had news of X1 sales over ps4 in the US and UK, ironically just before the last couple NPD and recent UK sales news we have been hearing "the doom of xbox" due to "no true exclusives" talking points for months, yet X1 Slim did just fine against the console with all the exclusives. Futhermore we know X1 sales well in Australia, Canada & South America.

The problem is we don't get official sales news outside of the US & UK very often, but admittedly I know typically there are areas like Spain, France, Germany from what I've seen in the past where sales are generally mediocre, and of course poor in Japan but given past X1 sales reports in other regions beyond the US it's BS to say it doesn't have a worldwide presence= NO it just isn't as popular as ps....and Burger King isn't as popular as McDonald's....so what, folks who like the Whopper vs a BIG Mac don't care because it doesn't make their Whopper any less tasty.

[Relientk77]

I don't think Don Mattrick helped any

[threefootwang]

Not sure why you got a disagree. It's the honest truth. Its because of Mattrick Kinect was pushed so much and also why non Kinect exclusives dried up the last 2 years of the 360 life. It's unfortunate his ideas passed over to the X1. If Phil Spencer was running the show from the get go the OG X1 would've been vastly superior.

[2pacalypsenow]

Mattrick only pushed what MS wanted to push he didn't create it he was just the scapegoat. Look at Windows 8 they made it to push people to their surface and it flopped.

[nix]

Don was the guy sent out to speak about a product that was created by the team led by Greenburg. He probably made sure that the project saw the release.

Even with Phil, there is so much of double speak from MS. "QB is Xbox 1 exclusive. QB is coming to W10. Only few select titles are going to come to W10. All games are coming to W10."

One day Phil is saying something, next day he's forced to say something.

[threefootwang]

It's funny, you and S3Killinin are practically the first two people to comment on EVERY Xbox article. Does Sony pay you for every comment or are you just bored because of a clear lack of good exclusive games on the PS4?

[DigitalRaptor]

1) Why are you salty about anyone bringing up good points, and recollecting the painful past?

2) Lack of good exclusive games on PS4 beats having no exclusive games (you know what I'm saying here). Except, PS4 has had more quality "exclusives" in 2016 than Xbox One, and has a better rated, more diverse lineup of games overall. Up until late September (10 months into the year) with FH3 there were no AAA retail "exclusives" to play on that box and that seems to happen most years. Time to find a different angle of criticism.

[BIGBOSS08]

This is the main problem with Xbox. In America the gap between ps4 and xb1 is less than 2 million yet in total ps4 is over 20m ahead of xb1 worldwide. That right there tells you everything you need to know about how important worldwide appeal is. Without Europe as a whole sony would not be where they are today. Microsoft need to try and take some of that market off sony. Sony literally OWN Europe. How do you think ps3 stayed equal to 360 when it was 20m behind in North America? ? That lead was negated by the rest of the world.

[4Sh0w]

Do you have a link for those numbers or are you just making things up?

[AngelicIceDiamond]

Sure, when they announced all those crazy policies forced in Kinect and much higher price point they were doomed.

[kneon]

They were probably doomed when we found out the PS4 was launching the same year. They came in last place with the 360 despite launching between 12-24 months earlier (depending on the region), and at a lower price.

And then the insanely bad way in which they communicated their policies and features of the Xb1 just sealed their fate.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

360 came in last place? I don't know if that's completely true https://en.wikipedia.org/wi... only by a million but nothing to brag about.

[DigitalRaptor]

@ Angelic

It's about context, not bragging.

It's a key measurable.

If you consider exactly what kneon said about Sony's position with their new console (a LOT more going on there than mentioned here), when the 360 came out. The PS3's sales performance last generation proves the nature of the PlayStation brand that side-by-side, it's almost insurmountable due to Sony's global efforts and relatively recent pacing of the most diverse lineup of games throughout a generation. With what you mentioned along with the PS brand having everything going right, launching at basically the same time as the troubled XB1, it was always going to be this way.

I mean without Sony being as strong as they are in the rest of the world, outside North America and perhaps the UK, that level of sales "catchup" with the PS3 would never have been possible. Microsoft could never come back from that.

[gangsta_red]

Compared to Sony and especially Nintendo they are still the new kids on the block. But even with that they were still able to come into a dominated market and become a contender even breaking the monopoly Sony had over the gaming console industry.

[pompombrum]

All things considered, I think the Xbox is in a fairly good position, after their woeful unveiling, the fact that it's sold as much as it has goes to show just how strong the brand is in certain regions.

[Morgue]

Ugh.

Is this article doomed from the second it was posted on here?

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

No it's clickbait, this site loves that crap.

[THRASHMOUTH]

Isn't it the journalists job to create a catchy headline to grab readers attention, regardless if they agree/disagree? On N4G, everyone's excuse is "clickbait", but take a look on the cover of every Newspaper, Magazine, etc. etc. and you'll soon realize that "clickbait" has been around way before snake oil was ever sold.

[gangsta_red]

It's an opinion piece that brings up so good points. Sure the title is meant to grab you and pull you in and why shouldn't it?

[Morgue]

The only reason I said that is because these articles appear at least once a month and have been since the X1 was originally announced. It's old hat and nothing but bait as usual to get everyone all fired up.

Do writers actually think that every person who buys a console whether it's a PlayStation or Xbox reads articles like this or for that matter even cares?

Kid at xmas " Mom!! I don't want a Xbox S didn't you know that the brand is doomed??!! "

Mom- " No I didn't know that or have any idea what you're talking about. But I can return it since I have a gift receipt "

[Sm00thNinja]

Except it's not failing? Obvious troll bias

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Yeah, I think this article is off the mark. My feeling is It "was" doomed to fail "if" they hadn't made the major course correction that they did. They did however make that course correction and have really erased most of the initial damage that came out on reveal. Yes they pretty much gave this generation to Sony on a silver platter with all that craziness but if this machine can out perform the 360 given its start ...I think MS will take that as a win.

[Gamist2dot0]

I think it was before the X1, say 2011, when the old execs left and got replaced by Don Mattick and Phil Harrison (not Spencer). I remember the UI for the 360 started changing with ads and they wanted to raise the price for Live because of some stupid deal with ESPN. Then there's the Kinect which one exec knew would be a failure which turned out to be short lived.

[ziggurcat]

"Was Xbox One Doomed to Fail Right From the Start?"

no. and it hasn't been a "failure."

[Redx165]

Of course it was...

$500 launch
Anti Consumer features
Battery in controllers still
Lack of real exclusives

I have no idea why anyone would buy a Xbox One...

[Kiwi66]

Yet people did because they wanted to as it was their console of choice for their needs ..... edit so it looks like no one is allowed to have a preference anymore 😢😢😢
28546;😢😢

[trooper_]

XB1 isn't a failure but it could have done much better.

[DigitalRaptor]

True. The Xbox One may just about manage to sell 50 million units this time, so that is a marked step down. Scorpio might offset that, but if it's priced as many suspect, then it probably won't help it push much past that estimate.

To Microsoft, the Xbox One has been a salvage operation, not a success. The corporation wanted to sell 200 million consoles. They wanted to take control of used game sales for their own gain. They wanted to use Kinect as an intrusive data ("gold")mining tool and also to rip you off as entertainment consumers. They wanted the Xbox One to be the media device once and for all gave them control of the consumer living room - the box that everybody has under their TV. So much so that it was more important to focus on multimedia and "broad-entertainment" ; ; ; for the non-gamer than provide natural 1080p expectation for the gamer. And even now with the continued improvements, the XB1 UI is still a slow, sluggish mess.

Phil Spencer's reactive moves to Sony's absolute domination this generation has probably given the higher-ups at Microsoft - who were once inspired by the Donald Mattrick - more to think about. Not just what expectations for success should mean, but what the template for a gaming console should look like in the first place.

It's hard to think that they would ever be that clueless in their (under)estimation of consumers again, but then again.. we have the Windows 10 Store and the mess that has come along with that for PC gamers.

[MasterCornholio]

Exactly my thoughts.

Don really hurt the system in the beginning of its life.

[2pacalypsenow]

After the initial reveal a lot of people predicted it and it came true. They took 5 steps backwards from the 360, which is to date their best console.

[XBManiac]

True, I think MS, with the years, forgot what we (users and gamers) liked of Xbox 360 vs PS3. Things as simple as "put the disk and play in no time", japanese games like Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey... apps to play media from network and USBs, our own soundtrack for any game, Xbox LIVE friends, tens of new AAA games every year, hard disk was upgradeable (more expensive than PS3 and no SSD option, but it was) and many more... But they, MS, forced an enormous Kinect that is hardly better than Xbox 360's, internal hard drive is not changeable, incredible and mandatory installation of games, not compatible hardware, Xbox LIVE worked worse than on Xbox 360 during months since launch of Xbox One... there were so many bad decisions...
I know many people who bought Xbox One because they wanted a "better Xbox 360". Now, it is impossible to see them buying another Microsoft console until it has been on sale for more than a month.
Microsoft will have to win back Xbox 360 people again.

[boodi]

wonder why do we need to host a doomed xb article in the exact time the console is doing better then ever and his new titles are top of the line worldwide reviewed games

[Slappy McGee]

Xbox One is selling around 7.3 million a year. The 360 sold around 7.7 million per year. The Xbox One is doing fine compared to the 360 sales. It's just that the PS4 is selling like crazy comparably. (PS4 sales are roughly 13.3 million per year.)

[mochachino]

Nope, could have been much closer to PS4 in sales if they didn't launch forcing Kinect on people. Kinect was a horrible control scheme and just didn't work that well. Moreover, the games for it didn't appeal to the market xbox and ps4 are geared towards. MS wanted that Wii money and took a second kick at the can at the expense of their already dwindling consumer good will.

XB1 could have been a very strong contender if it launched at $300 with no Kinect. That would have made it a tough choice between a more expensive PS4 that doesn't look THAT much better. For me and all my friends (who all at least had a 360 last gen and no real brand preference), cheaper and more powerful was the only smart choice.

By the time MS got its act together it was already too late. In the age where online games are the most popular, people generally buy what their friends have. Else wise, who would they play with, strangers. That's not nearly as fun. This gen's launch momentum was more important than any other as it only takes a few friends in a group to create a snowball effect on what their other friends will buy when they decide to get a new console.

Now with what could be termed the, "perpetual generation", with phone like hardware upgrades and forward compatibility, people on one console will have less opportunity and reason to switch brands. There is no refresh, only re-ups.

I'm not alone is saying that Kinect was classic MS looking for short terms gains at the expense of it's long term customers. N4G was full of angry 360 owners commenting that MS abandoned them chasing after that Wii fad, and that casuals offered no long term security as they'd probably all switch to the gaming device already in their pocket - phones, because they don't care THAT much about gaming in the first place.

In short, MS blew it by gambling on casuals and non-gaming related "features" that were poorly implemented. The fact that XB1 has a TV jack not only shows how misguided MS was regarding XB1, but also how poorly they assessed the market. Revolutionizing TV via console in theory is a great idea, but thinking plugging one box into another was the way to do it was way off the mark, to put it gently. The future of TV is streaming. MS would have been better off introducing an exclusive streaming service as part of their Gold membership or even just working out an arrangement with Netflix for free Netflix on Xbox with Live Gold.

What they're doing now is great, but they've already lost millions of consumers for the mere fact that someone in a group of friends chose PS4 in 2013. The loss of that one or two sales at launch probably cost them entire social circles which adds up massively.

[Artemidorus]

The camera and TV upset people but I gave it a chance after they claimed it had a ten year life. Two and half years later they bring out an updated one and in four it will have a much bigger brother.

So yes it were doomed until Spencer changed it to what he wants.

[MoveTheGlow]

The quotes and the analysis were pretty good. I think they still want to downplay just how much of a blunder it was doubling down on motion controls and voice commands. They 1) never worked as well as intended and 2) flipped user interface design to focus on those, and not an immediate, button-press-away experience. The original X1 UI was freaking ridiculous to use.

Then when they backpedaled, they had to work in all of those third-parties that were initially working on Kinect games. Imagine Ryse if Crytek never even heard of Kinect and built the thing for controllers from the ground up. Retrofitting games is like retrofitting anything else: it's never the same as building something from scratch in a particular way. I don't think the main Xbox issue was really ever about tracking or DRM, I think Kinect was poorly-received and Kinect 2.0 subsequently generated zero hype whatsoever.

There were so many trends Xbox bought into and didn't deliver on. They succeeded with online console gaming, that's for sure! But holy moly, did user-generated content (Project Spark) and Kinect ever ruin some of their studios. Their R&D spent a long time on projectors and 3D glasses, only to see VR waltz in and make those basically obsolete. They're lucky enough to have been rid of Molyneux by the time he was thinking about idle clicker games and Godus scams.

[Vasto]

Just shows the power of Microsoft.

They turned around the worst console reveal in history.

Just makes me more excited for Scorpio knowing that it will be designed as a Gaming Console.

[TheColbertinator]

No,the worst reveal was the Sega Saturn. Disaster on a level so great that Sony commanded the market within 2 years. Dark times for Sega.

[Vasto]

Sega Saturn released in 1995.

That was before the internet was popular like it is now and before social media even existed. Did they even have E3 back then? Even if they did it was something that only people who actually went could see or you had to read about it in a magazine.

Not even close to what Microsoft showed the world at E3 2013.

Always Online
Digital Only
Kinect forced on buyers
$500 Price Tag

The Sega Saturn was a good system that just got beat by a better system.

[TheColbertinator]

No,it wasn't media that killed it. The problem was the retailers. The majority of retailers never stocked Saturn systems and was 100 bones pricier than the PS1 to boot.

Gamers didn't buy it on account of higher price and retailers did not even make major pushes to sell them. They also launched it immediately at E3 instead of the popular fall season. Microsoft had time to recover in the PR battle for the holidays.

Saturn burned out within the 2nd year of PS and first year of the N64 .

[XBManiac]

Anybody who didn't see it when it was announced in Redmond should be out of Microsoft and give Xbox Scorpio freeway to be Xbox great again: Kinect was underpowered, price was too high, size was incredibly big and a backstep when Xbox 360 was smaller than Xbox and everybody liked that, no Japanese games, expensive and difficult access for indies to develop games for Xbox One, no motion controls on gamepads, no micros on the console or gamepads, hardware was underpowered (in comparison to Xbox 360 at launch), same error with not enough eRAM like on Xbox 360, there was too much SmartTV features and too less games to justify another console at home... Who thought that product and campaign? Sony people inside Microsoft?

[DarkSniper]

Xbox was doomed from the start of it's initial run back in 2001. It's very clear that Microsoft has not learned their lesson from their embarrassing plunge from first to last place with the Xbox 360. Xbox One has failed to deliver top notch exclusives and continues to provide a stagnant and overpriced online service.

Releasing the Xbox One S and the Xbox One Scorpio within a year time window is suicide for the console. Having 3 different SKU's in one generation will do nothing more than confuse the general public of what the Xbox One actually is and further congest the gaming industry with more garbage. Microsoft will make the same mistake that SEGA made when they released the Sega CD, 32X and the Sega Saturn all within a 2 year time period, which ultimately led to their demise.

Dark Sniper is glad that Microsoft is actually going to throw themselves in the fire. He can't wait to see the Xbox brand finally go up in flames.

$niper

[boodi]

you're so out of reality ..
xbox one s has been an uber success .. and games @4k+hdr are nicely different then standard :
quite better check on youtube yourself
i doubt skorpio next year will be a flop .. rest tuned...

[PimpDaddy]

I prefer Xbox over Playstation. But even I can admit that Microsoft made some big mistakes at launch.

1. Forcing Kinect.
2. $100.00 higher MSRP than PS4 at launch.
3. Weaker GPU and slower RAM than PS4.
4. Trying to force DRM policy and always online .
5. Horrible reveal that focuses on everything else but games.

I'm thankful they changed the XB1 so much in the last 3 years. It pisses me off that Microsoft didn't focus more on their loyal fanbase first. But they have fixed all of the mistakes they made and I'm looking forward to the future and what Scorpio brings next year.

[TheColbertinator]

Fail what? Microsoft is profitable in the gaming market. Their bottom line is profit not gaming media speculation.