The Xbox One has managed to make a remarkable turnaround in terms of perception, but in terms of where it matters – hard sales numbers – the Xbox One is still trailing far behind its immediate competition, the PlayStation 4. Surely this is something that rankles for Microsoft- especially since they spent most of the previous generation in the driver’s seat with the Xbox 360.
However, in an interview with Engadget, Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg indicated that Microsoft are pretty content with Xbox and where it is in the industry. “Sony’s had a lot of success as well,” Greenberg said. “I think what you’re seeing is that the console market is really healthy, console sales are doing really well in general, software sales are strong. It’s been a good industry for both of us, and we’re innovating in different ways. We’re innovating in a way where we know a lot of gamers are multi-device gamers, they don’t just buy one system, and so we want to be able to have the same types of experiences on Xbox Live, the same games, the same friends, both in the living room on their console or at work, on vacation or at school on their PC. You should be able to stay connected, and play the same games through things like Play Anywhere. That’s really been where we’ve been focused on.”
I don’t know if his answer is more of him toeing the company line because really, what else can Microsoft say? They did lose this gaming generation, and there is nothing that can be done about it. On the other hand, it might just be genuine sentiment- certainly, Phil Spencer has said things in the past that indicate that Microsoft are now more concerned with making Xbox its own thing, than they are about a direct sales war with Sony.
Whatever the intent behind the statement may have been, there is now doubt that its sentiment and its content manages to ring largely true- this industry has been great for Microsoft and for Sony, both.