Xbox and PlayStation have always been in competition when it comes to sales numbers and player base, but Xbox has been lagging behind for a while now. It's not just selling fewer units than PlayStation, Microsoft is now seeing a drop in sales.
Xbox Sales Are Down
Fewer people are opting for the Xbox when deciding to buy a console, and that has been evident with Microsoft's third-quarter earnings call. It showed that the revenue for the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series S has been down 30% year-over-year.
The company said that it was due to a "lower volume of consoles sold" in early 2024, which was also the case last year in April when Microsoft stated that "Xbox hardware revenue decreased 30% on a strong prior year comparable," as reported by Kotaku.
The exclusives that Xbox has to offer are no longer enough to pull players into buying an Xbox instead. This could be the reason why certain titles are finally arriving on the PlayStation Store, most of which are seeing high sales numbers.
Xbox titles like High-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Grounded, and Sea of Thieves have just arrived on the PlayStation platform this February, and even besides those four titles, Microsoft has more games on PlayStation's best-seller list than Sony does.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during a call with investors that they are "committed to meeting players where they are by bringing great games to more people on more devices." Maybe Starfield would also make an appearance on the PS Store in the future.
The tech giant still has a powerful card to play, given that it had just acquired Activision Blizzard. This creates a huge potential for Xbox to add Call of Duty titles game to Game Pass. Making it them exclusives might also do the trick, but Microsoft said it has no intention of doing that.
Microsoft is Working on a New Console
The drop in sales might just be a slight hitch for Microsoft right now, especially since the tech giant intends to develop and release a new generation of Xbox that would supposedly be significantly better than its predecessors.
"What we're really focused on there is delivering the largest technical leap you will have ever seen in a hardware generation, which makes it better for players and better for creators and the visions that they're building," the company said regarding the next-gen console.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer also mentioned that they are really thinking about "creating hardware that sells to gamers because of the unique aspects of the hardware," as per The Verge. There are speculations that this "unique" hardware might be a handheld.
Spencer himself said that he was a big fan of handhelds, but that there was nothing to announce. Microsoft might as well release one, considering that handhelds are becoming more popular due to their portability.
Sony already released a handheld compatible with its latest console, which is the PlayStation Portal, although, unlike handhelds like the Nintendo Switch, it cannot function without being connected to a PS5 console.
