Today there is a frantic fight between Microsoft and Sony for conquering its niche in the video game console market. On one side is the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series Swhile at the other end of the ring we have the Playstation 5 which until now remains the best seller.
The console war is no longer what it was. In the good old days, the duel of the titans between the companies in turn was fierce and ended up winning whoever gave the best game offer. So that the price of the device could become second term of relevance.
But the reality is that the strategy of scaling the hardware is less and less profitable, the graphic difference for the console sector is not so brutally different, the catalogs are almost the same and the exclusives are quite treasured, while the games created for this new generation are truly few.
Due to this situation the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One they are still alive and active with a wide variety of games that come out equally for all systems.
This clearly sounds like the formula for a bad deal, and it seems that at least in the case of Microsoft this is exactly the case.
Microsoft loses a lot of money with each Xbox it sells and confirms Phil Spencer
Just as our friends rescued from CNBCPhil Spencer, top boss of Microsoft, in an interview for WSJLiveended up confirming that today selling a console of this new generation is not a business.
In fact, the company would be losing between $100 and $200 for each device it puts up for sale. But Microsoft amortizes these expenses with the breadth of its wallet, all in the hope that in the long term they can change the situation.
This brings us to the inevitable question of why the firm is selling every Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S console at its current price.
The answer is simple: broadly speaking, the loss margin is recovered when users buy games, plus the business model is much more robust today.
In fact, Spencer himself stated in the interview that they expect that people will spend money on complementary products and services later, once they have already purchased the device.
So the essential bet is to convince them to acquire the console and then maintain their loyalty. So clearly an unlock would be horrendous for them.