How to sell next-gen consoles, Marketing, Positioning, and Pricing [2020]

[Jay]

What does this mean?
They're subtracting the SeriesX ans SeriesS players that already had an account with a previous-gen xbox linked to it?

People without a previous xbox live account.
They would be deemed new people to xbox.

Guess it's possible they could put a window on it, so they may consider lapse accounts, people whose not used it in over a decade?
Either way sounds like XSS is doing its job from the start. Now just need to hear what they thought of it.

 

[BRiT]

What does this mean?

It means they sold more than 1 Million next-gen Series consoles, if I parsed their words correctly in the phrase: "More new consoles sold than any prior generation"

 

[Deleted member 13524]

People without a previous xbox live account.
They would be deemed new people to xbox.

And they're comparing this to Xbox One numbers, from people who had a X360?

I'm guessing they couldn't have done this for the X360, as not many people with the OG Xbox had Live back in 2005.
Meaning they're just comparing the numbers to the previous gen, which didn't have a great start.

 

[Jay]

And they're comparing this to Xbox One numbers, from people who had a X360?

I'm guessing they couldn't have done this for the X360, as not many people with the OG Xbox had Live back in 2005.
Meaning they're just comparing the numbers to the previous gen, which didn't have a great start.

OG and X360 could be just sales. As wouldn't take much to surpass bringing in new people regardless.
This was a much bigger launch regarding territories.

So, in that regards probably wouldn't be hard to measure.
I'm taking it at face value, until something else comes out to show it in a different light.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

OG and X360 could be just sales. As wouldn't take much to surpass bringing in new people regardless.
This was a much bigger launch regarding territories.

So, in that regards probably wouldn't be hard to measure.
I'm taking it at face value, until something else comes out to show it in a different light.

For X360, NA was it's largest market with the most X360's sold there. In Nov. they sold through ~326k in NA. Europe had 300k units allocated to it, but I'm not sure if they sold our or not. So, around 600-700k likely for Nov. The XBO sold more than a million in the first 24 hours.

So, all we know is that in total they sold more than a million consoles. Considering they launched in 37 countries instead of 13 this time, supply was likely quite a bit larger than for the XBO launch.

It isn't out of the question that they may have more new Xbox Live accounts than total launch X360 sales depending on what their world wide supply was like.

Also, Phil has said he doesn't plan to release sales numbers even if Xbox Series consoles outsell PlayStation consoles at any point this generation.

So, we'll basically have to rely on leaks from NPD and other sources for numbers.

Regards,
SB

 

[Jay]

So, all we know is that in total they sold more than a million consoles. Considering they launched in 37 countries instead of 13 this time, supply was likely quite a bit larger than for the XBO launch.

It isn't out of the question that they may have more new Xbox Live accounts than total launch X360 sales depending on what their world wide supply was like.

Also, Phil has said he doesn't plan to release sales numbers even if Xbox Series consoles outsell PlayStation consoles at any point this generation.

So, we'll basically have to rely on leaks from NPD and other sources for numbers.

I think when you factor in the other territories that's why I think the XSS statement could easily be true.
In the end they do have ways to measure these things.

I think that covid didn't depress the market (yet), may have even made for higher than expected sales of the XSS in places.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

I think the XSS will really hit it's stride when it's $249 on Black Friday 2021. In the meantime it's going to struggle against the XSX with hardcore early adopters and that's to be expected.

It's also an interesting play 4 years from now for $199 to entice PS5 owners to pick one up just for Halo, Gears, Forza, Fable, 23 studios, blah, blah, blah...

 

[Jay]

I think the XSS will really hit it's stride when it's $249 on Black Friday 2021. In the meantime it's going to struggle against the XSX with hardcore early adopters and that's to be expected.

It's also an interesting play 4 years from now for $199 to entice PS5 owners to pick one up just for Halo, Gears, Forza, Fable, 23 studios, blah, blah, blah...

When does early hard core adopter status change for you?
When it hits $199?
When did that happen, I guess that is last gen now? XO/PS4.

I would say it was way before having to hit below $200, unless your saying the whole gen was pretty much early adopting hardcore gamers.

 

[eastmen]

A combination of the low price and Game Pass (70% of XBS-X/S accounts, new and old, have Game Pass) makes the XBS-S a "why not give it a try" appeal to people who either never gamed on console before or have never gamed on Xbox before.

The only digital nature of the console doesn't appear to hurt it as much as it does the PS5-D. Either that or MS just allocated far more production to the XBS-S than Sony did for the PS5-D.

Regards,
SB

There are more Xbox Series S's than PS5s in total I believe.

A lot of people bought the systems with all access that came with game pass as part of the monthly charge

 

[eastmen]

I think the XSS will really hit it's stride when it's $249 on Black Friday 2021. In the meantime it's going to struggle against the XSX with hardcore early adopters and that's to be expected.

It's also an interesting play 4 years from now for $199 to entice PS5 owners to pick one up just for Halo, Gears, Forza, Fable, 23 studios, blah, blah, blah...

When does early hard core adopter status change for you?
When it hits $199?
When did that happen, I guess that is last gen now? XO/PS4.

I would say it was way before having to hit below $200, unless your saying the whole gen was pretty much early adopting hardcore gamers.

Microsoft Skipped to year 3 (or 2016) of last gen as I believe that is when those consoles hit$300. So for MS they will be able to start selling to more price consequence buyers sooner

 

[Jay]

Microsoft Skipped to year 3 (or 2016) of last gen as I believe that is when those consoles hit$300. So for MS they will be able to start selling to more price consequence buyers sooner

By that definition of $300 then they can buy right out of the gate.
Hence why I was asking if he really believed that its $199, which rules out pretty much the whole of the XO/PS4 generation.

I think the view that the hardcore are who buys early was due to many factors all of which don't apply to XSS.
You now have, I guess you can label them casual early adopters.
The console has enough games, and price point both of which was considered the barrier to entry for the casual before.

Question to people here.
If the hardcore are buying the XSX, who's currently buying the XSS.
I appreciate we don't have sales figures for both.

 

[Silenti]

By that definition of $300 then they can buy right out of the gate.
Hence why I was asking if he really believed that its $199, which rules out pretty much the whole of the XO/PS4 generation.

I think the view that the hardcore are who buys early was due to many factors all of which don't apply to XSS.
You now have, I guess you can label them casual early adopters.
The console has enough games, and price point both of which was considered the barrier to entry for the casual before.

Question to people here.
If the hardcore are buying the XSX, who's currently buying the XSS.
I appreciate we don't have sales figures for both.

From speaking to people in Gamestop lines:
1. Couldn't get an X
2. For bedroom
3. Xmas present for younger kids (pre-teen I would guess from the speakers age)

 

[Deleted member 11852]

From speaking to people in Gamestop lines:
1. Couldn't get an X

This is an interesting one. I couldn't imagine myself buying something in place of something I couldn't get. But if you were split on which model to buy in the first place...

 

[Jay]

From speaking to people in Gamestop lines:
1. Couldn't get an X
2. For bedroom
3. Xmas present for younger kids (pre-teen I would guess from the speakers age)

I'm surprised lets call them hardcore gamer would pick up an S instead of an X. But desperation I guess.

2 & 3 are what falls into line of the people I said in past would be interested in it.

I fully expect the XSX to sell better right at the start, but I think XSS will surprise many just how quickly it picks up sales.
Especially the people who expected it to fail right out of the blocks.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I fully expect the XSX to sell better right at the start, but I think XSS will surprise many just how quickly it picks up sales.

Me too, just like how One S was super popular.

 

[eastmen]

By that definition of $300 then they can buy right out of the gate.
Hence why I was asking if he really believed that its $199, which rules out pretty much the whole of the XO/PS4 generation.

I think the view that the hardcore are who buys early was due to many factors all of which don't apply to XSS.
You now have, I guess you can label them casual early adopters.
The console has enough games, and price point both of which was considered the barrier to entry for the casual before.

Question to people here.
If the hardcore are buying the XSX, who's currently buying the XSS.
I appreciate we don't have sales figures for both.

Different people are sensitive to different prices. Notice how many different price points there are for video cards or cpus ? There are also lower used and refurb consoles as time goes on to further lower prices.

I have a friend who bought himself an xsx and then bought two series s consoles for his 12 year old and 10 year old sons for their bedrooms.

From speaking to people in Gamestop lines:
1. Couldn't get an X
2. For bedroom
3. Xmas present for younger kids (pre-teen I would guess from the speakers age)

Yup secondary systems in rooms without 4k or for people who wouldn't notice the diffrence. You can get 2 xbox series s's for just a $100 more than a single seires x.

This is an interesting one. I couldn't imagine myself buying something in place of something I couldn't get. But if you were split on which model to buy in the first place...

Depends. You can move the s into the study or your office or what have you when you do get the x . If you can make use of it then it wasn't really a waste of money

I'm surprised lets call them hardcore gamer would pick up an S instead of an X. But desperation I guess.

2 & 3 are what falls into line of the people I said in past would be interested in it.

I fully expect the XSX to sell better right at the start, but I think XSS will surprise many just how quickly it picks up sales.
Especially the people who expected it to fail right out of the blocks.

They are both selling out and MS made more of the series s

 

[Jay]

Different people are sensitive to different prices. Notice how many different price points there are for video cards or cpus ? There are also lower used and refurb consoles as time goes on to further lower prices.

There's price brackets and I don't consider <$200 to be the casual market and hasn't been for a while now.
I consider that pretty close to impulsive buy territory.
<$300 I do consider casual market price point.

 

[eastmen]

There's price brackets and I don't consider <$200 to be the casual market and hasn't been for a while now.
I consider that pretty close to impulsive buy territory.
<$300 I do consider casual market price point.

Good thing for microsoft is they want that $200 and under market. They want people on game pass and they want people to keep staying on game pass. The lower they make the xss the cheaper all access gets and the more ms makes off it.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Depends. You can move the s into the study or your office or what have you when you do get the x . If you can make use of it then it wasn't really a waste of money

The vast majority of people do not own two consoles in the same console ecosystem.

 

[Jay]

Good thing for microsoft is they want that $200 and under market. They want people on game pass and they want people to keep staying on game pass. The lower they make the xss the cheaper all access gets and the more ms makes off it.

I may agree with many of your general views about XSS, but I've always found your views on the pricing to be especially optimistic.
I know you expected it to launch at, I think it was $250 or possibly less, but I don't see it hitting $100 cheaper even in sales any time soon.

I expect that market to be covered via some form of streaming solution. That doesn't mean there has to be a MS physical product.