14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has offered a statement about the current situation of the Xbox One and has pinned the low sales experienced by the console on a variety of factors, including that the Xbox 360 owners are still quite happy with their platform and aren't willing to make the upgrade to the new one.
The Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 launched back in November of last year, and Sony's platform quickly experienced bigger and better sales figures than Microsoft's device, largely due to the bigger price of the Xbox One and the fact that it didn't insist all that much on gaming, but more on entertainment.
Microsoft did try to paint a brighter picture for its console, boasting a new focus on gaming and improving the device via firmware updates, but its sales are still lagging behind those of the PS4.
As such, the Redmond giant revealed earlier this week that it was going to debut a cheaper Xbox One bundle for 399 USD/EUR that no longer includes the Kinect 2.0 sensor.
While talking about the sales difference between the Xbox One and PS4, Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi, the head of Xbox marketing, told Forbes that more factors were to blame other than price, including the high degree of quality of the Xbox 360.
"It’s hard to really assess the gap in sales," he said. "They’re in many more markets right now than we are. They’re in 40+ markets, we’re in 13. People have been more satisfied with the Xbox 360 than the PS3, so in that respect people have less of a need to upgrade in the short term due to regular updates for the Xbox 360. We could point to any number of things."
The price, however, was certainly one of the biggest factors, Mehdi admits, and he believes that things will get much better once the cheaper console bundle is released next month.
"That said, we’ve heard from a lot of our Xbox fans who say, 'Hey look, I want an Xbox One, but at $499, I probably have to wait a little while before I can afford to get one.' I do think we’re going to get people now who move over, and then buy the Kinect later. So I do think the [price point] broadens the appeal and hopefully brings more people to Xbox One sooner."
Meanwhile, Sony is content with selling the PS4 for 399 USD/EUR and is trying to avoid shortages that have limited its potential sales ever since last year.