Microsoft's Phil Spencer has officially confirmed that the Xbox Series X won't be sold at a higher price point that Sony's PlayStation 5 (opens in new tab), saying that this upcoming generation, the Xbox will be a real contender, with the marketing strategy extending across a number of fronts.
“I would say a learning from the Xbox One generation is we will not be out of position on power or price," explained Spencer at the X019 (opens in new tab) event in London. “If you remember the beginning of this generation we were a hundred dollars more expensive and yes, we were less powerful. And we started Xbox Series X with this leadership team in place with a goal of having market success.”
When it comes to lifetime console sales, the Xbox One has lagged behind Sony, who's PS4 console earned the title of second best-selling console of all time, with 102.8 million units sold - the company's PS2 console still holds first place with 155 million units sold. Meanwhile, lifetime sales of the Xbox One are estimated to be much lower, at around 43.6 million units.
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"We had the discussion years ago ‘do we want to go do another generation?’ Yes, and do we think there will be multiple generations ahead of us? I actually think there probably is,” Spencer added, a statement which is backed up by his confidence in the continuation of physical consoles in the face of Google's Stadia marketing, which bears the tagline, "the future of gaming is not a box".
Earlier this year, he admitted that game streaming is just "one of the directions the industry is headed," saying, "I'm not trying to tell you that owning a box that plays video games is a bad thing or that somehow that's not needed...The world where compute devices are gone and it's all coming from the cloud just isn't the world that we live in today."
During X019, the Xbox chief said that the company is going "all in" on Xbox Series X, and that it'll be poised to take on the competition, highlighting the console's features as a draw.
"I want to compete, and I want to compete in the right ways which is why we’re focused on cross-play and backward compatibility."
Launching at an affordable price point is definitely going to be a big part of anyone's decision when looking at upgrade options next year, but with Sony planning for a swift transition between the PS4 and PS5 (opens in new tab), console price could be the biggest battle next generation.
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Source: The Verge (opens in new tab)
