In a past news post, I speculated that Microsoft secretly wants out of the console business and is purposely driving customers away from Xbox in order to make the move less messy. It’s only my pet theory, but I think it’d go a long way towards explaning the baffling string of decisions made regarding the Xbox brand over the past 5 years or so. It’d also help to explain today’s story: Xbox hardware going out of stock in Europe.
As reported by PowerUp Gaming, Xbox regional stores tied to countries such as Italy, Spain, Czech Republic and Denmark either list Xbox Series consoles as either “out of stock” or just link to empty product pages. Whether this is just temporary remains to be seen, but it is curious that hardware would be out of stock in these places in the first place. Xbox systems haven’t exactly been flying off the shells for a very long time now, and the brand has consistently done poorly overseas compared to in the US too. It’s very odd.
Now Xbox is still introducing new hardware such as that Xbox-branded ROG Ally handheld system. And, there’s rumors floating around that Microsoft is developing some sort of “console-PC hybrid” system (consoles are just gaming-dedicated computers to begin with, so is it just a more specialized gaming PC?). Still, if Microsoft isn’t trying to slowly kill its own gaming brand, why is it doing practically everything it can to turn customers away?
The company raised prices on hardware that was already struggling to sell. It raised the price of a service (Game Pass) that’s long been catching heat for not having any good exclusives, and it reduced the included perks and features at the same time.
It’s most of the exciting new IP promised even before the Xbox Series, canceled highly anticipated remakes and failed to market what few games have come out. Of everything not yet, canceled, most of it has been living in development hell for over 5 years now. They’ve even floated plans to eventually release all their IP on PC and PlayStation.
So what’s the play here? Go all in on Game Pass? If so, why drive users away from it? Continue as a hardware manufacturer? Then why no games and the sudden interest in multiplatform? Publisher-only? Again, why no games? I dunno. Can you make any sense of this? Let’s talk below!
Image is from the 2023 Xbox Games Showcase
VIRTUAL BASTION 