Xbox Says 'Hardcore' Gamers Are on Their Side

Although the Xbox One may be coming up short in this console race against the PlayStation 4, it's got a lot of support behind it, including some "hardcore" players that the company is very appreciative of.

During this past week's Gamescom event, Xbox senior director of global product marketing Aaron Greenberg spoke with IGN Italia, explaining how the avid group of Xbox fans have been sticking by the company with ideal loyalty.

"I notice the same and identical thing on my friends list and the data we have available suggests exactly that. Hardcore players, those who prefer the best gaming experience, have always been on our side, from the first Xbox to Xbox 360 and now with the Xbox One X," he explained.

"Looking at the numbers and results of the competition, we have a smaller installed base, but the attach rate and sales data for many games are much higher on Xbox.

"This is due to the fact that our userbase is made up of more hardcore gamers, and we return to the previous point: it is our relationship with the community that puts us in this position. We are at Gamescom especially for our users and the Xbox Fanfest and we do similar activities all over the world.

"Along with Phil Spencer we are always very attentive to this aspect, it is really important to spend time with our fans and we will continue to do so, it is part of our way of being."

Microsoft has been running into some bumps in winning over fans as of late, particularly with delays of key games like Crackdown 3, which is now set to release sometime in 2019. But the company has been making more moves to win over fans with its hardware, particularly with the introduction of the Xbox All Access program, which enables fans to get a hold of a console and game services for one low monthly price. Not to mention the amazing Xbox backward compatibility program, which is now over 500 games.

As for games, Forza Horizon 4 arrives in early October, and there are sure to be some indie faves to tide us over before we see a monumental push from the gaming team in 2019, including support from third-party publishers. We'll see what the "hardcore" fans think over the next few months.

(Hat tip to WCCFTech for the scoop!)