Microsoft itself has said that it believes that the Xbox brand has already “lost the console wars.” Dating back to the 1990s, the “console wars” have been an ongoing term that is used to describe rival hardware manufacturers in the video game industry. While Sega and Nintendo were at one point the most prominent companies embroiled in this battle, for the past two decades, the major players in this war have been Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. Now, Microsoft says that it believes it has clearly lost this supposed bout between each company as it has continued to rank last.
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As mentioned in a new document (via The Verge) that Microsoft filed this morning as part of its battle with the FTC, the company behind the Xbox brand admitted that it sees itself behind both Nintendo and Sony when it comes to hardware sales. Microsoft said that since entering the video game space back in 2001, it has trailed its competitors with every new console generation. It also said that Sony’s PlayStation brand is the “dominant player in consoles” when looking at sales both in the United States and worldwide.
“Xbox has lost the console wars, and its rivals are positioned to continue to dominate, including by leveraging exclusive content,” said Microsoft in its filing. “Xbox has consistently ranked third in consoles behind PlayStation and Nintendo.”
In some sense, it’s strange to see Microsoft admits its shortcomings when it comes to hardware sales. Then again, Xbox as a company hasn’t been solely focused on selling consoles above all else in recent years. Instead, the Xbox brand has tried to expand the reach of its games across not only consoles, but also PC and mobile devices via the Cloud. As such, this statement from Microsoft is one that is primarily attempting to make the company look weak, especially as it continues to push through its purchase of Activision Blizzard.
Are you surprised to see Microsoft say outright that it has lost the console wars? And do you think there’s a chance that Xbox could eventually surpass PlayStation or Nintendo in terms of hardware sales? Let me know what you think either down in the comments or hit me up on Twitter at @MooreMan12.
