The Xbox Brand is Flopping... Look Towards the Experts for Inspiration!

Let’s address the elephant in the room... the Xbox brand just does not bring Microsoft the bacon from a financial standpoint like the other services that they provide.

As of right now, as reported by The Verge (click here to learn more), Xbox hardware sales have dropped 7%, which may not seem like a lot... until you look at the competition (Nintendo and Sony Interactive Entertainment) and you find out that they have you beat at every corner of the gaming market. Talk about a blowout!

Granted, as reported by Statista, revenues generated in Q1 of this year are projected to shoot upwards of 13% which is a 10% increase from this time last year which is a significant improvement. However, the majority of that revenue is still coming from their Xbox cloud service: Xbox Game Pass which blows out the competition in every aspect from accessibility to content. Nintendo and Playstation are not even on the same planet in that regard.

But if this is the case, why are hardware sales so low?

On paper, the Xbox Series X is better than the Playstation 5, and that’s coming from someone who owns a PS5. Trust me, I thought about getting an Xbox Series X when it came out going up against the Playstation 5. It was the same price, had better performance, and was easier to buy than the Playstation by leaps and bounds. So why did people gravitate towards the PS5 and Nintendo Switch (which is unequivocally lower in terms of performance than either the Xbox Series X and the PS5)?

Two words: Brand Salience.

Let’s face the facts: Nobody thinks about Xbox when it comes to gaming. That’s not to put them down, those are facts. If your foundation is non-existent, even if your image is impeccable, your product is better than the competition, and the people who love your product are die-hard fans, there will be no growth.

Everyone knows who Xbox is and they may know some of the games that are exclusive to the platform, but when a gamer looks up “console exclusive games” on Google, this is what shows up:

8 of the 9 games that are listed at the top of the page are PS5 exclusives.

Great console exclusive games drive hardware sales and growth. Plain and simple.

When Nintendo came out with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Nintendo Switch, I bought both without a second thought. When Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was announced that it was going to be a PS5 exclusive, I was on every single forum imaginable every day trying to find a way to buy a PS5 back in 2020. Why? Because they forced themselves to the forefront of my mind.

But what about during the holiday season? Brand salience isn’t just about being at the forefront of people’s minds, but about how often they come to mind (depth) and the situation a gamer will find themselves in when searching for a new console (breadth).

In that category, Nintendo has, historically, always reigned supreme when it comes to holiday sales. Parents usually gravitate towards buying their kids a Nintendo because they perceive Nintendo as selling “family-friendly” consoles due to their extensive library of kid-friendly games. And therein lies the problem that Xbox faces today. They do not fit into any of the boxes in our headspace.

Now Microsoft, I’m going to pose a market within this gaming space that is, currently, on the rise and is in need of some serious competition and can prove to be a great foundational point for your brand salience. You can take it or leave it.

The handheld-console market.

Nintendo is currently in this space with their Nintendo Switch and is dominating the handheld charts but, let’s be frank, their hardware is outdated and in desperate need of a facelift (which is why there are tons of rumors going around that they may be announcing a “Super Nintendo Switch” sometime this year). Sony tried to jump into the handheld market with the Playstation Portal, but it’s only a remote play console, you are required to own a PS5 to use it, and you need to be on Wi-Fi to play the games on your PS5. And if you don’t have a good signal, you’re out of luck (trust me, I own one and I have GREAT Wi-Fi and it still boots me out sometimes). There are other companies such as Valve and ROG who also came out with their own handhelds and are slaying the competition, but they’re not backed by Microsoft or Nintendo which means that they’re software still has some years to go before it is perfected.

I know Xbox doesn’t normally dabble in this market, but it’s an incredible opportunity for them to absolutely capitalize on the competition. Add in some unbelievable console exclusives and you have a console that people will have to buy in order to experience it. Xbox, this is your time to strike!

But what do y’all think about the Xbox brand and let me know if you would buy a handheld made by Xbox? What would it even look like...Oh well, let me know!

And if you haven’t checked out my last post talking about CD Projekt Red’s new project, Codename: Orion, you can click here to learn more.