Microsoft’s new direction for Xbox isn’t very clear yet. This week the company announced changes to its Xbox Game Pass service which would add a new Standard tier that doesn’t include day one releases. However, it seems there are even bigger changes on the cards for the gaming division. Changes that will see Microsoft shift away from focusing on consoles in certain regions.
According to The Verge, Microsoft is looking to kill off the Xbox Series X/S focus on EMEA regions. This includes Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Instead, the company will push Game Pass as a service rather than spending resources shipping and selling hardware.
The source claims that Microsoft has been struggling to sell Xbox Series X/S consoles in the EMEA region. Going forward, the company will allocate fewer console stock to the EMEA region. This will likely mean Xbox Series X/S consoles won’t be as readily available.
Microsoft has struggled this generation with the Xbox Series X/S. Stats from this week show the console is currently selling behind the Xbox One which already failed to meet the same sales as the Xbox 360.
In South Africa, the console hasn’t been wildly popular either. Various promotions on the hardware have failed to move units. Microsoft has, in the past, discounted the console, offered trade-in discounts off the total purchase and bundled Game Pass and Xbox Controllers with the unit.
While sales do happen, my own sources tell me there are a few hundred Xbox Series X/S consoles lying around with little to no interest in them. I am not sure if other EMEA regions have a similar situation.
However, in the past, stats have shown that Game Pass has driven gamers away from purchasing Xbox consoles in favour of playing on PC while also ditching physical (and digital) game purchases altogether.
Microsoft has not commented on this latest report. The company has already confirmed it is working on a “next-gen” Xbox console which it claims will be “the most powerful gaming console in the world”.
Source: The Verge
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