If the new generation of Microsoft consoles does not necessarily shine by its omnipresence in the tops of French sales, the manufacturer half-heartedly welcomes the volumes sold through the essential Phil Spencer.
The two Xbox Series models are selling very well, thank you for them. Despite still relatively ghostly stocks which remind us that we are far from seeing the end of the shortage of micro-processors (a trend that should continue this year according to the head of the Xbox branch), the range of consoles is selling at a rather supported.
Xbox Series Finale
Invited by the New York Times to discuss the transformations induced by the metaverse in the podcast series dedicated to this theme, Spencer says that the Xbox Series consoles sell in comparison better than the previous generations:
At this time, we have sold more Xbox Series X and S than any other generation of Xbox consoles. Our job is to ensure sufficient production to meet this demand.
Without going into the figures, the sales curve would therefore be higher than that of the Xbox 360 (which remains the manufacturer’s best seller for the time being). In October, analyst Daniel Ahmad estimated that Microsoft had distributed some eight million Xbox Series. In view of the figures recorded by the previous models 14 months after their release, we can estimate that between 10 and 11 million Xbox Series should be currently in circulation.
The law of supply and demand
But contrary to what one might think, Phil Spencer does not necessarily attribute the near-permanent stockouts to the resulting shortage, but simply to a demand made uncontrollable by the arrival of a famous crowned virus, and the confinements that accompanied it:
It’s hard to get an Xbox Series or PlayStation 5 right now. But this is not because the production would be smaller than usual, it is on the contrary more important. It is the demand that greatly exceeds our capacity. In the spring of 2020, we broke, which never happens, because there was this very sudden increase.
According to the official speech, the production lines would therefore run at full speed, but would fail to cope with constant demand, a situation obviously unprecedented in the history of the industry more than a year after the launch of a new generation of consoles.