According to Christopher Dring, the editor-in-chief of GamesIndustry.biz, a set of challenges facing Microsoft surfaced during the GDC 2024 developer conference. This summary comes from his discussion on the GI Microcast podcast.
Sales of game consoles and Xbox software are continuing to fall across the European Union in 2024. Dring noted that Microsoft, as a hardware maker, is grappling with serious headwinds in a market that has become increasingly competitive.
In addition, a major unnamed publisher with a high-profile title planned for 2023 expressed confusion about its own decision, pointing to weak sales on the Xbox Series X/S. Other publishers have voiced doubt about whether releasing games on Xbox makes sense, given the substantial effort required for optimization across the weaker Series S, while most development focus remains on PC and PlayStation 5 platforms.
Previously, retailer concerns about declining demand for Xbox were more common, but publishers have started to share similar worries. The extent of these concerns and whether some companies will opt not to publish on Microsoft platforms remains unclear. Dring also mentioned the possibility that many of Microsoft’s exclusives could arrive on PlayStation 5 in the future.
Even with the current hurdles, Microsoft appears to be pursuing a plan to turn things around. The company has reiterated that game consoles will stay at the core of its business and will remain the only platform for Game Pass. Work on the next-generation Xbox is underway, with a launch still several years away.
Earlier reports indicated that Microsoft was exploring multiple portable Xbox variants at the same time, a strategy that could widen the brand’s reach if pursued alongside the core console experience.