Xbox One sales pick up without Kinect
Numbers nearly doubled for the month of June
Not everyone was on-board with Microsoft's recent decision to remove the Kinect from being a necessity in its bundle, opting to sell the Xbox One on its own for $399. (Namely developers who were still, you know, making games for Kinect.) Still, it turned out to be a beneficial move, as sales for the system have nearly doubled for the month of June following the change.
Microsoft announced the news on the sales numbers, citing that "internal data based on retain calendar and sold through numbers" have shown some growth, but didn't mention specifics in terms of units sold. NPD figures are coming soon, which will give us a better idea of how the console performed against the others on the market.
-
Robert Workman posted a new article, Xbox One sales pick up without Kinect.
Numbers nearly doubled for the month of June-
That's pretty bad news. They only sold 77k units in May, and if they're saying it "Nearly Doubled" then they're probably only looking at around 150k units sold in June. That would be pretty much even with the April sales + the difference in sales between April and May (153k). In other words, they only picked up the sales they lost in May due to the June Price Drop announcement, and that's with an extra 5th week in June. The lack of a "We were the best selling console" announcement also means that PS4 and/or the WiiU almost certainly outsold the X1 despite the price drop.
Despite Microsoft's attempt at a positive spin, this doesn't seem like good news to me.-
-
I'm sure it didn't help that they did this Kinect removal/price drop in a month with zero new games to drive sales.
I'd assume most people who were fine with the price and Kinect already had one for things like Titanfall or launch titles, and everyone else will just wait until the holiday season when there's a lot more games.
-
-
-
-
-
-
It's funny, because the past few updates have made the Kinect good(ish enough?) I have no problem with it anymore. I was even showing off for Dave-A recently when he visited my house. Xbox on! BOOBEEP! 8D Xbox Turn Off. Yes. Repeat a few times.
It sucks there will probably only be a couple of good games that use it, but for an interface they managed to actually turn it from a dumpster fire to something worthwhile.
The price difference is too good to let Sony run away with though. -
I am sure the lower priced Kinect free consoles would have made some difference to sales but I also think that the games library has reached a certain stage of attractiveness since it has only been the last couple of months that I have really thought it was about time to get a console.
I still haven't got a X-Box One but I like to think that next month or at least some time before Christmas I will finally buy the 55" 4K 3D smart TV I have been looking at and a One to go with it. I will be getting a console with Kinect.
-