Microsoft hasn't offered a concrete update on how many Xbox One consoles it has sold for some time. Now a new report claims we may not get that information as often as we have in the past, as the company is allegedly ditching that success measure for the Xbox division in favor of looking at the engagement numbers of its Xbox Live subscribers.
Microsoft didn't reveal any hardware sales numbers for the Xbox division in its recently announced quarterly financial results, saying only that its hardware revenue was down due to selling a smaller amount of its now 10 year old Xbox 360 console. However, it did mention that it saw "healthy growth" in the last fiscal quarter, both in revenues and in monthly active users, for its Xbox Live subscribers. Indeed it stated that Xbox Live now has 39 million users, up 28 percent from a year ago.
Now Game Informer states that, according to their sources, the Xbox Live numbers are the ones that Microsoft is most interested in measuring:
"Microsoft will not be using console shipments as its primary metric for success beginning with this quarter, we have been told. The company is more focused on engagement, leading it to choose Xbox Live usership as its leading statistic.""While that doesn't mean we won't hear about console shipment statistics, it won't be something we should expect to see every quarter. Microsoft also indicates that the 39 million Xbox Live users reported today are more narrowly defined now. We've been told that this metric now reflects users that have logged in within the past month. No differentiation has been made between gold (paying) and silver (free) members."
This report comes as many feel that Microsoft will not win the current console war in terms of hardware units that are sold, with Sony's PlayStation 4 apparently winning this time around.
Source: Game Informer
