Former Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Ybarra recently reaffirmed his belief in the console market, stating that "those losing" in the space perpetuate a false narrative of consoles being a dying breed. Ybarra departed Blizzard earlier this year after the publisher was acquired by Microsoft in 2023, and his comments do seem to be throwing some shade at the platform holder.
Console manufacturers have historically taken a loss on hardware to offer competitive prices, and made up the difference from software sales down the line. This practice remained consistent when Sony and Microsoft launched the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S respectively back in 2020. Sony later announced that the PS5's disc edition broke even in June 2021, which meant sales of those specific variants no longer recorded a loss. However, things haven't been going that great for Microsoft, as the Xbox Series X/S consoles continue to sell at a very sluggish pace despite the numerous studios and publishers the company has acquired.
Xbox console sales are down for the second fiscal quarter in a row, marking a continuing downward trend for Xbox hardware amid a shift in focus.
In fact, Microsoft stopped announcing Xbox sales numbers altogether a...
