---
title: 'Why Would ANYONE Buy an Xbox?'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=ohBSgq9enps'
video_id: 'ohBSgq9enps'
date: 2026-06-18
duration_sec: 0
---

# Why Would ANYONE Buy an Xbox?

> Source: [Why Would ANYONE Buy an Xbox?](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ohBSgq9enps)

## Summary

The video analyzes the current dire state of Xbox, revealing that despite a $20 billion investment, revenue has declined and the division is barely profitable. It explores the core question of why anyone should buy an Xbox, given that exclusives are now on other platforms and cross-play is standard. The creator offers a set of recommendations for a potential reset, including fixing Windows on Xbox, shipping a next-gen console, and committing to Game Pass.

### Key Points

- **Massive Investment, Declining Revenue** [3:47] — Microsoft has invested $20 billion into Xbox over the last five years, but revenue has gone down.
- **PlayStation's Total Profit** [4:04] — Sony has profited about $20 billion from PlayStation since the PS1 launched over 30 years ago.
- **Xbox's Thin Profit Margin** [5:00] — The entire Xbox division is running at a 3% accountability margin, which is trending down.
- **CEO's Harsh Reality Check** [5:11] — Satya Nadella said there is more monetization of Xbox games happening on YouTube than at Microsoft.
- **Rising Component Costs** [2:19] — The cost of memory and storage has already doubled and is expected to increase fivefold by next year.
- **The Identity Crisis** [5:52] — The core question Xbox cannot answer is why anyone should buy an Xbox, as exclusives are on other platforms and cross-play is standard.
- **Price and Value Issues** [7:38] — The Xbox Series S was a cheap entry point at $300, but price hikes and losses per console have eroded that advantage.
- **A Path Forward** [9:19] — Recommendations include fixing Windows on Xbox, shipping a next-gen console, leaning into exclusives, and committing to Game Pass.

## Transcript

- Why does Xbox exist?
I mean, it seems like a simple question,
but for the last year or so,
there really haven't been
a lot of great answers
as to why you should buy an Xbox.
It seems like the people in charge
don't have a better answer either.
So, look, I'm gonna be honest,
I want Xbox to at least be competitive.
Do you wanna live in a world
where PlayStation has zero competition?
It's also a little personal for me,
and you can kinda tell the
whole story of my channel
through the last few generations of Xbox.
Back in 2009, I traded my
entire gaming collection in
to buy an Xbox 360.
It almost immediately Red Ringed on me.
I mean, my first E3 was the
launch of PS4 and Xbox One,
one of the most infamous
days in Xbox history.
And getting to reveal the Series X
was one of the biggest
moments in my career.
So yeah, I want Xbox to,
you know, continue to exist,
which is why we've gotta
talk about the Xbox Reset.
It was literally last
week at Xbox Showcase
where I said that the easy part was done
and the hard part was coming.
I didn't expect the hard
part to show up this fast.
Okay, so to be totally fair to Xbox,
the last 100 days of Asha running the show
have been genuinely good.
They cut the price of Game Pass,
they brought back real console exclusives,
so there's Gears E-Day
as well as Clockwork Revolution to start,
and almost certainly more to come.
They killed the stupid
everything is an Xbox campaign
that basically nobody liked,
and the showcase itself was solid.
Gears, Halo, Fable, I
mean, Forza is already out
and selling big numbers.
Asha has walked in as the new CEO
and really given Xbox fans
a reason to be excited
in just her first three months on the job.
But these were the easy wins.
The real problems are,
well, very real, and they just shared them
in way more detail than they should.
Last week, just a few days after Showcase,
the Xbox team published a memo called,
"Next 100 Days: XBOX Reset."
And holy (quacks).
The Xbox team have been doing the rounds
with interviews the last couple of weeks,
setting stage here,
really, with references
to the business not being,
quote unquote, "Healthy."
But this memo, which I wanna be clear,
it wasn't leaked, they posted publicly,
paints a terrible picture
of where things really
are for Xbox right now.
I'll be honest, it is actually
worth reading in full,
but here are some of the takeaways.
The cost of memory and storage,
you know, the chips inside every console,
has already doubled, and
they're preparing for it
to hit more than five
times more than the cost
before the RAM crisis
by holiday of next year.
Now, they think that they
actually got hit harder
than anyone else in the industry,
because of, quote unquote,
"Choices they've made
over the last five years,"
which I feel like is a loaded phrase
that I bet there's a whole backstory too.
But they're in a mess.
A huge part of my job is
coming up with video ideas.
And here's the thing, y'all
give me tons in the comments.
So when Zapier reached
out to sponsor this video,
it was the perfect time to build something
I've wanted forever, an easy
way to consolidate ideas
and feedback from the comments
into something I can actually use.
Zapier's pitch is simple,
their job is to connect apps
and run workflows between them.
Zapier has an MCP server,
which is a fancy way of saying
that you can plug it directly into tools,
such as Claude or ChatGPT.
Now, I had to authorize it
in my Claude settings myself.
It's not always on,
it's only something that
I enable when I want it.
So now, Claude can pull
from my YouTube comments
and drop the organized
ideas directly into Notion.
In just a few minutes of setup,
I had my first batch of ideas,
including one on smartphone features
that were killed too soon.
Manually, I probably
wouldn't have noticed,
but these are ideas from you,
Zapier just helps to surface
them and so much more.
There are so many things
you can do with Zapier,
so if you wanna check it out,
I'll have a link in the description.
And again, big thank you to Zapier
for sponsoring this video.
The crazier part is the
actual business side.
Over the last five years,
essentially, the Xbox Series X generation,
Microsoft has poured something
like $20 billion into Xbox,
only for revenue to go down.
For context, because
I think at this point,
we're all desensitized to
billion this, trillion this,
over the entirety of PlayStation,
Sony profited about $20 billion.
Now, I'm not saying the PS5,
which is the most profitable generation,
no, $20 billion from PlayStation
since the PS1 launched
over 30 years ago.
Seriously, just sit
with that for a second.
(lips trilling)
You can say a lot about Microsoft,
but you cannot fault them
for not investing huge
piles of cash into Xbox.
The idea of putting $20 billion in,
and during that time, seeing
your revenue drop not rise,
is honestly kind of unbelievable.
I maybe wouldn't have shared those numbers
if I was running the show,
but hey, appreciate the transparency
by really letting everyone know
just how deep a hole they're really in.
This by the way completely sidesteps
the almost $70 billion they invested
in buying Activision Blizzard,
a deal I think in hindsight
they probably overpaid for.
As of right now, the entire Xbox division
is running at a, quote unquote,
"3% accountability margin,"
which, again, is trending down and not up.
To top it off, you've got Satya Nadella,
the CEO of all of Microsoft, saying this.
- Like there's more monetization
of Xbox games happening
on YouTube than at Microsoft.
- Holy (quacks).
I mean, I do think he's kinda joking here,
but clearly, things are
not working right now.
Now, again, I wanna be really
clear what this video's about,
I want Xbox to succeed.
But reading these numbers
gives me heartburn.
I mean, even for a huge
company like Microsoft,
this is not sustainable.
I think that that's why
they've shared so much,
they've got to make some
big changes right now,
and this memo is kind of
the justification for it.
So that's the situation,
which brings us right
back to the one question
that even Xbox admits
they can't answer today,
"Why should anyone buy an Xbox?"
I mean, historically this
was a pretty simple question.
You bought an Xbox, or a
PlayStation for that matter,
to play the big exclusives,
and because that's where
your friends played.
But at this point, neither
of these are really true.
Games like Halo and
Forza are not only on PC,
but they're also on PS5.
And cross play has largely
become the standard now,
which means it's a real edge case
to not be able to play with your friends,
regardless of the platform.
The days of picking a console,
because that's where all your friends are,
that's just not a thing anymore.
Opening things up did work to sell games,
but it gutted almost every
reason to buy an Xbox console,
outside of Game Pass?
I mean, the obvious
answer this generation
has just been to buy a PS5,
which plays everything.
And guess what?
Everyone's bought a PS5.
The sales have not even
been close with the Xbox.
Now, they have started to
roll back console exclusives,
but this is gonna be a slow process.
I mean, they've already committed
most of their big titles,
like Halo: Campaign
Evolved, to land on PS5.
Just snapping your fingers
and pulling everything back to Xbox
would just lose sales at this point
and really, really piss off Sony.
And that's the tough balance.
Do you value selling games,
you know, the thing that
actually makes money,
or do you give up on at least some of that
in favor of building the reasons
for people to buy an
Xbox over a PlayStation?
I mean, I think they're
gonna make this decision
on a case by case basis.
I mean, it would be crazy
to take something like
Forza off the PlayStation
and games like Call of Duty
have already been committed
to stay multi-platform
for basically ever.
But there will be at least some big games
that only land on Xbox
and PC going forward,
it's just gonna take a while
to actually make an impact for them.
Exclusives are one part of the
story, but value is another.
The current generation has been rough,
but the silver lining has
largely been the Xbox Series S.
At $300, at least up until recently,
it has been the cheapest
ticket into modern gaming.
And I know a lot of people
who have picked one up,
signed up for Game Pass,
and are still really happy.
Except they hiked Xbox
prices twice last year
and are reportedly still losing
as much as hundreds of
dollars per console right now.
With the RAM crisis,
even $650 for a Series X
just isn't sustainable.
This whole thing is still
getting a lot worse.
So exclusives are part of the story,
price, unfortunately, probably isn't.
Even Microsoft with their deep pockets
can't afford to lose big cash
on every console forever.
Maybe the answer is building
a badass next gen console?
I mean, sure, a super powerful
Project Helix would be great,
but once you get above like 1,000 bucks,
which it almost certainly would be,
it is always going to be a
more limited kind of device.
And what I'm hearing
is that they're considering
how to scale it back
and cut costs regardless.
Who knows what Helix actually
looks like at launch.
Finding a real reason for
why you should buy an Xbox
is just a tough sell right now.
You can't even really blame Sony here.
I mean, look at the problems.
Microsoft chose to bring Halo
and Forza to PlayStation.
Even the RAM crisis kinda comes
back to Microsoft in a way.
They're spending $190
billion on CapEx in 2026,
most of which is going
to their AI build out,
you know, the thing that's
causing the RAM crisis
to begin with.
Look, there's no way around
it, things are bad for Xbox.
There's a real reason for
some real drastic changes,
spinning Xbox off into its
own standalone company,
cutting studios, or even
just calling it a day
on console hardware entirely.
But I do think there are things
that Asha and the team can
do for the next 100 days
that can make a difference.
First of all is the biggest
one, get Windows right.
The biggest strength of a console
is the simplicity and
the it just works factor.
Having the flexibility
of Windows is great,
and while Xbox Mode is an
improvement, it is not there yet.
Now, they've still got time,
but this has to be priority
number one, it is the foundation
for the entire next
generation Xbox platform.
But you've gotta make it
easy and clear to understand
what's an Xbox versus a PC.
The details matter here.
Make the true Xbox version
of Windows its own thing
with a guaranteed set of features,
like full Xbox backwards compatibility
and clear performance tiers.
Then, ship Helix.
Now, my understanding
is that it's largely built
and paid for at this point,
at least on the development side.
But, look, you don't have to rush it,
no one is clamoring
for brand new hardware,
at least not yet.
Take the time to lower
the costs, scale it back,
whatever you gotta do.
But I do think putting
a real next gen Xbox on shelves matters.
Hopefully, they can do this
along with a true affordable
Series S successor,
and probably, by opening up the Xbox brand
to more third-party
hardware like the Xbox Ally.
And then, lean all the way
in on games and exclusives.
Sure, I mean, keep things
going on a case by case basis
on what games are true exclusives,
maybe which ones are timed,
and which ones just go
straight to the PS5,
but now is not the time to gamble
on new and unproven concepts.
Get Elder Scrolls VI out the door,
give us an actually new Halo game,
remake Fallout 3 or New Vegas.
How about StarCraft 3?
Look, I don't care which
of these you actually do,
but just green light and fast track some
of these obvious slam dunk games
to not only bring some
much needed revenue in,
but also to have some real next gen titles
to sell Project Helix and Game Pass.
And finally, the hard one,
sort out the business side.
Game Pass is still the
best answer Xbox has,
so just fully commit.
You can't ship a next gen
console at the price you want?
Bring back Xbox All Access
and bundle the hardware with Game Pass
in a reasonable monthly price.
While you're at it, give
away the easy stuff,
make Xbox Live Multiplayer actually free.
If you're shipping a PC, you
kinda need to do this anyway,
since no one pays for online on PC
outside of specific titles
like WoW or EVE Online.
Announce the free
multiplayer at the right time
when you tweak the Xbox Game Pass tiers,
and eventually, release that
free ad-supported version
that's been teased forever.
(Austin sighing)
Okay, I'll admit, this is a lot,
and the Xbox team certainly
has a better picture
of what to do than I do.
But look, this is a rare opportunity,
not everyone gets the
chance at a real reset.
This can be an opportunity
to ensure that Xbox can build
to become a truly healthy business again.
They have all the pieces,
maybe they're a little broken
and scattered right now,
but, look, I know this
is a very difficult task,
but I do think it's fixable.
I also think the next 100 days
are going to be a wild ride,
but I'm gonna be here for it.
If you too wanna be here for it,
make sure to subscribe to the channel
and ring-a-ling that ding-a-ling button.
And definitely stay tuned,
it is about to get real, real spicy,
for good and for not so good.
(suspenseful music)