Microsoft says that Xbox One sales doubled in the month of June, following a large price cut in a package that leaves out the Kinect sensor. Microsoft has also abandoned plans to create TV content for Xbox.
But PS4 is still leading
Microsoft has not provided actual sales numbers, but has just said that sales have more than doubled in the US in June compared to May. A new $100 cheaper Xbox One without Kinect was introduced in the beginning of June.
However, Sony’s PS4 is still leading, according to NPD. This marks the sixth consecutive month of Sony leading the sales charts, which was dominated by the Xbox 360 before the launch of the new game consoles.
Yesterday, Microsoft also announced that they will cut 18,000 jobs over the next 12 months. This will not affect the Xbox game division, but it will effect the Xbox Entertainment Studio, which will shut down.
Microsoft established Xbox Entertainment Studio in 2012 in a goal to compete with Netflix and Amazon for original TV programming that would be released exclusively on Xbox. The Studio was also part of a major plan to make the Xbox One part game console, part TV box, but Microsoft appears to have shifted focus to the game aspect in recent months.
The planned Halo TV series produced by Steven Spielberg, based on the popular games, will continue along with Signal to Noise, but all future TV series for Xbox have been dropped.
