On Tuesday, Microsoft will announce its earnings for the company"s fiscal year fourth quarter. Ahead of this earnings announcement, Microsoft has said that the Xbox One has doubled the sales of the prior month which can likely be attributed to the new SKU launching with the $399 price point.
On June 9, Microsoft unbundled the Kinect from the Xbox One and lowered the price to that of the PlayStation 4, $399. The new SKU marks a $100 decrease in price from the version of Xbox One bundled with the Kinect sensor, which Microsoft is also still selling.
Clearly, this is good news for Microsoft as more sales of the hardware will likely lead to more Xbox Live subscriptions and sales of games where Microsoft earns a royalty too. Given that Microsoft hasn"t revealed exact sales figures for May or June, however, it"s difficult to tell the exact impact.
Microsoft will report its earnings next week, and there is a strong probability that they will announce layoffs either later this week or on Monday to trim overhead that was acquired in the Nokia mobility purchase. The NPD"s console sales figures will likely be released before the earnings report, however, which will reveal if the increased Xbox One sales put it ahead of Sony"s PS4 for the month of June.
A spike in sales was expected after slashing the price of the base Xbox One, and the sales in coming months will likely be a stronger indication of consumers interest in Xbox One. With several high-profile games coming out soon from the Halo franchise and the fall release of the latest Call of Duty entry, we suspect the company will still be able to move consoles at a rapid rate even after the price cut spike begins to fade.
Source: Xbox Wire