Xbox consoles and games are becoming rare finds at major retailers. Workers confirm that Walmart and Target locations are clearing out inventories and have no plans to restock the products. Repeated Xbox price increases have made the brand less desirable for businesses and consumers.
What they wanted was a volume of subscribers to rival Netflix, and even buying out several of the world’s largest publishers for day and date releases in their subscription service didn’t move the needle. They still sell you their video games, and they’ve acknowledged through a very short lived $80 price tag on The Outer Worlds 2 they can’t get away with that price. Increasing their subscription service by 50% shows that they’ve given up on getting more people to rent forever. You know who hasn’t? Nintendo. They’re selling you a $100 peripheral that only works with games that you can rent from them and not own. There’s a wide swath of their back catalog that they will not sell to you and only rent.