Microsoft targeting "potentially upwards of a billion" next-gen console unit sales

Expansion beyond the games market could lead to record-breaking sales of the Xbox One and games consoles in general, Microsoft has claimed.

But before it gets there, the company believes that the Xbox 360 still has as many as 25m additional unit sales left in it.

"We believe over the next five years we can break a 100m unit installed base," Microsoft’s senior VP of interactive entertainment business Yusuf Mehdi told OXM. That’s something we’re shooting for, it’s not a financial plan as such, it’s just rough numbers if you will.

To sell another 25m, half of those will probably come from replacements, but half will come from new buyers. And the way we’ll break into those segments is by hitting new price points, getting new classes of entertainment to come with the Xbox, and breaking into new customer segments. So you’ll see the Xbox 360 continue to exist, even as we launch the next generation Xbox One."

So how does Microsoft get from there to Xbox console hardware sales of 1bn units?

"Every generation, as you’ve probably heard, has grown approximately 30 per cent," Mehdi added. "So this generation is about 300m units. Most industry experts think the next generation will get upwards of about 400m units. That’s if it’s a game console, over the next decade.

"We think you can go broader than a game console, that’s our aim, and you can go from 400m to potentially upwards of a billion units. That’s how we’re thinking of the Xbox opportunity as we go forward."