Microsoft Looking to Make Small Profit on Each Xbox One Sold

The console transition will be expensive for both Microsoft and Sony, but somehow, the Xbox One is expected to either breakeven or see a small profit early on in its life. That’s according to Xbox chief marketing and strategy officer Yusuf Mehdi, who revealed Microsoft’s current strategy at the Citi Global Technology Conference.

"We're looking to be breakeven or low margin at worst on hardware and then we make money selling additional games, the Xbox Live service and other capabilities on top,” he said (via CVG). "And as we can cost reduce our box as we've done with 360, we'll do that to continue to price reduce and get even more competitive with our offering."

The console is now in full production with an increased CPU, and pre-orders are filled to the brim for the launch this November. Mehdi hopes that millions of fans will be enjoying the Xbox One this holiday season.

"From a market demand perspective we've been sold out on pre-orders of Xbox for couple of weeks now," Mehdi continued. "We've built more than we've built for an Xbox launch. We are on track to have the biggest launch we've ever done by a wide margin for a console. I expect there will be multiple millions of people enjoying Xbox through the holiday."

If the Xbox One is just too expensive for you at this time, take comfort in the fact that Microsoft will be supporting the 360 for the next three years with more than 100 games.