Microsoft Reveals Next-Gen Strategy For The Xbox One, Investing $1B Into Games - Will Consumers Buy? [POLL]

Microsoft's next-gen console is set to launch late this year, but the arrival of the Xbox One is just the beginning of the company's gaming game plan.

Microsoft is banking hard on the success of next-gen consoles, and obviously the Xbox One in particular. According to a recent statement, they believe that lifetime sales of the upcoming console generation will surpass 1 billion units.

This seems to be one of the reasons the company is pushing the "living room entertainment system" angle so much. Microsoft isn't just going for the gaming demographic anymore, they want to sell this to anyone who owns a TV.

Microsoft's senior vice president of Interactive Entertainment Business Yusuf Mehdi told OXM that, "Every generation, as you've probably heard, has grown approximately 30%. So this generation is about 300 million units. "

"Most industry experts think the next generation will get upwards of about 400 million units," he continued. "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 400 million to potentially upwards of a billion units. That's how we're thinking of the Xbox opportunity as we go forward."

Interestingly enough, the Xbox 360 will also be a major factor in the company's next-gen strategy. Mehdi reports that they estimate sales for the 360 to top 100 million in the next five years.

"We believe over the next five years we can break a 100 million unit installed base," he stated. "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 25 million, 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."

It's an interesting two-pronged strategy. Instead of going all-in with the Xbox One, it seems that Microsoft is intent on marketing each to a very different segment of the consumer base.

Additionally, Microsoft has also revealed that it will be investing a staggering $1 billion into games for the Xbox One. Don Mattrick, president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, stated that the games themselves are still the focus of the console.

"We want to be about serious fun," Mattrick said. "Things that people are really passionate about. Things that they love. Things that they can't wait to get home to experience and to use. That's what the Xbox brings about. So, we're in the serious fun side of the house. You can call us the, you know, five to nine section if you want."

Mattick further stated that despite the lackluster showing at the Xbox One reveal event, core games are "always important."

"We just ran through our script and counted the number of exclusives, and looked at the amount of money that we're spending and the deals that we have, [and] exclusive windows," he said.

"I think, candidly, people are way, way under-indexing how hard we're punching."

These comments point towards a bold, new Microsoft strategy that is looking to keep its current fan base happy, while exponentially increasing the number of people who see an Xbox as something they'd be willing to purchase.

"When you look at all forms of content, across all devices, games always pop right to the top of the app stores that are out there - they're a form of content everybody loves," Microsoft Studios corporate vice president Phil Spencer stated.

"If I want to play a game for two minutes, or I want to play a game for two hours, or I want to play a game with twenty other people, all of those opportunities are available on the platform we're putting forward. I see our creators really taking that opportunity to think about their games in a more granular way."