With the exception of the UK, Microsoft’s console isn’t doing very well in Europe, and now we’ve found out exactly why there are some dark rumors surrounding the Xbox.

With sales of the Xbox Series stalling in Europe, some publishers are now questioning whether it makes sense to support Microsoft’s platform at all. Then, last week, The Verge’s Tom Warren reported that the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) region may stop selling consoles in certain markets in order to focus marketing efforts on its subscription service, Xbox Game Pass.

Now we are hearing openly from Microsoft what they are thinking, as Michael Flatt, marketing director for Xbox EMEA, said in an interview with Marketing Week: “From a funding perspective, we have to work really hard against our competition. Unfortunately, they (PlayStation) outspend us. They are blessed with marketing resources that we just can’t enjoy. But that’s okay. We take what I would call a more fiscally responsible approach to media investment. We’re not blessed with huge media budgets, so we have to be really scrappy and really tenacious to fight for dollars that would probably go somewhere else.

So Microsoft simply doesn’t spend as much on marketing, which doesn’t make much sense given that Microsoft is currently the second largest company in the world behind Apple, so they would have the money to spend on such things (they have endless revenue from Windows, Office, and Azure). Have you even seen an Xbox Series commercial lately? We wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t.

Add to that the fact that Microsoft spent nearly $77 billion to acquire ZeniMax Media and Activision Blizzard King, so marketing to those two publishers would make sense, only the Redmond-based giant doesn’t do it either. It’s like a chicken and egg situation.

Source: WCCFTech, Marketing Week