Xbox One Sales Slumping On Amazon, Are Xbox Live Gold Restrictions To Blame? [PHOTOS]

Lately, sales of the Xbox One Standard Edition have slumped on Amazon. We think we know why. Check out the photo below.

The Amazon sales rank for the Xbox One Standard Edition sits at 53 as of this writing. That's a drop of 15 spots since Monday, when the Xbox One Standard Edition was ranked 38th. Check out the photo below.

What could account for such a substantial drop in three days? How about the revelation that in order to use several key Xbox One features, including Game DVR, OneGuide, Skype and SmartMatch, Xbox One owners will need to subscribe to Microsoft's premium Xbox Live Gold service, which costs $59.99 per year?

This has resulted in some intense backlash from media and gamers alike, but what many seem to forget is that most Xbox 360 owners probably are Xbox Live Gold subscribers already. Proof of that also lies within Amazon's sales rankings. Take a look at the photo below.

A one-year Xbox Live Gold online code is the second-ranked seller on Amazon for the entire year. That means that it's outselling the PS4 Launch Edition as well as the Xbox One Day One Edition, along with every other variation of the PS4 and Xbox One being sold on Amazon. Considering how highly anticipated and sought-after both consoles are, that's saying something. There's more, though.

If you take a look at the photo, you'll also notice that a one-year Xbox Live Gold card is the fifth-ranked seller on Amazon for the year, beating the Xbox One Day One Edition, which is ranked sixth. It's also two spots behind the PS4 Launch Edition. The only difference between the second-ranked one-year Xbox Live Gold membership and the fifth-ranked Xbox Live Gold membership is that the former is a code, while the latter is a physical card. They're essentially the same product, and they're both selling incredibly well on Amazon.

A three-month Xbox Live Gold membership code is also the 10th-best seller on Amazon for the year. Check out the photo below.

So to sum up: It's recently revealed that a bunch of Xbox One features are available only to Xbox Live Gold members. Many freak out about it, but one of the world's biggest online retailers indicates that three variants of Xbox Live Gold memberships are among its top 10 best selling items for this entire year so far. This means that many Xbox 360 owners are also Xbox Live Gold members to begin with. Meanwhile, after the news of the Xbox Live Gold restrictions breaks, Xbox One sales just happen to plummet on Amazon. We can't help but think that there's a connection.

This doesn't surprise us considering that we live in a trigger-happy, impulse-driven world, which isn't fair to anyone, whether you're Microsoft, a gamer, Amazon or anyone concerned with reasoned thinking. If there is a connection, there shouldn't be one in the first place, since Xbox Live Gold memberships sell like hotcakes, as evidenced by Amazon's data.

That's not to say that we're advocating for the existence of an annual fee in order to use all of a product's features. The annual fee shouldn't be there to begin with, but one must realize that most Xbox 360 owners are probably Xbox Live Gold members, which is unlikely to change when the Xbox One is released this November. That means that most of the features that are unavailable to non-Xbox Live Gold subscribers will be likely be available to most Xbox One owners considering how many Xbox 360 owners are currently Xbox Live Gold subscribers as well.

What do you think? Sound off in the comments below.