PS4 Outsold the Xbox One by Almost Double Last Month
PS4 on top for sales in the United States.
Sony's PS4 and Microsoft's Xbox One were released at the end of last year and both have enjoyed successful launches. Now, several months on, the launch frenzy has settled down and we're able to take a proper look at how each console is doing in terms of sales. According to NPD's data for January, the PS4 outsold the Xbox One in terms of units sold. By a lot.
Microsoft announced yesterday that it had shipped 2.27 million units in the U.S. The news was revealed in a lengthy blog post on Xbox.com where the company proudly exclaimed that it is leading U.S. software game sales. Over on Sony's official PlayStation blog, the PS4 maker was focusing on another statistic. There, Sony revealed that it had sold nearly double the number consoles compared to "the nearest next gen competitor," in the U.S. Not only that, but the company has sold every PS4 available in the United States.
At launch, Xbox One definitely had the upper hand when it came to who had the longer list of exclusive titles. However, priced at $100 more, the Xbox One is less attractive for price-sensitive customers looking to get on board with the next generation of console hardware. Especially around the holidays, when people are generally more strapped for cash than other times of the year. Microsoft has said it has no plans to ditch Kinect to make the console cheaper, so it will have to rely on exclusive titles to maintain an edge over PS4. Titanfall is set to be one of the biggest games of the year, and it's launching in March on Xbox and PC only. On the flip-side of that argument, Sony also has a number of exclusive titles, including Infamous: Second Son, which also launches next month. It'll be interesting to see how console sales progress as 2014 wears on.
These measurements are based on U.S. sales along, which is probably the fairest comparison. Global data would likely be a little skewed thanks to the fact that the PS4 is available in 53 countries while the Xbox One is still only available in the 13 countries in which it launched way back in November. The console will hit Japan, as well as several other 'tier 2' countries, later this year, though Microsoft has yet to specify a release date for that launch.
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While your point is sound in theory, if it were anywhere near true, the weaker and more expensive and significantly less powerful PS2 would have been outsold by the original XBOX. Didn't happen, nor should it have. In a world where people running $2000 gaming rigs get excited about games like Braid and To The Moon, acting like system power is a deciding factor in anything but forum wars between fanboys is a bit unrealistic.
That being said, this is more of an standoffish observation. The XB1 is unlikely to keep up with the PS4 this gen for sales, but everyone screaming bloody murder about the system's respective power being a deciding factor is pretty ignorant of console history, when the last two generations' top sellers were the weakest consoles of the three major ones available.
the ps2 outsold the original xbox because it was out years before it and had far more games, plus it was cheaper....and when it comes to games, actual exclusive AAA games sonys track record is impressive, they're the only one of the big 3 who constanty put out fresh new ips. While Microsoft buys timed exclusives from 3rd parites...the only aaa games they really have had that was theirs in the last 6 years that didn't end up on another platform was halo, Forza, and gears.....
the ps2 outsold the original xbox because it was out years before it and had far more games, plus it was cheaper....and when it comes to games, actual exclusive AAA games sonys track record is impressive, they're the only one of the big 3 who constanty put out fresh new ips. While Microsoft buys timed exclusives from 3rd parites...the only aaa games they really have had that was theirs in the last 6 years that didn't end up on another platform was halo, Forza, and gears.....
Gaming history, Griff. Your post is littered with factual errors.
First off, the PS2 launched - in North America - on October 26th in the year 2000 at $299. The original XBOX launched on November 14th 2001 - 13 months, not "years" - after it. The Original XBOX had a $100 price drop within 2 months, and beat the PS2 to the $150 price by almost a year. Within two months of its release, and for the rest of its life, it cost less and was more powerful and had significantly better online play. Did that win it the gen? Obviously not.
Besides, if games and price and release date were the deciding factors, Sega's Dreamcast - which came out well before the PS2 - would have blown the PS2 out of the water. It was out before, it had loads of excellent games before the PS2 even came out, and it cost less. Go figure, it's the system of that gen almost no-one remembers.
What do you take from this? If it's that games + release date + price = winner, then the Dreamcast should have stomped the PS2 - and it didn't. If it's that power + price advantage make a system a winner, then the original XBOX should have picked up tremendous steam VS the PS2, and it didn't.
The moral of the story isn't that the XBOX One is going to win or any such thing. Rather, it's that such simple metrics as "DURRR - THE PS4 IS MORE POWERFUL AND COSTS LESS!" have proven misleading in almost every other previous generation. Even look at last generation where the Wii came out the gate as the most successful console ever released - only to taper to the slowest seller making the least money with the fewest good game releases by the end of the generation. Do you really think you can, with *any* claim to an accurate prediction at this point?
I'm not buying any console for quite a while at least, and games will decide which one I get. The jumping the gun on predictions bugs me though because, if you actually look at each generation's history as far as console success goes, you'll quickly see that the criteria many people use are all but useless.
And, on a side note, for reference... There is not one generation where the most powerful console has ended up being the top selling. Consider that when you're talking about console power as if that's what *really* decides what console is going to win in the long run.
It's all about having the right things at the right time and not dropping support. Right price, right features, right games, The ps1 and the ps2 had that and that's why they won their gens. Although the wii may looked to have outdone the ps3...it's still selling! And it's still a blu ray player and doesn't have a paywall in front of its apps to access them like 360 and ps plus has plenty of free games to play, and there's still games coming out for the thing, there's still reasons to get it, give it another 2 or so years and the ps3 will also be the winner of last gen sales. I rest my case.
If you really think Sony is any better than MS as a company, then you need to look at their history. Not only, as mentioned, was there the DRM debacle, which BTW was bad because it KILLED OS installs (as in wipe and reinstall only) but there was also their security breach of their user info which was not safely encrypted.
Both companies only want one thing, your money. I see both as consoles but I do see the XB1 as a media hub rather than a console only. Did you know that during the last few years people had multiple 360s in their home and most of the time they were used for things such as Netflix and watching movies?
Did you also know that XB Live was superior to Sony's online version for years because it had pay for which meant dedicated servers and superior support.
MS has one upped Sony quite a few times and people laughed when Microsoft (who also helped develop one of the greatest consoles of all time, the Dreamcast) was going to put out a console yet the 360 outsold the PS3 by quite a bit.
One thing I have learned about American companies like MS and Intel, never laugh at them. If they want to do something they will and they will do well as the XB1 is still doing well as 2.27 million sales in a month are nothing to laugh at.
Japanese tech is ok. I would actually say the South Koreans are better as Samsung, LG, Asus and a whole lot of other very popular electronic companies are from there and not Japan.
Samsung makes way better TVs than Sony and nothing major for computers comes out from Japan. Well I guess Sony had a big part in Blu-Ray but how many people actually have that with the advent of HD streaming capabilities?
Power does not always mean better. A great example was AMD GPUs. I remember when the HD5870 hit. It has 2x the GFLOPS of a HD4870 and well more than a GTX480. But the GTX480 was faster and the 5870 was not double the 4870 (FPS).
More power does not always mean it will perform better. The 360 and PS3 had GPUs that were about equal, the 360s was a bit more advanced. But the PS3 did have a superior CPU in many ways yet if you looked at games, both systems were about on par.
It is all in how that power is utilized and overall most game devs except exclusives will cater to the common lowest denominator. If the XB1 is that then the game will probably be the same on both systems, only PC might have a few more options if the dev so chooses.
As well in order to get the exact same, well not same but similar yet less powerful, functionality in the PS4 (Kinect) you have to pay another $100 for their system which makes them cost the same.
Microsoft is not some idiot company born yesterday. They have been around since the advent of the personal computer and they have witnessed the rise and fall of many ideas. The way they are positioning the XB1 and how it will probably work seamlessly with other Windows 8/8.1 based devices means it will be an interesting console war as I doubt the PS4 will work the same way. Microsoft is working towards a single user experience between devices which means if you have a Windows 8 PC, Windows 8 Phone/Tablet and a XB1 the experience will be the same and things like favorites, pics and such will be shared.
Just keep in mind who and what MS is, they are not new to this.