With the announcement of 6.6 million in sales last quarter, the total console sales are now significantly closer with PS4 still leading at about 18.5 million sold, and Xbox One somewhere in the 11-12 million range. Not only is Microsoft edging its way back to the top, it is forcing Sony off of its heels.
We’ve already seen some of the positive effects this is having for consumers. The Xbox One price drop during the holiday season is back for an extension, but that may not be the only reason for the up tick in sales. Smaller initiatives like improving Xbox Live Gold membership benefits have helped as well. There is also the huge sums of money being used to secure exclusives from smaller titles like Scalebound to triple-a titles like Rise of the Tomb Raider. Even the HoloLens reveal shows a willingness to innovate.
“Sony has always been a conservative and reactionary company – this has cost them severely in the past.”
If Sony wants to maintain its position as #1, it will have to keep competing and innovating as well. The first step was creating more PS4 bundles, like The Last of Us Remastered, to make the value of the purchase better without dropping the total price. This move and the recent Flash Sales, however, will only carry the console so far. Look for upcoming exclusives like The Order: 1886 and Bloodborne to get pushed hard and become beacons of success–or pits of shame. We should also expect to see Project Morpheus come back into the light after having disappeared for a time.
Sony has always been a conservative and reactionary company – this has cost them severely in the past. Given Sony’s financial struggles, it cannot afford to let itself slip out of the game console competition as it has with so many of its other markets. This is why Microsoft continuing to charge ahead with the Xbox One is good for Sony. If Microsoft can make core changes in philosophy to become a stronger competitor, then Sony should be able to make changes so they don’t become irrelevant.
As a Sony fan, it deeply pleases me to see things happening that won’t allow them just to sit down and watch. It will please me more to see how Sony counters and keeps Microsoft on the offensive.
Paul Novak is a self described Polish ninja toiling away as an IT professional but more into gaming and writing. Physically existing in the west side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet existentially flowing with the ether of the Internet. Found here at What’s Your Tag? and on the Twitter @dudewantshisrug. Game on with Team XBRO!
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I don’t even think Sony has begun to compete. Its always been Microsoft competing… with everyone on every front. Competing with iPad, Google and Sony. Sony still has a 10 million console victory at this point. The only thing that helped Microsoft close the gap was a price reduction and they still didn’t overtake Sony, which hasn’t even brought out any of its big IPs to really sell its consoles. Once the old mega IPs hit, it’ll be even worse for XBox which has had plenty of exclusives and still couldn’t touch PS4. I also say this as a Microsoft shareholder they’ve lost and won’t be able to catch up until they start making 30% on digital sales by putting XBoxes in every home at a $100 loss.
I think the good point though is that this is forcing Microsoft to give consumers more bang for their buck. Competition is always good for the consumers. Sony has a huge lead right now, that goes without saying, but who knows what the spread will look like in a few years. Sony will probably never lose their lead, but Microsoft, in response, will have drastically improved their product in order to make the Xbox more appealing. It’s win/win.
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