Less than two years into the current generation of games consoles and Sony is loving every minute of it while Microsoft is falling further behind. Evidence of that comes in the form of the latest round of sales figures for the PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox 360.
For the last quarter, Sony sold 3 million PS4 consoles. By comparison, Microsoft has only sold 1.4 million Xbox consoles. It’s important to note the Microsoft figure refers to Xbox One and Xbox 360 sales combined. PS3 and PS Vita sales totals were not shared, meaning they probably aren’t great.
Sony has now sold 25.3 million PS4 since launch and is predicting 16.5 million will sell this financial year. That means by the end of March 2016 there will be 38.8 million of them in homes around the world. As you’d expect, Sony is seeing healthy income from its gaming products, with console, software, and peripheral purchases all contributing to the Game & Network Services division’s $2.365 billion sales total for the quarter. This will be helped further by thatnew model PS4 that’s cheaper to manufacture.
Microsoft has tried to jump the sales divide with a console price cut, more games bundling, and long exclusive deals for key titles, but it doesn’t seem to be working. In April last year the Xbox One was 2 million sales behind, by November it had risen to 5 million. Microsoft hasn’t released a new sales total recently, but it’s clear the gap continues to grow and that makes it increasingly difficult for Microsoft to find a way back.
So what next for the Xbox One? Revenue is increasing, which is great news. It’s actually up 27 percent on the same period last year. But Microsoft needs something big to kick start Xbox One with consumers. A price cut alone wouldn’t help, but maybe if it was combined with a slim model launch, bundled games, and a preview of some killer new titles coming our way we’d see excitement and momentum gather behind it.
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