Xbox News

Sales War

So we have rolled around to that time of the month again, NPD has just announced the sales figures for the month of March and it looks like Sony has once again come out on top.  This now means that the PS4 has outsold the Xbox One for 13 months out of the last 15.  This is brilliant from Sony, in the last generation of consoles it was the Xbox 360 that was the leading force in the console industry but this time around its Sony's baby that is the shinning light in the ongoing sales war between the two.  The PS4 also had the most sales of last months blockbuster title The Division.

Following the announcement from NDP, Sony was once again very humble in its thanks to its fans for putting it on top once again.  

"Thank you to our fans and partners for making PlayStation 4 the top-selling console and software sales leader for the month of March, as well as the number-one console for fans of The Division, according to NPDm" Sony said. "We are truly humbled by the success and look forward to delivering more amazing gaming experiences throughout 2016, including the launch of PlayStation VR this October."

So with all this dominance and massive momentum from Sony and its all conquering PS4, where do we actually stand with the sales figures for both machines?  In January, Sony announced that it had reached 35.9 million units sold, this is an absolutely incredible number considering that it has only being on the shelves for about 2 and a half years.  As for our good friends over at Microsoft, well they have pretty much stopped giving out the breakdown of units sold for the Xbox One and instead just concentrate on giving us the amount of time that players are using its Live service.

So how do we know what the actual Xbox Ones sales numbers are?  For that we have to take our hats of to the folks over at EA who have just let the cat out of the bag and in an indirect way, they have maybe given us the Xbox Ones sales figure so far.  Blake Jorgenson, who is EA's chief financial officer, told investors in a third quarter earnings call that the total combined sales of both machines stood at around the 55 million mark.  If Sony, as of January had sold 35.9 million PS4's, then by means of simple bloody maths we can assume that the Xbox One has sold roughly around 19 million units.  This is what Blake Jorgenson had to say.

“I think our business seems to be operating pretty consistent as it has been over the last couple of years. “The console purchases are up through the end of calendar year 2015. Our estimate is 55m units out there, which has exceeded virtually everyone’s forecast for the year and now almost 50% higher than previous console cycle so, all of that is very, very positive.”

Even though it seems that Sony are now wiping the floor with Microsoft when it comes to sales, we should also take a step back and look at this from a different angle.  Im a massive games fan, ive both machines and I couldn't care less who has sold more consoles, I don't get a cut of the sales so whoever wins out in the end doesn't bother me in the slightest.  I do care about the industry and more importantly I care thats its in a good and healthy position moving into the future.  The fact that sales are up 50% over the the same period compared to the last generation is good news for all gamers out there.  It means that competition is hotting up and gamers are getting the benefits, it also means that investment will continue to pour in and innovation in terms of the games themselves and the hardware we play them on will continue to get stronger and better in the years to come.