In the first 6 months of availability, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have more than doubled the sales from PS3 and Xbox 360 in the same 6-month period, according to NPD. PS4 continues to outsell Xbox One in the US, but Microsoft has a plan.
PS4 & Xbox One are big sellers
Many years have passed since the PS3 and Xbox 360 arrived and people have welcomed the new generation of game consoles with open arms. Sales have so far more than doubled compared to the last-generation in the US, which is very impressive.
Sony has been especially aggressive and has launched the PS4 in far more countries than Microsoft. However, the PS4 also continues to outsell the Xbox One on Microsoft’s home turf in the US for the fourth straight month, says NPD. Xbox One sold 115,000 units in April, but Sony has not released sales numbers. The latest sales update is 7 million PS4 consoles and 5 million Xbox One consoles.
But Microsoft has a plan. Starting in June, they will start selling Xbox One without the Kinect for $100 less, making it as affordable as the PS4. Microsoft is hoping that potential gamers will jump to their system after losing dominance in the US. Xbox One will also launch in several new countries this September.
Future growth for gaming
Before the launch of the next-generation game consoles, industry watchers had speculated that game consoles would soon be a thing of the past with the emergence of games on smartphones, tablets, Smart TVs and other devices. That thinking has been put to rest for now.
Game consoles are selling extremely well, evidenced by the first 6 months of PS4 and Xbox One sales. And for the first time in almost 14 years, China has also lifted the ban on game consoles, opening a market with over 1 billion people. Microsoft has already announced that Xbox One will launch in China this September, but Sony has yet to make any announcements.
Sony has also announced plans to launch PlayStation Now; a streaming game service that can stream games directly to TVs, tablets, PC and more. Sony is hoping to morph “PlayStation” into a gaming platform instead of a physical box. PlayStation Now is the culmination of that plan. PS Now will launch in the US this summer and expand to the rest of the world later in 2014 and 2015.
The Nintendo Wii U on the other hand has had a rough start. Later this year Steam will enter the market with “Steam Machines”.
PS4 & Xbox One double sales of last-gen consoles
