Xbox One sales... not what you think

So by now I’m sure you guys have all heard the “ohh PS… blah blah… sales…” ect… Anyway, I’m not one to start a console war but with Forza being an Xbox exclusive I though it would be easier to get my point across to people who are more likely to be Pro Xbox or neutral in the whole console “wars”.

Anyway, if you take the sales of the PS4 which is 7 million as of something like April 8th or something (close enough…) and divide it by the number of countries it is currently sold in which I have at 48 (from the PS Blog so it’s more than likely a decent figure).

So 7 mill / 48 comes out at 145833.333… units per country which is a respectable figure.

Now, the Xbox One has shipped 5 million units as of the same/similar date. So let’s say a somewhat unrealistic situation is happening right now and world wide there is 1 million units on the shelves in 13 different countries.

So that comes out at 4 mill / 13 which comes to… 307692.3 units per country… yeah… more than twice as many sold on average.

Just though I’d let you guys know :slight_smile:

So what you are saying is that Microsoft is “winning” your version of the “console wars” due to the fact they have sold nearly three million fewer units and are sold in only 25% of the markets where the PS4 is sold?

Even the Wii U, considered by many to be a failure, outsold the Xbox One. Fact is, the video gaming console market is shrinking across the board for all brands. The release sales of current generation of game consoles is not even outselling the previous generation console’s 2007 release sales. Of course, if you have a current gen console preference, you are likely to spin the stats in whichever way makes your preferred model look best. What may be the most important statistic of all does not seem to get much publicity; How many previous generation console owners have not purchased, or do not plan on purchasing a current generation console?

… until the price drastically drops…

I’m not saying that they are winning anything. I’m saying the sales figures are technically better than the PS4 seeing as everyone seems to be bothered about them. Honestly you can say I’m spinning stats to make the Xbox look better but they are statistics regardless and therefore relevant. Hell, I’m one of those guys that spits out the sales figures don’t matter but the fact is that the Xbox is selling better; if you’re too blind to see that don’t reply. All I’m doing is informing people.

OK dude. You’re right, everybody else is wrong. Thank goodness you’re here to set us all straight.

Ok, yes, the Xbox One has sold well in the eyes of many, and people are correct in saying that in the majority of cases, numbers simply do not matter. The issue is, that yes, Microsoft have not shipped in half as many countries as Sony, and sales will inevitably increase (but to what extent cannot be determined), but given the wider reach of the PS4, many people waiting to get an Xbox One will be seeing these numbers and a percentage of these people who mainly play online will start to weigh up the fact that with at least 2 million more users on the PS4 than the Xbox One, that’s potentially 2 million more users to play online with. The larger gaming community on the PS4 at present will have a impact on the sales of the Xbox One when it eventually releases in these other countries in September.

Another thing that will impact sales is ridiculous sales pitches by Microsoft in a bid to get more users onto the Xbox One. [Top is the advertisement from Microsoft, below is a response from a consumer.)

While the majority can forgive and forget, there are a percentage of us who still remember all of the details from their rocky reveal. I still hear people saying they wont buy the Xbox One as they are worried that Microsoft will reverse their policies again once they have a good sized userbase. The console was rushed so it could release at the same time as PS4, which had many more years of development than the Xbox One.

Personally, I doubt that Microsoft will regain their crown of having the leading console this generation. Microsoft assume that DirectX12, and Titanfall will solve all their worries and make the Xbox One victorious, but in reality it will take many, many great AAA titles (Not just Titanfall) and a serious commitment to their core gamers (Something they lack) to sort this out. They need to sort their attitude out and instead of constantly saying they WILL come out on top, and they WILL give the console value for it’s £429 price tag, they need to actually make it happen. All we see is huge price cuts, and them running around trying to bribe people into selling their Playstations to buy an Xbox.

US territories - PS4 is dominant.

Nuff said.

If a console cannot outsell its competitor in it’s home territory, that fact alone debunks the OP’s theory. The PS4 is leading sales (by a large proportion) in both Japan and the US. Surely that’s got to be ringing bells in your ears that even once the Xbox has released worldwide, it will be too little too late, and PS4 sales will still be soaring ahead. (Presuming Microsoft don’t actually do anything constructive and sort their attitude, which they probably wont.)

As an add-on - I’m not a Sony fanboy, and don’t own either console - I don’t intend to until PS4 has a few more exclusives. I still happily play the 360 from time to time, and as for exclusives on the Xbox One I.E Titanfall… Well, logic would be to buy it on the 360 and not waste £350-£400 since the game is almost identical on both consoles…

The PS4 is cheaper and you dont need to have some kinect thingy which not everyone even uses. Couple with the fact that Microsofts E3 flopped. I mean i dont care about this living room nonsense, or skyping through the console, controlling tv or whatever, its supposed to be for gaming. But yea this gen Sony are going to be the top dog.

I’ve already gotten more widespread use out of my XO than I ever did out of my 360 (Netflix use etc), which I never thought would happen before I had bought it. The multi-media facet of the system is so smoothly integrated it’s amazing (not flawless, there is always room for improvement). Not for one second have I regretted the extra $100, and I’m poor enough for that amount to matter. It is also vastly hard to select a “winner” only 6 months after a release. The XO is already nearly unrecognizable in practicality and performance from what it debuted as, both systems will go through a large amount of evolution by the time their lifespan is even half over. “Winning” will largely come down to 1st party titles and multimedia.

As far as last year’s E3 goes, the only winner was rampant ignorance. Sony did their typical thing by posturizing and pointing out spots of contention in the other consoles while quietly ignoring the fact that their policies were almost nearly identical (Sony also originally had a policy of allowing 3rd party dev’s to institute DRM lock if they so chose, conveniently nothing ever said about it though…) and the populace got so up in arms and excited about the shots fired that no one bothered to actually watch the show (which was pretty dismal from both companies, to be honest).

Frankly, that and their claims of “innovation” - aka copying what Nintendo did two years ago - is exactly why I will not buy their system. As far as I was concerned (and not being one of the ~2% that actually had legitimate internet-connection complaints), the only thing MS did wrong was remove the DRM policy at all. It was the only truly innovative and “next gen” thing that either console was attempting to do. The upside to not getting $5 for a used game at GameStop was huge (sharing games with friends and the family, high probability for sales akin to those on Steam in the future, etc). Too bad the internet had to come in and ruin things, the mass-movements aren’t all that bright very often.

All of that said, I’m really not sure why so many people freak out with “console wars.” The need to justify ones own decisions to others is just absurd. I am very happy with my system, it does what I want it to do, and in a way that I like it done. If I had wanted the PS4, I would have bought it. Does that mean I hate the PS4? Of course not, if anything I hate Sony for their marketing policies. That system just isn’t what I wanted foremost from the new console cycle. I might even pick one up in a couple years, who knows.

Get along, people.

1 Like

You must absolutely despise Microsoft then. Or do you just ignore the fact Microsoft are the biggest dictators in the gaming industry, with the most repulsive Marketing strategies of any console maker.

Also, Sony copied Nintendo? I guess you forgot to mention, the Xbox One is in the most part a copy of the PS4 with a few extra useless, meaningless features added on-top. Just remember that both Sony and Nintendo are Japanese consoles… Nintendo is the family console, Sony is the hardcore console… Of course they will have features that they are the same… Nintendo has Mario, Sony has LittleBigPlanet, Nintendo has the Wii remote, whole Sony has Playstation Move… There’s always been a debate on this, and it was always drawn to the conclusion, that due to them both being Japanese consoles, both of them most likely have some form of contact, otherwise Nintendo would have acted out, which they never have.

Combining Nintendo with Sony, the console gaming industry has, and always will be “ruled” by Japan. You can say whatever you want to defend the Xbox One, but it’ll never make a difference.

I don’t despise Microsoft because they don’t try to hide it. At least as far as their division concerning Xbox goes, they have always been upfront about their policies, apparently to a fault. The division behind PlayStation is a master of smoke-and-mirrors, and last year’s E3 only solidified that further in my mind. The XO being a “copy” of the PS4 is just a joke to me, they have similar hardware because it is the most cost effective for the power (PS4 supposedly only has DDR5 because of a last second deal with Samsung which allowed for previous unavailable hardware), but were built around entirely different philosophies. As far as the extra features on the XO being useless, that really is subjective to each person’s opinion. I never thought I would use half of them, and have ended up using most of them more than I ever considered I might.

“Acting out” is not something inherently Japanese to do. I sincerely doubt that there is any form of contract between the companies, but it really doesn’t matter - the fact is that there are eerie similarities between what Nintendo does and what Sony claims is “innovative” two years later. (you forgot the PS Vita acting as an alternate screen for your game. That doesn’t reek of the Wii-U at all…). They could simply being like “hey Nintendo did this and we thought it was cool, so here’s our version” and I would be totally happy with it.

Japan will always “rule” the gaming market. I agree with that much. The large majority of their consumers would never buy a foreign console for the mere fact that it is foreign (they rarely even use Facebook, because Mixi is the “Japanese” thing to use). It’s how their culture works and there is nothing Microsoft can really do about it. Meanwhile, every other country in the world has a split market between all three companies. Remove the Japanese domestic market from the equation, and I imagine the numbers are actually much closer. Nationally having 2/3 of the share doesn’t hurt either, I’m sure.

I’m also strongly of the opinion, however, that their magic has lost touch with what it once was. Capcom hasn’t consistently released a solid game in years, and Bravely Default is the first actually good game released by Square in years as well (the Tomb Raider reboot was awesome, but Crystal Dynamics is the real hero behind that one). More and more of the Playstation’s marquee titles are coming from Western developers (namely Naughty Dog, but others too).

Meanwhile, Nintendo just does whatever it wants as it is still beating its last big titles (Mario(including Kart)/Zelda/Smash Bros/Pokemon) against the wall while throwing up a handful of garbage to fill up the rest of the shelves beside them. They almost burned bridges with Fire Emblem for God’s sake. Then the one we get - the best selling one of all time ironically - is a freaking watered-down dating sim with a casual mode. I enjoyed it, don’t get me wrong, but it had nothing on the gritty gameplay of the original NA release on Gameboy Advance. They can do whatever the want obviously, since Pokémon will have them funded for eternity, but even that series’ latest entry was geared far more towards the casual gamer than any in the past. It has become quite sad to me, really.

Honestly, I wish the day would come that they would just all go cross platform with the same hardware and compete more directly with the specs of PC’s. That would also eliminate the competition aspect, though, and that is probably the only thing that has even gotten our consoles to where they are. Catch 22 of doom.

Phew. That was long.

1 Like

Now you’ve explained it full, I can see where you’re coming from on all of those points. Since it’s quite a lengthy post, I’ll just cut this into 1, 2, 3…

1 - IMO, I’d much prefer to follow a company that sees sense before releasing such policies, compared to a company that releases a policy that they know the majority will hate, and then backtrack later on. But that’s just my preference. I’m aware of the claims that Sony had the same DRM policies, but I’ve never been able to find solid evidence away from comments on articles on the web. So, if they did have these policies, they’ve done a bloody good job of covering it up. If it’s false, then it’s most likely a false claim generated from the period where Sony fanboys were making fake articles about the Xbox One, and Xbox fanboys were making fake articles about the PS4.
With my comment about the Xbox One being somewhat a copy of the PS4, I was mainly referring to the software, rather than the hardware. I followed both consoles’ announcements as I wanted an Xbox One for Forza, and then later on get a PS4 (Which would be my preferred choice. I just couldn’t wait for FM5) What I found was that Sony would reveal a feature, and then a few hours later Microsoft would go ahead and say “Oh yeah… We have that feature too” It happened with the majority of features. Other peoples arguments on that could be that it’s just a coincidence that both companies had made the same feature, and revealed the same feature on the same day, but in reality, just because Microsoft said they had that feature, it doesn’t necessarily mean they actually had it there and then. It’s easy to say they have it, and then create it. But enough of that.

2 - With the whole Nintendo - Sony theory, it could be either, and people wont really know unless both Companies were to say “Hey, we collaborate together” or “Hey, we are independent and have no contact what-so-ever” If I’m correct, PSV has been used as a second screen for the PS3 since before, or around the same time as the Wii-U. I’ve personally never had any interest in the PSV, nor the WiiU. However, these features that are similar with both Sony and Nintendo will be based heavily on the Japanese gaming culture. Their gaming culture is so much different to ours, hence why Sony and Nintendo have handheld consoles, while Microsoft does not.

3 - That ties in with what I just said. Very few Japanese gamers will venture away from home grown consoles. But even then, Japan only holds a very small percentage of the PS4 market, as most Japanese have gone to handhelds or mobile gaming. I can’t really add much to what you said.

4 - In terms of all of that, for some, yes they may have lost their touch, but as have Microsoft IMO. When you think of big exlcusives for the Xbox 360 in the last few years (Forgetting the Xbox One/PS4 here), you think of HALO, Forza Motorsport, Gears Of War. (I wont include Titanfall, as that’s part of the next generation)
When I then go onto Sony’s big exlusives on the PS3 as of recently, they’ve been throwing out games such as Gran Turismo, God Of War, The Last Of Us, Uncharted, Beyond - Two Souls (Very mixed opinions on that game) Killzone (Excluding Shadow Fall - Next gen) Infamous, LittleBigPlanet etc… That list of exclusives on the PS3 compared to the Xbox 360 in the last few years is without a doubt far, far better on the PS3.

5 - IMO, Nintendo is only true to the most hardcore of fans now. Their consoles or gaves are of little to no interest to me anymore. So, I completely aggree with you on that basis.

6 - I also completely agree with that last point. Although I have a slightly different vision. Yes, if all games became multi-platform, that would be great, but then 2 consoles would eventually die out, leaving one behind. How I see it, is that Microsoft now want an entertainment hub instead of a pure gaming system. That’s fine, and that caters to the people who want to use their console for the Internet, skype and to watch TV. Sony on the other hand, has stayed true to gaming, catering for those who just want a system to play games on, without any of the added features. While Sony does have a few of these features, they aren’t shoved in your face, so you don’t really notice them if you’re not interested. Then you have Nintendo… They’ll always be for the people who love Mario, Zelda and Pokemon. Nothing more, nothing less. If each company stuck with these 3 avenues, and followed down them instead of fighting eachother to be number 1, the gaming industry will be alot better. Microsoft will have their all-in-one hub, Sony will have their core gaming device, and Nintendo will have their Mario device. Ok, it wont eliminate fanboyism, but what’s to stop people from getting all three consoles? I have both the Xbox 360 and the PS3. While I play on the PS3 A LOT more than the 360, it’s still nice to have a change and go back to the 360 from time to time. If I ever go to next gen, and if I have the money to do so, I’ll most likely buy both the XO and the PS4. Although for the XO, I’ll wait until FM6 is released to see if that is any better than the underwhelmed FM5.

1 Like

You do know Sony was going for the DRM approach as well…

If you re-read my comment properly, you’ll see I acknowledged that.

I’d much prefer to follow a company (Sony) who sees sense before releasing these DRM policies (They realised it was a bad move, and decided not to go with it), compared to a company (Microsoft) that releases the policies knowing that the majority of the userbase will hate said policies. (They knew it would be a bad move, but still went ahead with it, only thinking about themselves.)

Sony removed their DRM policies because they seen that MS had a bad time with them… Sony are just as bad as MS for this stuff.

Besides, I’d rather follow a company that can support themselves financially than follow one that’s having massive financial trouble.

Xbox One will be the largest selling game console in China with 100% of the game console market. That should boost the Xbox One worldwide sale numbers.

http://www.zdnet.com/cn/xbox-one-heading-to-china-in-september-7000028938/

Play on comrade!

Why can’t people just be happy with the purchasing choices they made with their own disposable income?

I know right! Frankly I don’t own any stock in Microsoft so I don’t care how they fair. As long as they are turning enough of a profit to fly Turn 10 out to Germany and scan the Nurburgring then I have no issue with who’s winning what.

I bought the Xbox One for one reason: It has Forza 5! It is the only game I play on it. Forza 5 won me over to Xbox One as opposed to PS4. I think it says a lot if one racing game will get me to fork out an extra $100 for all kinds of internet crap I don’t need nor will I ever use.

I’m always happy

things will change WHEN not if Microsoft stop forcing people to buy kinect.
I suspect here making sure the kinect development is paid for as the last effort was a disaster and no doubt at great expense to Bill & co.
Personally i have no use for it.I only play games on xbox and using kinect will lower your score/rank/class/position whatever genre of game your into.