The Playstation 4 has succeeded in outselling the Xbox One in the United States, thus reclaiming it’s throne as the best selling next generation console after Microsoft’s system managed to dethrone it for just two short months.
Despite the claims of developers that “resolution doesn’t matter” or “the number of pixels aren’t important” (we’ll leave frame rate out of this one!), customer’s don’t agree. According to a new report released by Nielsen, resolution isn’t just important; it’s actually a leading factor for the Playstation 4’s sales figures.
Nielsen, the famous analyst firm asked customers a simple question – what was the reason they’d opted to buy either the PS4, the Xbox One or the Wii U.
“Better resolution” was given as the number one reason customer’s were buying the Playstation 4, which is likely an answer Microsoft weren’t hoping for. It’s a factor that Microsoft cannot really ‘beat’ their rival in, but the other answers were interesting,
Blu-Ray player, Game Library and finally “What family wants” are the three factors Microsoft can certainly combat Sony over. Since the next generation ‘war’ is still early, the last two points are particularly volatile.
Faster Processing Power was number 3 on the Xbox One, but on the PS4 the same answer ranked only at number 4. An interesting answer, and I wonder if it has anything to do with the Xbox One’s CPU performance (both the higher clock speed and the additional seventh core).
Microsoft has done a good deal to promote the Xbox One without Kinect, thus allowing the Xbox One’s RRP to drop rather considerably (and the price has fallen further still prior to Christmas). This kinectless SKU has drawn in both support and criticism from both developers and customers, developers who were developing Kinect games are concerned their potential audience has been slashed, while Customer’s who’d bought the Kinect enabled machine complained over Microsoft’s backpedaling.
Oddly, the “Innovative Features” are a primary reason customers are parting with their cash and buying the Xbox One, so clearly Microsoft’s choices have a rather large draw. From people I know with an Xbox One and Kinect, the split is roughly even – half haven’t bothered to couple the device up, while others love the functionality.
Last year, Sony boasted that the PS4 was attracting former Xbox 360 owners, and a rather large 59% of PS4 owners were previously Xbox 360 gamer’s, while only 43% had traded in the reverse, and had moved from the PS3 to the Xbox One.
But, the roles have reversed with gamer’s who weren’t invested in the previous generation. Back in the Playstation 4’s initial launch, Sony had boasted it was attracting buyer’s who’d not owned a previous generation system. Now, according to Nielsen, the reverse is true and Microsoft are the ones who’re pulling in the newbie gaming crowd. It’s hard to say what the reasons are – possibly PC gamer’s, or those who like the Xbox One’s more media friendly design, it’s hard to know. But the price drop probably isn’t hurting things either.
Sales figures wise, Sony have sold about 18.1 million units, but Microsoft are being a little cagey, and the last we’d heard they’d shipped “almost” 10 million units, but that was back in the mists of time (also known as November, 2014).
It’s still far, far, far too early too make a judgement call. If you’d have asked any analyst (or hell, any gamer) early in the PS3’s life if it would weather the Xbox 360 storm, they would have likely said a firm “no”. But, in reality the PS3 managed to pull back the gap, and the console also served to launch several new IPs for Sony’s Playstation brand (Last of Us, Uncharted and so on).
The point being, Microsoft are behind – but almost all of the reasons given by customer’s aren’t set in stone, and Microsoft can certainly fight Sony on the games front, better value for money and more besides.
So, as usual, whatever console(s) or systems you choose to game on, just enjoy killing zombies!
