It’s news as usual, when we read about the PS4 outselling the Xbox One on a year-on-year or month-on-month basis, but in July, we saw the tables turned. Xbox One outsold the PS4, according to the latest NPD reports. It’s interesting as more people would want to wait until August to get the Xbox One S Launch Edition that’s sold out in the UK and perhaps close to being so in the US. And we had some exciting PS4 games to play recently, but the Xbox One sold more than the PS4.
Now, we have a theory for this and it could be true. Microsoft was phasing out the regular VCR-style Xbox One units that we have seen since launch, so with prices as low as $249.99, it’s clear gamers would take advantage of the low price. At the end of the day, the differences compared to the Xbox One S are apparent, but the most important new feature is the 4K video playback via Blu-ray or streaming. However, you would need a 4K television set, so that’s another expense.
Regardless of whether the Xbox One S is better than the original, it was Microsoft’s month and Xbox boss Phil Spencer couldn’t be any happier. The statement from Microsoft concerning the NPD report stated that “total gaming hours on Xbox consoles globally were up 18 percent over last year, reaching 1.55 billion hours.”
That’s a whole lot of gaming hours, which is interesting as the best Xbox One exclusives are not even out yet. Gears of War 4, Scalebound and even ReCore are yet to be released, but we may see momentum swing Microsoft’s way further when they do. However, the PS4 received No Man’s Sky this month and it’s buzzing like wildfire. That’s one intense space exploration game where you check out 18 quintillion planets and it could take us several generations, not even lifetimes, to fully explore.
Should Sony be concerned? One battle doesn’t win a war and Sony is winning this war hands down. Good on Microsoft to own Sony in July, but will it keep it up in August and beyond? That remains to be seen.
[Source: Technewstoday]
