Ben-DutkaIt took nearly a full year, but Microsoft's Xbox One is back on top in the US and UK.
Well, at least for the month of November. The NPD results are in and for the first time since December 2013, the Xbox One topped the PlayStation 4 in North America.
Corporate vice president of Xbox marketing Mike Nichols said Microsoft is "amazed by the excitement Xbox fans have shown to start off this holiday." He added that November set a new record for sales of the new system, and Xbox fans bought the most amount of games during the month. However, hardware declines hit $294 million compared to November 2013, which isn't too surprising, considering the PS4 and Xbox One both launched in November of last year.
Besides, cumulative PS4 and Xbox One sales are now nearly 80 percent higher than the combined total of PS3 and Xbox 360 sales after 13 months on the market. As for the top ten games for the month, no real surprises here:
The US was expected.
It's shocking that they even took the UK with them.
It's hard to argue the value of their platform right now with it being lower cost and bundled with a choice from the industries hottest games.
The November XO deals were insane.
I suppose this can be considered a win for MS but it was basically like cheating, you know?
Last edited by Temjin001 on 12/11/2014 9:45:12 PM
In what way cheating though?
technically it's not, of course. But MS has a ton more money and they're willing to take deep deep hits to force the win if they have to. They can sustain this for years on end if they want to. There's no way MS actually generated more XO-based profit than Sony this holiday season even though they sold more units. The idea though is to win them over now and then make the money back over the course of a console generation.
This is exactly what makes MS a scary competitor to businesses smaller than them.
EDIT: btw, if MS never removed the Kinect and slashed the price and bundled the games over the last year this conversation would'nt exist.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 12/11/2014 9:53:52 PM
Yeah I see what ya mean.
Let's not forget the 2 free games for each console sold actually cost a lot to the publishing partner of Microsoft (AC : Unity / Ubisoft) and Microsoft (HALO), this money will be missed sooner than later – but I guess obviously Microsoft has already paid for the loss, and these numbers will mysteriously never appear on any financial results
I wonder if xbox has every generated profit for Microsoft… Anybody know?
Those numbers will be hidden forever.
I'm reading reports that the Xbox division on average loses MS 2 billion a year.
I'll post some stories below.
you can always Google it too.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2014/02/18/microsoft-should-give-xbox-one-to-nintendo/
http://metro.co.uk/2014/02/11/investors-call-for-microsoft-to-abandon-xbox-4299255/
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.833461-Microsoft-Loses-2-Billion-Per-Year-On-Xbox-Analyst-Says
Now this one below is sketchy in how it's termed. It states how many consoles MS sold and then shows the companies' TOTAL earnings. Two very different things.
This is exactly how the XBox can exist and what I mean by cheating.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/460564/microsoft-12-million-xbox-one-sales-in-fyq3-56-billion-profit/
So basically MS may seem like they do great with Xbox but they're winning by losing.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 12/11/2014 10:19:53 PM
Sony also losing billion of dollars with every ps3 they sold in their early years, I still remember that…
I was thinking the hardware solely but yeah the games division is like that.
Deep discounts/bundles and enough advertising money to eliminate hunger in the third world will do that.
Yeah. Exactly. Good to know it took a big price cut, free games, and bundles to make your console worth buying. Shame Sony's PS4 has been selling without any of that.
Wonder how backwards this would have been had Sony copied the same thing, and SPOILER, Sony would have doubled their monthly sales. With such a huge lead though (and its still 2:1) Sony has nothing to worry about unless MS keeps the price cut. Next year is already in Sonys hands though, considering the top games in preorder are mainly PS4 exclusives aside from Witcher 3 obviously. The unfair war continues.
Surprised to see FIFA is not on there. Madden made it and so did NBA 2k15?
Huh? Why are you surprised that either Madden or NBA 2K15 sold a lot more than FIFA in the USA?
The NPD only covers retail sales from the US.
Soccer is still a niche sport here.
Fifa is always up there though.
The Xbox One Rises…
One month in the generation so far.
and it took serious discounts and bundling to do it. They can't sustain the kind of discounts they are offering at the moment.
Sony are handicapped, as they don't have the buying power to drop the price of the PS4 by that much so soon.
Look back at the history of the Xbox brand and you'll notice that MS is more than willing to lose BILLIONS a year to make sure their console stays relevant.
If Nintendo or even Sony tried to do the same, they would've went bankrupt years ago.
The moral of the story is: never underestimate MS' deep pockets. Never. Especially in the Western markets.
Well, XBOX had a lower price. $329. Also Had two new games. PS4 had for most people, two remastered games (or here and there, two younger skewed games). $399.
I think that $70 hurt. As did offering basically repeat games. With many people buying only one system, which seems more appealing? Saving $70 and getting two brand new games, or spending $70 more for remastered games (or maybe Little Planet/Batman, but again, $70 more)? Obviously, money to value wise, XBOX One seems better.
Ignoring of course, fanboys/girls buying specific systems. And ignoring upcoming games/exclusives, because people rarely think ahead these days.
If you looked at amazon the gta bundle actually dethroned the xbone bundle, until stocks went out. That was only available during black friday. There just wasnt enough ps4 deals to keep up. Theres destiny bundle for 420, but that about it.
Of course, once Jan rolls around, and MS ups the price, and people decide to go with Kinect after all, things will be different. Without Kinect, it's $100 less. To buy Kinect separetly, it's $150 most places. You end up paying more over all. This might scare off more Kinect sales, and thus lower game profits if Kinectless people don't buy Kinect games. Only those who bought on Blakc Friday/Cyber Monday stand to do better buying a Kinect later. Even the Sony camera is cheaper. As the year rolls on, PS4 should be more price enticing. I'd love to 0see a Feb to Oct sales comparison for 2015.
Let Microsoft rise so Sony would not be complacent of their initial success and will continue to push out more freebies to the consumers.
It will not last.
And they're not allowed to rent here anymore.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-12-12-video-why-you-might-not-want-to-pre-order-the-order
is the Sony hate machine coming back?
Hardly surprised. The bundles that were being sold essentially challenged Wii-u sales at the price points. I hope it enjoys the clientele it has attracted!
I wouldn't be surprised if the Xbox1 never increases its price tag and stays at 350. Possibly with a game included.
yeah none of the games in the list really surprise me but the xbox in the US and UK that was a little surpising cos i wasn't going well at the start month but i was really the only month it could do that cos halo and people buying christmas presents
happy gaming
yet, they sold only about 8000 more consoles in the US with their insane deals
I see deals trickling in for the PS4 now, too. Target has the two-game bundles (GTA5+LoU or LBP3+Lego Batman 3) for $340, plus a $20 PSN card (requires "Cartwheel," their loyalty app).
Deals like that might help Sony regain some momentum, but they've been few and far between on the Playstation side.
Microsoft threw some serious dough at the holiday season this year – but I'm betting come January they'll go back to the old price points and be more equal to Sony, and watch their sales drop to equal or behind again. The big deal will be what happens with game libraries in 2015 – not just exclusives, but how well do multiplatforms run on the two systems? If there's a consistent moderate boost to PS4 versions of games, then it won't matter a lot how much money Microsoft throws at it. If there is little difference or the XB1 versions start looking better for whatever reason, then expect November to be the start of a new trend.