It's the battle of Sony versus Microsoft to see which company sells the most consoles. Sony's PS4 and Microsoft's Xbox One were released in November of last year in the United States and have gone in straight competition mode to see which gaming system has the highest sells. From the start of the year, Sony is reporting that its PS4 outsold Microsoft's Xbox One in the month of January and remains number one worldwide.
Sony's Senior Vice President of the Playstation Brand, Guy Longworth reports that the PS4 doubled Xbox One's sales in the month of January in the United States, though no approximate numbers have been released yet. Moreover, Sony stated that the PS4 sold over 4.2 million consoles last year, compared to Xbox One's sells of 3 million.
Despite Sony getting the upper edge in console sales, Microsoft is refuting Sony's sales reports by countering with their leading number of games sold. Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President of Xbox Marketing, Strategy and Business, reported that the company sold 2.7 million games, which amounted to 47 percent of the U.S. retail game market and outselling the PS4 in this feat.
While the consoles may have been released the same month, both systems vary in features and applications. The Xbox One grants more features than its competitor and guarantees over "740 million hours of fun....across games, apps, and TV." Features included are the home media device for DVDs, Blu-Rays and games, television and video streaming, and apps such as Skype, Netflix and Internet Explorer.
The PS4 is built primarily for playing video games and does not include many features that the Xbox One has to offer. The console does feature additional apps such as video streaming, access to watch DVDs, recording and sharing video clips, and capturing screenshots of games.
The lack of features may not hurt the sales for Sony, as the Xbox One is estimated to cost $100 more than the PS4 and access to media streaming such as Hulu, Amazon Prime and Netflix all require additional monthly fees for access. Molly Wood, machine specialist, wrote in her blog that in testing both consoles, she easily chose the PS4 over the Xbox One.
"I spent hours setting up the Xbox One. It was in my home for two full days before I enjoyed even a second of game play...[due to] technical issues," explained Wood. "By comparison, the PlayStation 4 was a delight to set up and ...I spent about 10 minutes setting up my [profile] and was playing games 10 minutes after that."
Despite the PS4 leading in sales in the month of January, Microsoft expects an increase of sales with the highly-anticipated release of Titanfall on March 11 exclusively for the Xbox One. Sony also is expectant with the release of the PS4 in Japan next week on February 22, three months after the U.S. release.
