Xbox One finally outsells PS4 in North America
Not sure what the surprise here is about. But yes, it appears as though Microsoft has finally managed to beat out Sony in the most important market.
The confusing part to me is why people are so surprised by this. There are tons of reasons why this is happening.
Probably the biggest reason is that for two comparable consoles that have been out this long, the Xbox One is the cheaper. And they ARE comparable. Even on paper the performance gaps isn't big enough that one is even 2 times better in any respect, they both deal the same calibre of gaming experience and with many of the same titles. By this point in their life cycle, there is now a decent library of games available on each and stock isn't constrained. We are at the point in the life cycle of a console where base price is the most important thing.
And, they are more comparable now than they were at launch. SDK improvements have helped bring that technical gap down even more. A recurring theme here will be Sony's financial situation. Sony hasn't been able to afford price cuts on their system. In fact, in Canada, we are still paying $50 more today than the console had cost at launch. Meanwhile, the XB1 has dropped the Kinect and shed some cost there and then gone even cheaper still.
Beyond that even, we're at the point where we are really looking more at average consumer sales than hard core gamers. The true gamers bought one or both consoles well over a year ago. And Sony marketed much better to that crowd. This far into the game, the average person buying a console couldn't tell you what FPS means and couldn't tell the difference between a 1080p and 920p game to save their lives.
Another thing that has changed is the quality of the operating system on the Xbox One. The PS4 hasn't received anywhere near the number of feature updates that the XB1 has. Sony can't really afford to spend more money here and they didn't need too, they were on top for so long. Feature-wise Microsoft is leaving Sony in its wake. They had HDMI pass through and One Guide to begin with which were great features. Now that also have a media player to play music, video or pictures from a USB key, external storage support, and I'm too lazy to dig up the fairly massive list of things which have been added.
I always felt the Xbox One was the better value. More features and an even lower price tag have only improved that. PS4 was lacking popular PS3 features to begin with, the console hasn't gone down in price and not much has been added. There is a tipping point at which consumers start to see value in all of the extras the XB1 has to offer, and I think we passed that point.
Another reason for people to start buying something in numbers other than PS4 is saturation. PS4 dominated for a long time. Lots of people have PS4's. Many more than have Xbox One's. At some point demand tapers off. Also, many people aren't loyalists and wanted both. Some of those numbers will be people who simply bought the PS4 first and are now completing their collection.
Future features are also an interesting area... though this is admittedly quite a niche market. The average consumer doesn't really follow OS news. But, if I didn't own an Xbox One already, I probably would have bought one following a lot of the Windows 10 news. We only have 1 TV in our house and my wife sometimes likes her TV. Game streaming to a tablet or PC is a very exciting upcoming feature. Also, Windows 10 in general and the greater degree of integration into their ecosystem is tantalizing for me.
If I were to guess, the above reasons in the order they were mentioned is the explanation for the shift. This far into the game the average console buyer is more likely to be an average consumer than a gamer and in that segment price is king, not performance or product direction. The Xbox has more features. Fewer people without an Xbox One to buy one and then future tech.
The confusing part to me is why people are so surprised by this. There are tons of reasons why this is happening.
Probably the biggest reason is that for two comparable consoles that have been out this long, the Xbox One is the cheaper. And they ARE comparable. Even on paper the performance gaps isn't big enough that one is even 2 times better in any respect, they both deal the same calibre of gaming experience and with many of the same titles. By this point in their life cycle, there is now a decent library of games available on each and stock isn't constrained. We are at the point in the life cycle of a console where base price is the most important thing.
And, they are more comparable now than they were at launch. SDK improvements have helped bring that technical gap down even more. A recurring theme here will be Sony's financial situation. Sony hasn't been able to afford price cuts on their system. In fact, in Canada, we are still paying $50 more today than the console had cost at launch. Meanwhile, the XB1 has dropped the Kinect and shed some cost there and then gone even cheaper still.
Beyond that even, we're at the point where we are really looking more at average consumer sales than hard core gamers. The true gamers bought one or both consoles well over a year ago. And Sony marketed much better to that crowd. This far into the game, the average person buying a console couldn't tell you what FPS means and couldn't tell the difference between a 1080p and 920p game to save their lives.
Another thing that has changed is the quality of the operating system on the Xbox One. The PS4 hasn't received anywhere near the number of feature updates that the XB1 has. Sony can't really afford to spend more money here and they didn't need too, they were on top for so long. Feature-wise Microsoft is leaving Sony in its wake. They had HDMI pass through and One Guide to begin with which were great features. Now that also have a media player to play music, video or pictures from a USB key, external storage support, and I'm too lazy to dig up the fairly massive list of things which have been added.
I always felt the Xbox One was the better value. More features and an even lower price tag have only improved that. PS4 was lacking popular PS3 features to begin with, the console hasn't gone down in price and not much has been added. There is a tipping point at which consumers start to see value in all of the extras the XB1 has to offer, and I think we passed that point.
Another reason for people to start buying something in numbers other than PS4 is saturation. PS4 dominated for a long time. Lots of people have PS4's. Many more than have Xbox One's. At some point demand tapers off. Also, many people aren't loyalists and wanted both. Some of those numbers will be people who simply bought the PS4 first and are now completing their collection.
Future features are also an interesting area... though this is admittedly quite a niche market. The average consumer doesn't really follow OS news. But, if I didn't own an Xbox One already, I probably would have bought one following a lot of the Windows 10 news. We only have 1 TV in our house and my wife sometimes likes her TV. Game streaming to a tablet or PC is a very exciting upcoming feature. Also, Windows 10 in general and the greater degree of integration into their ecosystem is tantalizing for me.
If I were to guess, the above reasons in the order they were mentioned is the explanation for the shift. This far into the game the average console buyer is more likely to be an average consumer than a gamer and in that segment price is king, not performance or product direction. The Xbox has more features. Fewer people without an Xbox One to buy one and then future tech.
Comments
Post a Comment