PlayStation 4 Will Continue to Outsell the Xbox One

The most recent NPD Group retail figures for the month of August in the United States show that the PlayStation 4 from Sony has managed to sell more units than the rival Xbox One from Microsoft, the eighth month in a row that it has managed to achieve this result

Reports from other markets, including the United Kingdom and Germany in Europe, are showing a similar result for the competition between the two home consoles, and on the Japanese market the Sony device, while not a best-seller, also dominates its main competitor.

No clear information on actual sales numbers is available at the moment, but Sony says that its platform has managed to get past the 10 million mark worldwide.

The big question for modern console gamers at the moment is: can the PlayStation 4 continue to outsell the Xbox One and what does that mean for the industry at large?

A question of price and philosophy

When the two then next-gen devices were first introduced, the Xbox One had the Kinect motion tracking system included but cost 100 dollars or Euro more, while the PlayStation 4 was seen as both a little more powerful and more accessible.

Since then, Microsoft has cut the price of its own platform and eliminated the motion tracking system, while Sony has been pushing new firmware updates in order to increase its own profile.

A number of analysts are saying that the Xbox One should have managed to at least achieve parity with its main competitor until now, especially given the fact that it delivered a special bundle for Madden NFL 15 and announced a number of special packages for the fall.

But it might be that price and games availability are not the only reasons that drive a modern gamer to pick up a new game console and choose one of the two major platforms available at the moment.

Since the Xbox One was first introduced, Microsoft has made a number of policy decisions that were met with strong opposition from the public and were then reversed, at least in part, under pressure from the fan base.

This might make buyers a little afraid of picking up the device because they are unsure about the way it will be managed in the future.

A trend that can be reversed

For a long period of time, the Xbox 360 dominated the last-gen console race, and the PlayStation 3 was unable to mount a huge challenge.

For modern devices, the situation will change because it’s much easier for a company to create big promotions and events for its own platform.

At the moment, Microsoft is aiming to focus on exclusive releases, with big advertising efforts planned for Sunset Overdrive, the Halo: Master Chief Collection and the Rise of the Tomb Raider experience.

There are also rumors that the Xbox One might get another price cut that will bring its price down to 349 dollars or Euro.

Halo 5: Guardians is also on the horizon and coming fall 2015 we might have to deal with an entirely different console chart, with the Xbox One on top of the PlayStation 4.