March's NPD numbers came in this week, revealing that Sony's PlayStation 4 sales are still well ahead of Microsoft's Xbox One. As a result, the Microsoft spin machine is in full force.
The company's Larry Hryb, better known as Major Nelson, spoke on the news via a thread on Reddit, saying, "Congrats to Sony. As I've mentioned before, this is a marathon not a sprint and we know what we need to do." Nelson didn't address just what that particular strategy was.
Still, it wasn't all bad news on the Microsoft front, as the Microsoft exclusive Titanfall was the month's top selling game. Whether or not that helps give Microsoft the boost it needs remains to be seen. PlayStation 4 sales have been ahead of the Xbox One since the end of 2013, and Sony has remained in the lead ever since. As it stands now, the PS4 is at over 7 million compared to the Xbox One's 5 million.
Under the hood, Microsoft's Xbox One claims an 8-core x86 processor and Microsoft hopes it will take the place of the family room cable box by letting you watch Blu-ray movies and TV through the console, in a "seamless transition" that lets players switch from playing games to watching shows and/or movies. It will come fully loaded with 8GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive.
The console's exclusives include Dead Rising 3, Killer Instinct, Ryse: Son of Rome, and more recently, Titanfall. You can check out a list of the install sizes for all of the launch games here.
In the opposite corner, the PlayStation 4 boasts Supercharged PC architecture, X86 CPU, Enhanced PC GPU, and 8GB Unified Memory according to the official specs.
It supports the same PlayStation Plus service as the Vita and PlayStation 3. However, a Plus subscription is required for online multiplayer games, but not for additional media services like Netflix. Sony has also updated the Dual Shock controllers with a touch screen and improved shoulder triggers, and bundles the console with a headset.
