The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have been around since last November, but a lower price point and a week's head start have helped Sony pull ahead of its competitor in global sales by the millions. But now that the Xbox One has shuffled itself free of the Kinect, it could prove to be more of a threat to Sony. Still, Microsoft insists that a lower price, while attractive, won't be what will bring them the victory.
Analyst Michater Pachter Supports Kinectless Xbox One, Says Move Will Only Help Microsoft
The company line for the Redmond giant has always been that better games will win the day, even with their next-gen console sales dwarfed by Sony, and that's what Microsoft is sticking to.
"If we take the SKU where the pricing is similar, what it really comes down to then is overall value," said Xbox Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer Yusuf Mehdi to GamesBeat. "First, I believe we have the better games lineup. Most game fans would acknowledge that, and I believe that during the second holiday - after you see our E3 show - I think we stand a very good chance of being in the same position. In terms of games, we'll continue to have the best lineup."
Ron Burgundy Speaks Out on the Console War
Certainly confident, but to play devil's advocate for just a moment, if it was all about the games, then wouldn't it be Microsoft at the top instead of Sony? At last count, the respective numbers from Sony and Microsoft themselves had the PlayStation 4 at over seven million sales globally as of April, while the last figures from Microsoft, Mehdi specifically, revealed in January that "over 3 million Xbox One consoles were sold to consumers in 13 countries before the end of 2013." The actual sales number is a larger figure without a doubt, but only Microsoft can say how high, and until they provide an official number, we have to assume Sony still has a gigantic lead.
The decision to finally ditch the Kinect (despite Microsoft's past refusal to do so) will no doubt help the Xbox One's performance in the long run, as will the recent decision to let owners access apps like Netflix and Twitch without a Xbox Live Gold account. The only question is if it's too little too late to close the gap between Microsoft and Sony.
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.
In the opposite corner, the PlayStation 4 boasts Supercharged PC architecture, X86 CPU, Enhanced PC GPU, and 8GB Unified Memory. It supports the same PlayStation Plus service as the Vita and PlayStation 3. Sony has also updated the Dual Shock controllers with a touch screen and improved shoulder triggers, and bundles the console with a headset. Its exclusives include inFamous: Second Son, MLB 14: The Show, and The Last of Us.
You can check out Mehdi and Phil Spencer announce the new Kinectless Xbox One in the video below.
