More and more, the lines are being blurred and there's only small list of differences between the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, especially as even the number of exclusives are slowly but surely dwindling. But there is one major separation between the two consoles, and according to analyst Michael Pachter, it's the lone reason for Sony's celebration.
Speaking at the Game Monetization Summit, Pachter noted some of the recent figures Sony's released on the number of PS4 consoles sold since it's release. Not having similar figures to draw on from Microsoft, Pachter seemed to take that as a sign of a Sony victory, all thanks to the system's cost, saying, "the reason Sony beats Microsoft is solely the price. Microsoft loses the next generation unless they cut price. If Microsoft drops its price to $399, I expect the sales to be equal to the PS4."
So at this moment, the horse race according to Pachter would be the PS4, followed by the Xbox One, and somewhere far behind, the Wii U by Nitnendo, which Pachter had harsh words for.
He was sharply critical of both the console and the company's business practices. As GI.biz noted, Pachter called the Wii U's performance "underwhelming," and that Nintendo could take advantage of the mobile market by offering some of its older games for free on tablets and smartphones. But the things is, since Nintendo already has its own mobile devices, the company's never been big on developing for smartphones and/or tablets.
In March of this year, there was talk of Nintendo doing just that, but company President Satoru Iwata quickly shot the idea down:
"This is absolutely not under consideration...If we did this, Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo. Having a hardware development team in-house is a major strength. It's the duty of management to make use of those strengths. It's probably the correct decision in the sense that the moment we started to release games on smartphones we'd make profits. However, I believe my responsibility is not to short term profits, but to Nintendo's mid and long term competitive strength."
Pachter nailed the Wii U's dismal sales record as a serious thorn in Nintendo's side, and went so far as to say that he didn't "know why Iwata is still employed."
It wasn't all about consoles for Pachter though, who feels that "the next generation of consoles is probably the last." Pachter said. "We expect frequent model updates instead of new consoles." He predicted a steady exodus from consoles to PC in the next few years. "I think the PC is going to make a comeback, the PC will be the hub of all this stuff."
