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Will PS4 Retake the Console Crown This Holiday?

Will PS4 Retake the Console Crown This Holiday?

The console war continues! According to the NPD Group (a third party market research company), the Xbox One has been the best-selling console in the US for three consecutive months starting in July. Before this, the PS4 was the best-selling console, only for its streak to be broken by the Xbox One S debut. Despite Sony releasing the PS4 Slim in complement, it seems people preferred the Microsoft version. Some speculate this is because of the PS4 Pro announcement and that folks are holding off for the more powerful console in November. Yet, Microsoft did almost the same thing with the Scorpio – with the largest difference being that it set no date, just a year (holiday 2017). That’s a long enough gap that plenty of people bit at the Xbox One S bait.

In addition, Microsoft claims that the Xbox One was the only current generation console to sell more this September than in the same month of 2015 in the US. That means that the PlayStation 4 sold fewer units this year than last while the Xbox One sold more, but without the actual sales numbers (which Microsoft no longer releases), it’s hard to tell if this is significant.  There is nothing new about companies flattering themselves and the press with high sales statements minus the numbers. Sony did the same thing last gen, and now it’s underdog Microsoft’s turn.

So who is to say whether Microsoft is really pulling ahead in the overall sales wars? No one, not until the numbers actually come out anyway. I don’t want to shout conspiracy here, as again this sort of manipulation isn’t new. It’s just more marketing techniques, just like reviews and testimonials for a company’s product. People expect some sort of testimonial to check a company’s or a product’s credibility. The best way to do this is to collect good reviews and such from happy customers and advertise those. Another more underhanded way that requires no effort at all from the company is to claim their product is very popular. This creates pressure to buy or be left out of the fun. It doesn’t matter if Microsoft is lying; it is not giving out real numbers anyway. If worst comes to worst, the company can simply claim its estimates were off.

Will PS4 Retake the Console Crown This Holiday?

Regardless, if Xbox One sales are indeed on the rise, what kind of ammo is Sony going to use to fire back? Incendiary bolts don’t seem to be the name of the game, as both companies are doing their best to pretend the console war hasn’t started up again – no petty jibes for us yet. Maybe a nice plasma charge in the form of the PS4 Pro and the PlayStation VR. Perhaps people are truly holding off in favor of the PS4 Pro for the powerful punch and for the smoother PlayStation VR capabilities. But who knows – the numbers aren’t out yet, nor are the mid-generation power consoles. So don’t believe everything Microsoft says about its own sales numbers, and certainly don’t let apparent popularity influence your decision to buy.

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