While neither Microsoft nor Sony have made any official announcements about their upcoming systems, that hasn’t stopped the industry experts from speculating about their presumptive release.
Last month Bloomberg reported that Microsoft was planning to roll out a shiny new Xbox just in time for the 2013 holiday season, and there have already been rumors about developers getting their hands on the PlayStation 4 development kit. But, like I said, nothing is set in stone just yet.
However, we are starting to get an inkling about which system gamers are actually most interested in. The folks over at Seeking Alpha have put together a little graph that illustrates the number of Google Searches that have been performed on phrases like Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4 .
Unfortunately for Sony, the graph indicates that Microsoft is clearly in the lead. Obviously, these numbers only illustrate search results and won’t translate directly into sales figures, but they do provide a bit of insight into the way the industry is leaning. People seem to be far more interested in the Xbox 720 than the PlayStation 4.
Sorry, Sony.
But don’t worry, PlayStation lovers, Sony’s been in this boat before. Fewer than 300,000 PlayStaion 3s were sold at launch, which was partially due to manufacturing problems and partially due to the $600 price tag.
But console generations are getting increasingly longer, and as these systems age, they become more and more profitable for the developer. Just because the PS4 isn’t showing an incredible amount of fan support at the moment doesn’t mean that it’s going to flop. In fact, it could mean that Sony will concentrate on getting a collection of solid, first-party titles onto the market, which is never a bad thing.
I’m certainly planning on picking one up.
Well, I’ll probably grab one of each, and you should too.
 | By Josh Engen News Director Date: December 28, 2012 |