Slashdot Mirror
PlayStation 4 Outsold Xbox One and Switch in October (venturebeat.com)
October was a huge month for both software and hardware, and -- once again -- Sony is benefiting from that excitement. PlayStation 4 outperformed the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch both in terms of dollars and units sold in October. That's according to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group. From a report: And as is usual for PlayStation 4, it is still seeing year-over-year growth, according to NPD analyst Mat Piscatella. "PlayStation 4 hardware unit sales achieved an all-time October high for the platform," Piscatella said. "While PlayStation 4 hardware dollar sales reached its highest point for an October month since October 2014." This was actually one of the best Octobers for any PlayStation console ever. "October 2018 unit sales of PlayStation 4 reached the highest mark for any PlayStation hardware platform in an October month since the PlayStation 2 in October 2002," said Piscatella.
It sold more originally because of XBOX's misteps at the E3 announcement for the XBONE, trying to push digital and make resale of physical harder by tying it to a digital copy license (hilarious since even that year digital was already selling 2:1 vs physical, and it's closed to 5:1 today and people think you are a weirdo for buying physical). So it got off to a bad start, even after MS backtracked on physical media.
Today it's still being outsold because Microsoft decided to not focus on platform exclusives while Sony doubled down on them. As anti-consumer as exclusives are, most console gamers actually bitch about it if a platform doesn't have them. They are not the brightest bunch, but Sony sure loves them for it. They have a bunch of platform exclusive titles and they also took over deals MS had but didn't renew with companies like Activision for timed exclusives for some of their AAA titles.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
I don't think that's really all that big of a driver for PS4 sales. Certainly not on the level of Blu-Ray considerations driving PS3 sales. With competition from $35 Chromecasts and Fire Sticks, a $200-$300 game console doesn't look all that attractive for simple media consumption.