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.
A lot of this is not just game usage, but people using the devices as their Internet and TV portals. It's why the cable firms are freaking out - mass defections to high speed internet only with HDTV antennae to get local content.
Naturally, this only works in cities or places within range of decent Internet, but rural folks are just plain unprofitable to serve via traditional methods.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I loved PS until the PS4, due to the inability to play music of any kind (CDs, MP3s MP4...), without paying for some music service. They literally sold hardware that was limited by software that required regular money. Not sure why they outsold Xbox1.
Hell I only bought Xbox because PS decided to NOT allow Rocket League to be played on a PS3 (of which I had). So I bought an Xbox1 simply to say 'f_ck you' to PS. Also because I HAD to have ROCKET LEAGUE!!!!!!
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
And the Honda Civic outsold the BMW M3, what's the point... the PS4 is still trash compared to an Xbox One X.
A lot of this is not just game usage, but people using the devices as their Internet and TV portals
If that was the main driver, Xbox sales would have been better - I've had a PS4 since launch, now a PS4 Pro, but was planning to get an Xbox sometime soon just for UltraHD BluRay support (which no model of the PS4 has and the Xbox has had for about a year).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
...or they actually have exclusives people want to play. For 2 year's my Xbone has been a media player - I don't think I could name an exclusive. It doesn't even get the media player part right (ie: don't try to use it unless you have fewer than 32 files+folders per directory, it's slow as sin and lacks search)
If MicroSoft wasn't well behind Sony in the console market, they would become the usual assholes they are to every customer in markets they dominate.
Having to please their customers to compete is the only thing that causes Xbox to be a reasonable offering at this time.
I'm describing usage. A PS4 can be used as a network console (PSN), a game console (what most geeks think of), a media player (for movies or music), and it has built in high end graphics engines. I mostly use mine as a media player and as a game console.
And, yes, I also have an xBox.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I still haven't forgiven them for the CD Rootkit. So I dodged the disabling of Linux on PS3, but It's been a long time.
I bought an Xbox One for the same reason as many other people: because my friends were buying one. Before PS4 and Xbone, I had Xbox 360 and PS3 and the PS3 slayed the Xbox in performance. PS3's Achilles heel was online play (albeit it had other issues). Despite being free, it couldn't compete with Xbox Live in terms of quality. Now the PS4 is playing catch up. If it weren't for friends, I'd be all over PS4 and I wouldn't look back; therein lies the challenge for Sony in the console wars.
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
What I like about the Xbox One is how Microsoft opened it up. Not only can a normal console be used for development, but it's also possible to publish to Xbox (to the 'Creator's Collection' section of the store) without having to become a certified developer or anything like that. This makes it rather tempting to just muck about with console development to see what it's like.
Sony did damn near the same thing with the PS3 ($600 price tag thanks to a blu ray player nobody really wanted, real time weapon change, etc) and recovered by now.
XBone's sales are down because Microsoft's current CEO doesn't believe in the product. He's just milking it at this point. So while Sony's got The Last of Us, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn and Spiderman Microsoft's got Forza and... well that's about it. No new Halo in 3 years. Last Gears of War game was 2 years ago (and just kinda OK..., plus it has a PC port).
They've got no system seller. Nothing worth buying the console for. At this point they're coasting on fumes, exactly the way their CEO intended.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/