14 DAY TRIAL // A UK retailer has shared some details about the brand new state of the current-gen console war and revealed that the PS4 continues to outsell the Xbox One despite the recent introduction of the Kinect-less bundle with a lower price.
The Xbox One and PS4 both made their debut in November of last year, and slowly but surely, it became clear that the PS4 was the more popular device, with many gamers flocking to Sony's device over Microsoft's console.
Quite a few things factored into this popularity, starting with the price, as the Xbox One cost a full 100 USD/EUR more than the PS4, not to mention the perceived attitude of Microsoft as opposed to Sony.
In an attempt to get things evened out, Microsoft rolled out last month a new Xbox One bundle with the same 399 USD/EUR price tag as the PS4 but without the Kinect sensor.
Microsoft has stated that sales have improved, but now a retailer from the UK has mentioned to TrustedReviews that things are still not that great for the Xbox One.
"Yeah, we have [seen Xbox One sales increase since Microsoft cut out the mandatory Kinect]," says Johnathan Marsh, head of Buying for Electrics and Home Technology at John Lewis. "Sales figures are now more competitive, but still favoring Sony."
Before the price cut, the retailer experienced a lot of demand for the PS4, while the Xbox One units were still on store shelves.
"We had this situation where Microsoft had, let’s call it an appropriate level of stock, where Sony was still very much hand-to-mouth as the demand very much outstripped the supply," Marsh adds. "The move from Xbox was definitely in order to compete on a more level pegging with Sony and that has definitely resulted in a response from the consumer as well."
Even so, it seems that demand is still favoring the PS4 despite the equal price of the Xbox One. As such, Microsoft still has a lot of work ahead of it in order to convince customers that its own console is a better investment than Sony's device.
"The demand for Sony is still greater than what we are seeing for Xbox One right now," the representative adds.
It's unclear what other plans Microsoft has in store for the Xbox One, but considering that former Game Studios boss Phil Spencer now leads the core Xbox division, you can see an emphasis on exclusives and games that have added features on the Xbox One.