14 DAY TRIAL // Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter revealed some sales figures pertaining to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Wii U home consoles from the month of August, 2014, showing some interesting movements.
The information comes in the form of a note to investors, talking about the performance of each system and revealing the analyst's predictions for the near future. He is generally known among gamers for making grim predictions that don't usually turn out as spectacular or industry-shattering as he presents them, but that doesn't mean that his opinions don't hold any value. He is well regarded by financial media and has excellent contacts at both game companies and retailers.
His latest bold claims point to Nintendo shying away from hardware and dedicated gaming hardware in general being made obsolete by the emergence of cloud computing and increasingly stronger mobile gaming platforms, but we're still a long way from that future, so it's going to be a while until we can see whether he was right or wrong.
The good, the bad and the surprising
The latest data from Pachter shows that the Xbox One saw a 14 percent month-over-month growth as far as hardware sales are concerned during the month of August, managing to sell approximately 150k units in the United States, thanks to the Madden NFL 15 Xbox One bundle and to the Kinect-less SKU, priced at a much more competitive point.
The biggest surge in sales was observed for the Nintendo Wii U platform, which, thanks to Mario Kart 8 and Donkey Kong, managed to register a 111 percent increase in sales over the same month last year, pushing 65k units during the month.
Sony's PlayStation 4 still managed to beat Microsoft's next-gen console in August, even though it registered a drop in sales, and in spite of the Xbox One's recent incentives. Pachter reveals that the PS4 sold 175k units, down 7 percent month-over-month.
The future
Pachter also added that the month of September would most likely see Xbox One sales grow once again, with the One Week Free Game Xbox One offer translating into a "meaningful lift" for the home console.
Microsoft's latest promotional deal seems like a pretty good offer for those who were on the fence about adopting one of the company's consoles. In case you don't know what all the hubbub is about, all those who buy an Xbox One device between September 8 and September 13 will receive a code to download any digital title worth $60 / €47 or less, for free.
This will certainly see a spur of interest in the Xbox One, and we'll come back with news regarding the consoles' performance during the month of September as soon as the data is out.