Sony will kick Microsoft's butt in 2014, according to Michael Pachter

Jan 21, 2014 15:40 GMT  ·  By

Games industry analyst Michael Pachter has predicted that Sony will make more PlayStation 4 units than Microsoft will Xbox One consoles and that will give it a big advantage over its rival at least this year.

The PS4 and Xbox One both launched in November in different parts of the world and, by the end of December 2013, Sony had an edge over Microsoft, as it had sold 4.2 million PS4 units, as opposed to Microsoft's 3 million.

Basing his predictions on these official figures, Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter told the GameTrailers Bonus Round, via DualShockers that Sony's manufacturing power will give it a big advantage over Microsoft.

"Sony’s 4.2 million through December 31, they didn’t start manufacturing until September 1. You know that. I mean we would have seen picture of the assembly. They manufactured 1.4 million a month? And you cannot commit manufacturing capacity for less than a year, so their manufacturing plan is 16 or 17 million PS4. That’s shocking."

"Microsoft is making a million a month, by the same logic, and their manufacturing plan is twelve [million]. So the Microsoft guys actually didn’t believe Sony’s numbers. They didn’t know they were making that many and that’s part of your lack of supply constraint."

This advantage in terms of manufacturing will mean bigger sales for the PS4 but also bigger sales overall, which is certainly great for gamers and the industry as a whole, according to Pachter.

"I’m amazed by how ambitious Sony is being with this launch, and impressed that they’re executing it. So Sony fully intends to kick Microsoft’s butt next year. But the good news is, add those two numbers together… 28 million consoles next year? Is that even possible? That’s Shocking! I think this is the best time to be a gamer ever, except for maybe this week, ’cause there’s not very many games, but in another two months we’re going to get some pretty good games."

The PS4 and Xbox One are continuing their next-gen war this year, as Sony is already rolling out the console in new locations, while Microsoft is playing the waiting game.