Xbox One Finally Outsold PS4 in November

[StewShearerOld]

Xbox One Finally Outsold PS4 in November

Riding on the back of a strong Black Friday performance, the Xbox One was the king of console sales last month.

For months now, the PlayStation 4 has been <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/136945-Sonys-Shuhei-Yoshida-Wants-to-know-Whos-Buying-the-PS4>a seemingly unstoppable force in the console market. Even when conditions <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/133834-Despite-Titanfall-The-PS4-Still-Outsold-the-Xbox-One-in-March>seemed primed for the Xbox One to pull ahead, the PS4 still took the top sales spot. After nearly a year of coming in second place to Sony's gaming machine however, it would seem that Microsoft's console has finally had its day. According to recently released NPD tracking numbers, the Xbox One was the highest selling console in November.

Not unexpectedly, the news has left Microsoft more than a little happy. Speaking about the sales numbers, Corporate Vice President of Xbox Marketing Mike Nichols expressed his gratitude for the company's customers and their decision to support the Xbox One. "We are amazed by the excitement Xbox fans have shown to start off this holiday. November set a new record for sales of Xbox One, and Xbox One was the best-selling console in the US and UK," he said. "We love to see the excitement from our fans and are grateful for their passion, support and contributions to the Xbox community."

The <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/xbox%20one?os=xbox+one>Xbox One's increased sales could most likely be attributed to its success during the most recent Black Friday. While <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/playstation%204?os=playstation+4>the PS4 also moved a high volume of units that day, <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/138815-330-Xbox-One-PS4-in-the-Big-Black-Friday-Roundup>a $329 Assassin's Creed: Unity bundle helped the Xbox One outsell its competition by a considerable margin. Seeing how it's fairly common for shoppers to reserve their big electronics purchases for Black Friday, it makes sense that the Xbox One could win the whole month based on its performance for that one day. The big question, of course, is whether or not it will be able to stay on top without something like a major sales holiday to cushion its sales numbers. Suffice it to say, we'll be interested to see how the numbers play out at the end of December.



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[Toadfish1]

It was bound to happn, Sony have been in a weak spot in November, and Microsoftwere unusually strong. Thats going to reverse for next year, though.

 

[Eric the Orange]

Good on em', competition is always a good thing. I'd hate to see Sony have a monopoly on the AAA market.

(I know theirs Nintendo but they do their own thing and that works for them but it's hard to see them competing for the same audience as PS and Xbox who are so similar.)

 

[Roxas1359]

I'm not surprised really. Microsoft overall had better deals in November than I saw for the PS4. Not to mention, despite being bug ridden mess at launch, the Master Chief Collection launched in November and that was a buying force for many. Although I am rather sad that the Wii U wasn't the top one, even with Smash Bros launching. With that, the Wii U is now the next GameCube it seems because in all honesty if Smash wasn't gonna be a big driver then nothing else really can be. Wii U will still do fine, but definitely not even close to Wii sales numbers. Mayhaps it can beat the GameCube's total sales at least. :/

 

[Lightknight]

They outsold them in the US, not globally. Sony is still well over XBO globally. But this is the largest margin XBO has seen in some time (this is the first time they sold more than 100k units above Sony but this is also only the second time they have sold more in the US than Sony).

I'm sure the price drop has helped.

 

[VonBrewskie]

feh. Xbox, Playstation, all are equally inferior to PCs. BAHAHAHAHAHA

#PCMASTERRACE

 

[NiPah]

feh. Xbox, Playstation, all are equally inferior to PCs. BAHAHAHAHAHA

#PCMASTERRACE

Oh yeah, can't wait to hear how many more things Microsoft will drop support from windows 7 in order to force people to buy windows 10.

 

[Oly J]

I'm not surprised really. Microsoft overall had better deals in November than I saw for the PS4. Not to mention, despite being bug ridden mess at launch, the Master Chief Collection launched in November and that was a buying force for many. Although I am rather sad that the Wii U wasn't the top one, even with Smash Bros launching. With that, the Wii U is now the next GameCube it seems because in all honesty if Smash wasn't gonna be a big driver then nothing else really can be. Wii U will still do fine, but definitely not even close to Wii sales numbers. Mayhaps it can beat the GameCube's total sales at least. :/

this makes me sad too, I have a Wii U, and I love it, (though I don't have Smash Bros yet) and the Gamecube was my favourite console of it's generation (I played the Wii least of gen-7 that's the one right?) and the Wii U seemed like a great return to form (though an HD Collection of Star Wars Rogue Squadron seems depressingly unlikely, I really like the Wii U and want to see it do better, and being the cheaper one I expected it would, but no, maybe when the next Zelda comes out there'll be a boost though

 

[Roxas1359]

maybe when the next Zelda comes out there'll be a boost though

Thing is, it won't be much if anything really, and only for a short time. We've seen it with just about every big title that was released for the Wii U: a sudden spike, and then either a trickle or plummet back to bad sales in terms of hardware. That's never a good thing. Of course Nintendo will be fine, but not the Wii U that's for sure.

 

[slimbiggins]

I love the PS4's raw power, but the xbox controller is just so much more comfortable. I'd have chosen the xbone too. But I'm a PC gamer so I get both the graphics and the controller.

 

[Jiggle Counter]

feh. Xbox, Playstation, all are equally inferior to PCs. BAHAHAHAHAHA

#PCMASTERRACE

Oh yeah, can't wait to hear how many more things Microsoft will drop support from windows 7 in order to force people to buy windows 10.

*Dips towel into ice bucket, tends to burn wounds*

PC is backwards compatible with software that dates prior to the 1980's. Not to mention there's no region lock.

Plus it's a lot easier to fall in love with the hardware. I can take the GPU/CPU out of any console and show it around a group of nerds, and they'll shrug. But if I show a computer GPU or CPU, then everyone in the room starts touching themselves.

 

[Buizel91]

feh. Xbox, Playstation, all are equally inferior to PCs. BAHAHAHAHAHA

#PCMASTERRACE

Oh yeah, can't wait to hear how many more things Microsoft will drop support from windows 7 in order to force people to buy windows 10.

*Dips towel into ice bucket, tends to burn wounds*

PC is backwards compatible with software that dates prior to the 1980's. Not to mention there's no region lock.

Plus it's a lot easier to fall in love with the hardware. I can take the GPU/CPU out of any console and show it around a group of nerds, and they'll shrug. But if I show a computer GPU or CPU, then everyone in the room starts touching themselves.

Take not of that bolded part a minute...just let it sink in...

While older software may work, half of the time they really don't and and usually require and ungodly amount of fixes before they start working decently.

Lord of the rings battle for middle earth , and its sequel, and its sequels expansion all need a fix to work on windows 8. Want impossible creatures expansion packs? Good luck buddy! xD

That's just the tip of the Ice-burg to, If it ain't on steam, or some other online store you will have a very hard time using older games

 

[Denamic]

Wait, didn't we already have an article on this?

 

[Erttheking]

If it forces PS4 and the Xbone to keep trying to outdo each other in terms of performance and quality it should be fine.

 

[Jiggle Counter]

feh. Xbox, Playstation, all are equally inferior to PCs. BAHAHAHAHAHA

#PCMASTERRACE

Oh yeah, can't wait to hear how many more things Microsoft will drop support from windows 7 in order to force people to buy windows 10.

*Dips towel into ice bucket, tends to burn wounds*

PC is backwards compatible with software that dates prior to the 1980's. Not to mention there's no region lock.

Plus it's a lot easier to fall in love with the hardware. I can take the GPU/CPU out of any console and show it around a group of nerds, and they'll shrug. But if I show a computer GPU or CPU, then everyone in the room starts touching themselves.

Take not of that bolded part a minute...just let it sink in...

While older software may work, half of the time they really don't and and usually require and ungodly amount of fixes before they start working decently.

Lord of the rings battle for middle earth , and its sequel, and its sequels expansion all need a fix to work on windows 8. Want impossible creatures expansion packs? Good luck buddy! xD

That's just the tip of the Ice-burg to, If it ain't on steam, or some other online store you will have a very hard time using older games

Virtualization is the way to go. Works for me.

Trying to get really old games to natively run off Windows Vista/7/8.1/etc isn't the way to go.

The point is, PC's are adaptable, there's always a way to play older games. You can't change anything on a console without voiding your warranty. And if you want to play an older, older, older game on the new gen consoles, then you better hope they sell it on their online store. But if you already own it, why pay for it again?

A console is a console, but a PC is a PC.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Well, this is no surprise. For those that just want a system that plays the latest games, An Xbox bundle at $330-$350 (with some stores offering $50 gift cards) easily beats the already good PS4 deals. A spouse, parent, distant relative, etc with no knowledge would also probably grab the cheaper one (and knowing Black Friday, possible deck the guy that tries to grab it from them).

maybe when the next Zelda comes out there'll be a boost though

Thing is, it won't be much if anything really, and only for a short time. We've seen it with just about every big title that was released for the Wii U: a sudden spike, and then either a trickle or plummet back to bad sales in terms of hardware. That's never a good thing. Of course Nintendo will be fine, but not the Wii U that's for sure.

Nintendo seems to still be way too unaggressive with the Wii U's marketing and is riding on the few big releases it has, like Smash Bros. This shopping season was their chance to undercut the others massively, but they relied on stores to do that cut instead. That lead to some really poor bundles and some that had too much in them, making the price enormous. They should have done something better after MS pulled out that November discount, even if it was just adding a different bundle to the line up to increase the variety.

You're probably right. The Wii U is the new Gamecube. No matter if Star Fox, F-Zero, Metroid, Fire Emblem, and Zelda all came out in rapid succession, the hardware sales will still just be small spikes. Now that Smash is out, maybe Zelda is all they have left, but chances are good most people looking forward to that game either have a Wii U now or are waiting for the release day when the system will likely be cheaper. Now they just need to give those that bought a Wii U some more reasons (ie. games) not to trade it in on a PSXbox.

 

[Something Amyss]

Nintendo seems to still be way too unaggressive with the Wii U's marketing and is riding on the few big releases it has, like Smash Bros.

You know, there's an interesting duality in there. People argue that you buy Nintendo consoles for their games, but then they often don't do s good job with actually bringing them to the console in the first place. It's a really bad idea to buy a Nintendo console at launch, because you're probably going to be stuck without games for quite some time. You'll probably get a couple experimental titles and some ports, like the Wii, Wii U and DS all had, but not much in the way of those big games.

But then, that's what people tend to associate with these consoles, I think, so later on in the life cycle, people still think of them that way. This is exactly why Wii U is getting brief spikes over certain games. And honestly, while the Wii and DS sold well, I think people caught on to the pattern. I know I did. I still wouldn't own a 3DS if not for Pokémon. And it's worse with the handhelds, because they've basically trained us to wait for hardware revisions, too. This is less common with their home consoles, but hooboy.

Nintendo relies a lot on the currency of "you will buy this for Mario, Zelda, and maybe Metroid if we're charitable." The problem is, that currency has become grossly devalued as Wiis collected dust worldwide.

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

I wonder if, after all the price cuts and bundles, Microsoft is actually making any money off of the Xbone these days. I mean, $330 with a game means $270 for the actual console, and considering it was initially selling for about $400, I wonder how much it costs to actually build the thing. But then again, I guess Xbox Live doesn't give people free games every month, so there's that.

 

[Lightspeaker]

Doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

From a personal perspective: Given the UK prevalence of "getting in on" Black Friday I made the point of checking out amazon.co.uk's constant fresh deals thing during that period. Had been considering trying to pick up a PS4 if it was cheap enough. Consequently I kept a reasonable tab on what gaming stuff was being sold cheap over that period.

I saw ONE PS4 deal over the entire weekend. One. And it sold out in literally thirty seconds flat before I even had the chance to decide whether to jump for it. In comparison there were fresh XBone deals fairly regularly (in fact I vaguely remember a banner saying "Black Friday deals sponsored by Microsoft XBoxOne" but that could just be my imagination).


In America with far better Black Friday offers and more of a buzz about it, plus the inherent favour to the Xbox brand the US has shown, I can easily imagine them shifting tons under decent deals.

 

[gamegod25]

Wonder how many of those Xbone's went on ebay or at best will be played on xmas day and left to gather dust after a few weeks.