Can Playstation Sales Catch Xbox Over Holidays

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
Can Playstation Sales Catch Xbox Over Holidays

© Wikimedia Commons

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) claims its Xbox flagship game platform outsells any of its console rivals. Sony (NYSE: SNE), at the top of that rivals list, needs to post strong holiday sales to keep pace.

According to Venture Beat:

A slimmer PlayStation 4 wasn’t enough to slow down Microsoft’s momentum.

Xbox One was the top-selling home console in the United States September, according to data from industry-tracking firm The NPD Group. This marks the third straight month that Microsoft’s gaming system has beaten out the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Wii U in terms of units sold. After winning July and August, Microsoft has strung together a strong few months. But it’s important to note that summer and early fall only do a fraction of the sales that the industry will see in October or especially November and December.

Microsoft has built up momentum since the summer due in large part to aggressive price cuts and the introduction of the slimmer, sleeker Xbox One S hardware revision. Sony countered with a slimmed down revision of its own for the PS4 that debuted September 15 at $300. PlayStation fans, however, were likely saving their money for PSVR or the 4K-capable PlayStation 4 Pro system that is coming in November instead.

 [nativounit]

Game sector sales are much more important to Sony now. Games are core to its consumer electronics strategy. This is no longer true for Microsoft. Even when it wanted to dominate American living rooms, its Windows franchises were much larger in revenue  As Microsoft has moved aggressively into the cloud industry, gaming has become even less important

Every major retailer and consumer electronics store has begun to use Xbox and PS4 discounts and special bundles to gain sales. Unfortunately, these retailers don’t care if Sony can pick up market share. They just want to make money.

 [wallst_email_signup]

 

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Featured Reads

Our top personal finance-related articles today. Your wallet will thank you later.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

SBAC Vol: 6,563,665
INTC Vol: 116,894,024
CCI Vol: 6,078,125
DASH Vol: 5,051,322
GLW Vol: 11,572,082

Top Losing Stocks

ENPH Vol: 6,441,768
TSLA Vol: 82,993,122
GE Vol: 5,322,694
LKQ
LKQ Vol: 4,320,256
SWK Vol: 2,144,540