All purpose Sales and Sales Rumours and Anecdotes [2020 Edition]

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wco81

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Which has sold better, PS4 Pro or Xbox X?

MS may be using the sales record of the mid cycle consoles to chase more power.
 
Which has sold better, PS4 Pro or Xbox X?

MS may be using the sales record of the mid cycle consoles to chase more power.
I don't have any direct sources but it's often suggested that PS4 pro outsells Xbox X.

I'm not sure what price point MS high endt 12TF model will be at either but if the elite controller or previous hardware premium is any reference, the new machine could be higher than some are expecting. That sort of makes the comments about exclusives for first 12 months make sense.

It's a talking point for PR, some sales, good press due to easy thing to talk about and h2h all favor it, but much more units intended to sold using Lockhart model and over time as cost come down it simply slides into a reasonable cost bracket.
 
Sony has said [more than once] that worldwide PS4 Pro sales ratio was steady at 20%. Even that lone stat can tell us that Pro has sold much more than X.

Let's ignore Pro's launch in late 2016. PS4 sold 20M in 2017, 18M in 2018 and let's say 16M in 2019. 20% of 54M is 10.8M.
 
Which has sold better, PS4 Pro or Xbox X?

MS may be using the sales record of the mid cycle consoles to chase more power.
The question in isolation is a bit irrelevant considering the goal was to maintain userbase growth at midgen. It's the same gen so there's no distinction between selling to a gamer with a fat, slim, or midgen console. The fact that hardware sales ratio between MS and Sony didn't change all that much at midgen is a more interesting metric, and the fact that 80% didn't want to pay $100 more to get 2.3x more teraflops is also interesting.
 
I view it as the exact opposite. Why didn't it become 90% buying Sony instead of Microsoft? How is it Microsoft was able to sell the same? Was it OneX acting as a halo product to stop the mass exodus?
 
Curious to see what the ratios were for One X. While we see a 20% ratio for 4Pro; I don't think I ever saw a ratio for 1S -> 1X
 
you don’t think if MS had a metric better than Sony they would use it?
No, at least imo, because it's not a relevant metric to release to the public.

Respectfully from anyone's opinion, even MS', there is no way MS was going to catch Sony this generation.
The One S was a redesigned XBO with a purposeful increase on clockspeeds to ensure that they could do the boost speeds for X1X.
And if X1X is a precursor to XSX. Then one would want to keep the data hidden on how successful a higher priced machine would fair against a lower priced one though with _power_ as being the seller.
Only MS would know and its the type of data they should keep secret.

Not a lot different from keeping game pass numbers secret. You can't patent game pass, you can't patent having a stronger console. But if you want to continue to have a secretly successful business, should be careful about boasting the exact numbers which could draw additional competition into the space.
 
MS is not going to try to win a PR battle on premium units sold at this point in the generation. There's little to be gained from it.
 
MS is not going to try to win a PR battle on premium units sold at this point in the generation. There's little to be gained from it.
Agreed, doesn't stop a sales director who's had little to chirp about from putting something out to impress his bosses. Actually, I'd say most of this sales flag waving is do to personal self congratulating (maybe a little teambuilding too). More so than PR strategy.
 
The question in isolation is a bit irrelevant considering the goal was to maintain userbase growth at midgen. It's the same gen so there's no distinction between selling to a gamer with a fat, slim, or midgen console. The fact that hardware sales ratio between MS and Sony didn't change all that much at midgen is a more interesting metric, and the fact that 80% didn't want to pay $100 more to get 2.3x more teraflops is also interesting.


I thought the X1X would affect relative sales much more (being the most powerful). The fact that it didn't (seem to) change the direction of the "war" has left me trying to explain after the facts are in.

But it doesn't take much. It was a $499 machine that was by intentionally limited by MS (Sony in the case of Pro, to which most of this applies) to providing slightly better versions of the same games. In hindsight, easy to see why it was a tough sell to the masses.

I still think it was a great success though, IMO reinvigorated Xbox in mindshare and optimism, and on a personal level, can hardly imagine not having mine.

Too be fair we dont really have data on Pro v X1. It stands to reason Pro sold more because PS4 sold overwhelmingly more.

The actual active, engaged base of consoles is much smaller than the large sales figures though, (why there's 106 million PS4's sold, but no game will approach that number of copies) and I suspect X1X helped MS make up ground there. For example looking at the Destiny population figures available through the Warmind discord bot, Xbox daily player count is closer to 70% of PS4 figures (yesterday 354k players on PS4, 252 on Xbox, 71% ratio). This is much higher than the hardware ratio, which would be maybe even 2.5:1 in favor of PS4. There's probably countless caveats there, it's just one game, etc, so yeah it's just my feeling, not anything I could prove.


What I take from this into next gen is the base console is the key. You need to be more powerful there. The later Pro console is unlikely to affect the generation's sales trajectory.
 
I thought the X1X would affect relative sales much more (being the most powerful). The fact that it didn't (seem to) change the direction of the "war" has left me trying to explain after the facts are in.

But it doesn't take much. It was a $499 machine that was by intentionally limited by MS (Sony in the case of Pro, to which most of this applies) to providing slightly better versions of the same games. In hindsight, easy to see why it was a tough sell to the masses.

I still think it was a great success though, IMO reinvigorated Xbox in mindshare and optimism, and on a personal level, can hardly imagine not having mine.

Too be fair we dont really have data on Pro v X1. It stands to reason Pro sold more because PS4 sold overwhelmingly more.
I get what you're saying, I (essentially) said that as the sales figures didn't imply any sort of 'blip' or change then the X didn't have an impact, however the reply was along the lines of 'who's to say XBO sales would have fallen through the floor without X?'.

In the end there's nothing to prove anything...personally I would have thought the X to S/O sales would be better than Pro to PS4 - which is why I'm surprised we don't get a MS 'X is better than Pro' kind of noise.

The actual active, engaged base of consoles is much smaller than the large sales figures though, (why there's 106 million PS4's sold, but no game will approach that number of copies) and I suspect X1X helped MS make up ground there. For example looking at the Destiny population figures available through the Warmind discord bot, Xbox daily player count is closer to 70% of PS4 figures (yesterday 354k players on PS4, 252 on Xbox, 71% ratio). This is much higher than the hardware ratio, which would be maybe even 2.5:1 in favor of PS4. There's probably countless caveats there, it's just one game, etc, so yeah it's just my feeling, not anything I could prove.

What I take from this into next gen is the base console is the key. You need to be more powerful there. The later Pro console is unlikely to affect the generation's sales trajectory.
Yeah, there could be loads of factors as to why Destiny is more popular on Xbox from the simplest 'more gamers play online on Xbox' to 'Destiny from the Halo makers so obviously makes sense' and beyond. Be interesting to see what the software sales figures are and then from that what % play online, but even then it could just be because PS gamers prefer a particular other online experience.
 
I'm not surprised at the fractional impact Pro and X sales are at relative to base consoles. I've never seen any other than situation evidence (i.e. PS4) to suggest performance results in more sales. Nor would I expect there to be a significant difference between PlayStation and Xbox platforms in terms of the percentage of owners who are willing to pay a premium for better performance. And I believe this is what we've seen.

Now what will be interesting is if this impacts Xbox owners buying habits in terms of Series X. Without shiny new console exclusives, will the interest in buying Series X be similar to the percentage of folks who upgraded to One X? Why wouldn't it be if performance is the only differentiator.
 
I'm not surprised at the fractional impact Pro and X sales are at relative to base consoles. I've never seen any other than situation evidence (i.e. PS4) to suggest performance results in more sales. Nor would I expect there to be a significant difference between PlayStation and Xbox platforms in terms of the percentage of owners who are willing to pay a premium for better performance. And I believe this is what we've seen.

Now what will be interesting is if this impacts Xbox owners buying habits in terms of Series X. Without shiny new console exclusives, will the interest in buying Series X be similar to the percentage of folks who upgraded to One X? Why wouldn't it be if performance is the only differentiator.

There was definitely more reason and appetite to upgrade to the X - biggest performance gain, the best version of most 3rd party games and Xbox fans coming back...whereas for PS4 to Pro it's really just for those who want the best version of the games they play...hence my thoughts the ratio would be higher, but the sticky point which makes me want to see data is the price!
 
At this point because its bump is differently placed as they had different launch points and the holiday sales aren't aligned. Overall, they're pretty much the same (and Switch is selling great!).

Yes they are aligned but this is very impressive, Nintendo is back and will probably sold 100 millions Switch. The PS4 need a MSRP of 199 dollars/euros to have a good end of life.
 
Now what will be interesting is if this impacts Xbox owners buying habits in terms of Series X. Without shiny new console exclusives, will the interest in buying Series X be similar to the percentage of folks who upgraded to One X? Why wouldn't it be if performance is the only differentiator.

I'm not sure MS exclusives coming to PC as well significantly impacts sales of Xbox consoles. There are multiple reasons that people get a console over a PC that don't change.
  • Exclusives - the only thing this would impact.
  • Ease of use.
  • Cost - I think this is by far the largest reason that people buy a console over a PC.
  • Multiplayer used to be one a major one as well, but with the increasing prevalence of cross-play, this will drop in importance over time.
Even if the XBSX comes in at 500 USD, it'll still remain the most cost effective way to play MS exclusives at that level of visual fidelity.

So, I don't think there will be much of an impact.

Regards,
SB
 
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