Microsoft have been doing extremely well these past few months. They’ve put out some extremely compelling exclusives, with Gears of War 4 and Forza Horizon 3, the Xbox One S has won rave acclaim everywhere, and Microsoft are now on top as far as NPD numbers go. All of this, plus their other initiatives, such as backwards compatibility and Play Anywhere, continue to garnet them goodwill, even as Sony’s recent moves have led to some backlash against them.
However, Michael Pachter, well known analyst of Wedbush Securities, doesn’t think that this will necessarily translate into higher sales for Microsoft this Holiday season. While he thinks that Microsoft will do well, he still thinks that Sony will take it this year, too.
‘Strong is relative, and I actually think that the announcement of the PS4 Pro probably froze some people and caused them not to buy PS4 Slim, because they are waiting,’ Pachter said, referencing the recent lull in PS4 sales. ‘I think Sony will still dominate in non English speaking countries, because they have a better brand. If you are up in France, or Italy, or Spain, or Germany, playing a PS1, then you love the PlayStation brand. And Xbox really didn’t have a successful console until the Xbox 360, and they gained some ground, but I think they lost bad at least half of that with the Xbox One.
‘So Sony is good. And the fact is that the PS4 Slim costs less than the Xbox One S, so I actually think that Sony has a huge advantage over Microsoft for the next few months. So yes, I think Microsoft will sell a lot, yes, I think they will consider this a very successful year, and yes, I think, PlayStation will outsell Xbox.’
I can’t say I disagree- whereas I entirely agree that Xbox has the stronger lineup of games this year, I also think that Sony’s one-two-three shot of PS4 Pro, PS4 Slim, and PSVR, will ensure that they end up winning by sheer volume, if nothing else.