Traditionally, North America and the UK have been viewed as Xbox strongholds- territories where Xbox consoles always do very well, well enough to counter the Xbox brand’s weakness in other regions. However, it seems like Xbox has got a massive advantage in one other territory, and it is a big one, one that can certainly be the deciding factor in later years, if not right now- ZhugeEx notes that the Xbox One has a massive advantage in Latin America over the PS4, which is going to be important in the coming years, because Latin America is the second fastest growing market for gaming in the world.
“Latin America is now the second fastest growing gaming region in the world just behind Asia Pacific but ahead of North America and Western Europe,” the report reads. “This year we expect revenue generated by home console software sales to exceed $1.2 billion and account for around 30% of total revenue generated by video games software in the region. Console hardware revenues are expected to exceed $3 billion this year across Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.
“Looking back to 2014 we can see that Latin America was the third largest market for console hardware revenues with total sales amounting to $2.8 billion, just behind North America and Western Europe who saw revenues of $5.1 billion and $4.7 billion respectively. In Latin America the Xbox One was the best selling next generation console in 2014 through official sales channels.”
The graph, which you can see above, shows us just how massive this difference really is- the PS4 has an advantage over the Xbox One in Argentina (where the Xbox One seems to be non existent), but in Brazil and especially Mexico, it’s a bloodbath, with green dominating blue entirely. Sony and Nintendo’s absurd pricing versus Microsoft’s far more reasonable pricing for this region seems to be having tangible effects.
Of course, one important thing to remember to remember is that this refers only to official sales channels- imports and grey market sales (both constituting a fairly big chunk of the gaming market) are not accounted for here. Still, it seems that Microsoft now has another territory that it can inculcate and make a stronghold- which might explain the enthusiasm that Xbox and Phil Spencer showed off at the Xbox one Brazil Fanfest, ahead of the Brazil Game Show. You can check out some of the photos from the fanfest below.