When Sony recently announced that the Playstation 4, (PS4) has sold upwards of 20.2 million units, it was cause for celebration for the company as well as for fans of the system around the world.
While Microsoft has done well with the Xbox One system, with the exception of two months fueled by a price cut, the PS 4 has been the top selling system since it was released and has enjoyed unprecedented sales success to date.
So why has Sony been able to build such an impressive sales base in the roughly 16 months since the launch of the system? To answer that you need to look at several factors.
First, timing was a big part of it as Sony announced the system in Feb. 2013 with an impressive live event that fueled tons of speculation since they did not show what the system would look like.
In the months leading up to E3, Microsoft was slow to make any type of announcement and when they did with their announcement event, it was met with some mixed-negative responses largely over issues such as the always on connection requirement, blocking of used games, and the requirement of the Kinect camera system.
When E3 2013 arrived, Microsoft had more issues with their presentation and announced a $499.99 price and had some p.r. blunders such as one executive responding to concerns about the system that people who have issues can always just stay with the Xbox 360.
Sony took this opportunity to pounce during their presentation later that day with a reveal of the look of the system, exclusive announcements, and then dropped the hammer with a $399.99 retail price point.
In the months leading up to release, Sony rode a wave of positive hype and fan enthusiasm while Microsoft had to make changes to their system such as dropping the always on connection, the banning of used games, and in time, the requirement for the Kinect. All good moves in my mind, but many consumers had made their choice and since the PS4 was first to market, it enjoyed huge sales out of the gate.
Now some 14 months later, both systems have launched and announced some great looking exclusives as well as been backed by an impressive array of third party titles, yet the PS4 still remains the top seller.
Many gamers point to the DDR5 memory of the PS4 and the fact that many games look and run better on the system compared to the Xbox One. The debate of 1080, 900, VS 780 resolution and the FPS questions seem to favor the PS4 for many titles and even though Microsoft plans to improve the performance of their system with the release of Direct X 12, Sony still continues to enjoy a belief amongst many gamers that it is the more powerful system for many games even if many admit that the performance differences can be fairly negligible in most situations.
Finally, system exclusives have been a big part of the success of the systems. Microsoft has had some great stuff from Killer Instinct to Ryse, TitanFall, Dead Rising 3,and Sunset Overdrive as well as the upcoming Halo 5: Guardians to name but a few. The biggest issues for Microsoft has been that many of the titles came to PC as well as although they are staying in the Microsoft family, PC gamers have an option and some have opted to play the games on their PC rather than purchase an Xbox One even if it meant waiting for the PC release.
Sony has Killzone: Shadowfall, Knack, MLB 15, Driveclub, The Order: 1886, Little Big Planet 3, and the pending Bloodborne, Until Dawn, and others which can only be played on the PS 4 and in some cases Vita. This is a big push for many as if you want to play the games; the only place to do so is on Sony hardware.
Sony also has enjoyed a growing and very fierce fan loyalty which has allowed games that met with less than glowing reviews to sell well thanks to their large consumer base and has also caused many companies to rethink doing console exclusives with Microsoft such as the news that Titanfall 2 would be multi-platform.
In the end, both companies offer plenty of gaming options and features, but being first to market and avoiding some early missteps seems to have been a huge benefit for Sony, one that they have ridden and maintained to an impressive lead in the consoles sales category. With E3 2015, only three months away, I cannot wait to see what both companies have in store for us next.
