It’s a shift that could be historic for Microsoft. For the first time, the giant’s new consoles sold better than the PS5 in Europe and the United States. However, it is necessary to draw the right observations.
The new generation of consoles marked the entry of video games into a new golden age. An age in which there are no longer any real losers among manufacturers: the Switch, the Xbox and the PlayStation all have a unique strategy aimed at a different audience. The competition in sales is therefore much tougher than at the launch of the Wii U and the Xbox One, where the PlayStation 4 dominated the rest of the market head and shoulders.
The best example is perhaps the balance sheet of sales for this month of February. For the first time, the Xbox Series S and Series X outsold Sony’s PS5 in North America and especially in Europe. The Old Continent is a territory historically acquired by Sony and the PlayStation brand. We do not repeat it enough, but we are talking here about the direct competition between Sony and Microsoft on home consoles. The real champion remains Nintendo with the Switch, the eternal first in sales in most territories.
The PS5 and the Xbox Series X still victim of the shortage
Since the start of the generation in November 2020, sales of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X have not depended on demand, which is always present, but on supply: the shortage prevents the two brands from selling everything they would like to be able to sell. As a result, the best sales of either console are not the result of a change in popularity for the general public, but rather of who manages to get the most consoles assembled.
The stock of consoles being under constant pressure, the sales figures also reflect the distribution strategies of each brand. If Sony decides for a month to supply Japan more than the other territories, Microsoft will be able to overtake it more easily in these other territories.
If we trace the sales history of the two consoles, the PlayStation 5 is selling much better than its competitor, but it is difficult to draw conclusions due to the limited supply.
Xbox Series S: the paid strategy
What allows Microsoft to overtake its competitor in Europe and North America in February is the Xbox Series S. Unlike Sony, Microsoft has chosen to offer two radically different consoles. If the Xbox Series X can be compared to the PlayStation 5, the Xbox Series S does not really know an equivalent.
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Microsoft’s small console is much simpler to produce. It reuses several elements of the Xbox One production chain, and its next-gen core APU is less efficient and easier to produce than the larger PS5 and Xbox Series X chips. As a result, the Xbox Series S is much easier to find in stock, and demand seems to be growing for this machine sold at an attractive price, 299 euros in Europe.
The Redmond company had not foreseen such a violent shortage during the design of the Xbox Series S, but the work on the console today allows it to grow its installed base of the next generation quickly.
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