Will you be getting a PS4 or an Xbox One ?

[TheGodBen]

Phil Spencer is the new head of Xbox. Seems like a good move to me, from what I've seen of him at E3 and in interviews he's focused more on gaming than hardware and services. But I may just have that impression because he was the guy leading MS's first party gaming studios, so that's what he was paid to talk about. Either way, I have more confidence in him than I had in Mattrick.

 

[Timby]

It's absolutely a smart move, because it gives the Xbox division a strong internal voice to stand up against Elop.

 

[Owain Taggart]

The ironic thing is that he was if I remember correctly, in charge of the PS3's launch, so if anything, if he's learned from his mistakes at all, he'd be the perfect man to know how to compete against Sony and perhaps make the Xbox One more competitive.

 

[Timby]

The ironic thing is that he was if I remember correctly, in charge of the PS3's launch, so if anything, if he's learned from his mistakes at all, he'd be the perfect man to know how to compete against Sony and perhaps make the Xbox One more competitive.

That was Phil Harrison. The other Phil (who is also at Microsoft).

 

[SPCTRE]

It's a very small industry in terms of people. A lot smaller than one might think.

 

[Owain Taggart]

The ironic thing is that he was if I remember correctly, in charge of the PS3's launch, so if anything, if he's learned from his mistakes at all, he'd be the perfect man to know how to compete against Sony and perhaps make the Xbox One more competitive.

That was Phil Harrison. The other Phil (who is also at Microsoft).

Are you sure? Could have sworn it was Spencer. Maybe I'm wrong though No wonder it's confusing though.

 

[firehawk12]

Yeah, it was Harrison. He was the one who had to justify the lack of rumble in the original SIXAXIS controller.

 

[FPAlpha]

Unbelievable!

I got home and looked at Amazon's website and see they have new PS4 bundles.. the console + Killzone + Knack + Infamous for 499 Euro (base price for the console is 399).

Thought a short while about it and figured i'd sell off Knack and Killzone and even if i only get 50% for them i still get out ok when i factor in the price of Infamous.

So i was spending a few minutes thinking about what additional game i should buy and by the time i decided for Assassins Creed the bundle was already sold out!

If i bought it right away i might have gotten the PS4 before this weekend but apparently gamers in Germany are a very quick bunch and it's eat or be eaten currently

Oh well.. they say the bundle will be available again April 16th.. i'll try again but if i fail i'll probably wait til summer or even fall to get one (hopefully readily available by then and not for inflated reseller prices).

 

[RoJoHen]

As long as PS4s are available in time for me to play Batman, I'll be good.

 

[Mycroft Maxwell]

I do not trust a company that attempted to block used games. Thats all I buy. Since I will be getting this generations consoles when the next generations comes out because I am rather poor, I count on used games. FK MICRO$OFT and FK YOU ELECTRONIC ARTS!!! Not to mention the whole thing about the Kinect which is a hacker's dream spy device. Sony has the better deal at $399. Also Nintendo, WTF happened to them? They went too far with having gimmicks support them. I used to love Nintendo, but they arent going to survive staying a generation behind with little 3rd party support.

I am not a Sony fanboy, but I see things companies do I strongly disagree with. I for one hope Sony puts M$ gaming division out of business. I wouldnt mind having another player back in the console business. (Sega, SNK, etc.) Atari can stay out, because they want to take credit for developing every 3rd party title. (Got an old magazine with NBA JAM for Atari Jaquar being labled as developed by Atari and Published by Atari, when everyone knows its Aklaim's baby.)

 

[ATimson]

I do not trust a company that attempted to block used games. Thats all I buy. Since I will be getting this generations consoles when the next generations comes out because I am rather poor, I count on used games.

I doubt that Sony or Microsoft care about your opinion, since you're buying a console at a loss for them and then not recouping the loss by buying new games. They'd rather not have you as a customer.

I am not a Sony fanboy, but I see things companies do I strongly disagree with. I for one hope Sony puts M$ gaming division out of business. I wouldnt mind having another player back in the console business.

So which is it that you want, hegemony or diversity? I'm confused.

 

[TheGodBen]

For the month of March, with the release of Titanfall and an unofficial price cut that brought the Xbox One down to $450 in many stores, the PS4 still outsold it in North America. That's pretty suprising, most people were expecting Xbox to win last month as Titanfall is the console's big exclusive and it was massively hyped. If they can't win March, they're seriously struggling.

They'll need a strong showing at E3.

 

[Kelthaz]

I was rather surprised by those numbers too. This was Microsoft's biggest month in their strongest market and they couldn't even outsell the PS4. Things don't look too good for Microsoft this generation.

 

[Reverend]

For the month of March, with the release of Titanfall and an unofficial price cut that brought the Xbox One down to $450 in many stores, the PS4 still outsold it in North America. That's pretty suprising, most people were expecting Xbox to win last month as Titanfall is the console's big exclusive and it was massively hyped. If they can't win March, they're seriously struggling.

They'll need a strong showing at E3.

I haven't been following things closely, but I gather that players just aren't sticking with 'Titan Fall' the way the do with the likes of CoD, BF & Halo. It appears a lot of players are saying they're already bored of it after just a week.

It's often a mistake to use media hype as a measure for how successful a game really is. Word of mouth wins out every time.

 

[FPAlpha]

I was rather surprised by those numbers too. This was Microsoft's biggest month in their strongest market and they couldn't even outsell the PS4. Things don't look too good for Microsoft this generation.

I'm always pointing out that since the release of the XOne i could have easily gotten one in the store.. just a few days ago i went into a nationwide electronics store and they had more than a dozen on display whereas since the release of the PS4 they're sold out and they can't tell when they're going to get the next shipment.

Online retailers it's the same.. you have to get lucky to score one for the normal market price at Amazon or somewhere else because hours later they are gone.

I doubt Sony has far less production capacity than MS so for me that's the most visible indicator about the success of Sony vs. MS for this generation. It might level out sometime this year but i'll be very curious to see if Sony can hold this lead for this generation since both consoles are very early on in their cycle and there's much to come yet.

In another news Sony has revealed new official numbers.. 7 million units sold worldwide (that's sold to customers and not sold to retailers) whereas MS's new numbers are 5 million shipped (that's shipped to retailers and not sold to customers).

Pretty clear numbers i think (and i doubt things would change much by the point MS starts selling in all the rest of the countries that Sony already supplies).

 

[Jax]

For the month of March, with the release of Titanfall and an unofficial price cut that brought the Xbox One down to $450 in many stores, the PS4 still outsold it in North America. That's pretty suprising, most people were expecting Xbox to win last month as Titanfall is the console's big exclusive and it was massively hyped. If they can't win March, they're seriously struggling.

They'll need a strong showing at E3.

I haven't been following things closely, but I gather that players just aren't sticking with 'Titan Fall' the way the do with the likes of CoD, BF & Halo. It appears a lot of players are saying they're already bored of it after just a week.

It's often a mistake to use media hype as a measure for how successful a game really is. Word of mouth wins out every time.

Titanfall is a little shallow no doubt and won't have the legs of a COD game but even then I hear the number of players dropped quite quickly due to people getting bored. XB1 only lost by around 59,000 from reports (311,000 - 370,000).

Has the price cut come to America yet? the UK price will definitely help it over here.

 

[JarodRussell]

I was rather surprised by those numbers too. This was Microsoft's biggest month in their strongest market and they couldn't even outsell the PS4. Things don't look too good for Microsoft this generation.

Now now, just because they don't outsell their competitor doesn't mean they didn't break even. They're fine.

 

[TheGodBen]

XB1 only lost by around 59,000 from reports (311,000 - 370,000).

But Titanfall was supposed to be their ace in the hole. Remember E3 last year? "Our DRM policies don't matter, we've got Titanfall." They were banking on the game to sell consoles, they paid tens of millions to EA to secure console exclusivity, they funded a huge marketing push behind it, and they sold bundles at a hefty discount. Most people, myself included, were expecting MS to pull off a decent victory over the PS4 for March in North America. The fact that they didn't is a worrying sign for the console.

If things continue like this, Sony will have a clear lead worldwide by the end of the year. It's going to be harder for MS to pay for exclusivity like they did for Titanfall, and they don't have as many first party studios creating exclusives as Sony. Developers will likely make the PS4 the lead platform for multi-plat games as that's where most of their money will be coming from. The Xbox One isn't doomed by any stretch of the imagination, but they are in trouble, and they need to come up with some sort of strategy to ensure they don't fall too far behind.

Has the price cut come to America yet? the UK price will definitely help it over here.

I believe the RRP is still $500, but stores have been selling bundles with Titanfall for $450, which is technically cheaper than the PS4 + 1 game.

 

[137th Gebirg]

If MS can pull its head out of its posterior, and delivers a non-Kinnect SKU version for $100 less, as someone has postulated here, then that would be a good first step to becoming more competitive with Sony. That's pretty much the only thing that's keeping me from retiring my 360, and I suspect others are in the same boat. If it happens, I'm positive they will see a jump in sales. If not, I'm just going to hang on to my old 360 until the red ring of death claims its silcon soul.

 

[Jax]

PS4 will no doubt lead by several million by the end of this year (one report had it at 12m vs. 9m). Microsoft won't get rid of Kinect until after E3 2015 IMO, they will want to see if 2015 will follow a similar pattern to 2014 and then will probably announce such a move for their big show at E3 to spin it the way they want.

I brought both simply because I could and while I play the XB1 more at the moment due to Titanfall (kinect is a hit n miss device not really needed) but the long term future for PS4 as a pure game console appeals to me greatly --- just need the games. At this rate am looking at playing my online games on XB1 due to XBL and single player on the PS4.