January NPD: PS4 Reclaims Lead in Console War by Almost Doubling Sales of Xbox One

I'd be surprised if I didn't see this coming.

Yes! finally it's about time (Ok i know that sounds fanboy'sh) but I'm just so sick of Xboxs dominance over the US

@get2sammyb It seems to me like Microsoft is more focused on trying to buy up third party titles in a desperate bid to beat Sony with content rather than trying to keep boxes on shelves while the PS4 is absent.

I'm confused. How does Sony know it doubled MS sales if MS isn't talking? Yes I clicked on the link but there weren't any numbers there either.

I don't doubt it, just wondering.

Well done SONY PlayStation USA I didn't really have faith in them really at all after last month's numbers & the way they handled the PS3 in the USA. Oh well let's hope they don't mess it up for the rest of the year then

It's looking as though Sony may have been on the conservative side with their 5 million consoles by March goal. Selling 4.2 million by 12/28, doubling the Xbox One in the U.S. in January and launching in Japan this month, I wouldn't be surprised if they hit 7 million.

@get2sammyb I think it's because MS really messed up this time and to some (like me) think the console is still overpriced

I'm glad to hear that Xbox's North American dominance is beginning to falter, not to say I want MS to completely fail, but it's awesome to hear that so many on this continent are "awaiting for their greatness!"

So if it weren't for the shortages before Christmas, PS4 would have been outselling the Xbox One then too, right?

@rjejr they have the numbers we just get the flavour text

Next week is the day ps4 covers all the world, let the land of rising sun eventually give great numbers for early adopters in their country
I really want to see how many the console will be sold against the other "next" gen system in japan

Whenever the PS4 finally hits Japan these numbers will become even more impressive.

Atta boy, Sony. Reclaim your crown.

Well done Sony on a great product launch! A good job well done. Please Push Square you don't need to mention Xbox to somehow justify Sony's good work. Let's just concentrate on Sony's achievement here because it deserves to be celebrated in its own right.

Lawl@Microsoft

@get2sammyb - "Those that subscribed to NPD's data get access to the full analytics. "

Well that makes sense. So it's a secret club where everybody sees everybody elses numbers and like Fight Club they all promise not to tell anybody. WWTDD?

Let's hope that all the positive sales and hype for the PS4 prompts Sony to keep up the good work and keeps them delivering a great gaming experience. There are plenty of things they can do to improve the PS4, Vita, PSN etc. and the goodwill of the gaming consumers should push Sony to deliver on those needed improvements and innovation.

We'll see what happens. PS4 still has no games and the delays aren't helping, a first party can't even get a baseball game done now, a f'ing baseball game... that doesn't bode well for this machine, it's obviously just a piece of sh*t to work with. Anyway, North America is a first person shooting-loving market so I fully expect things to change soon. If not in February as hype continues to build for Titanfall, things will definitely change in March, I expect it'll kick off at least a nice 3-month stretch where X1 will do plenty of catching up.

@-CraZed- Agreed

@-CraZed-

The other way to look at it is since the system is selling, despite its most impressive game being the waiting game, it doesn't really have to change anything. I'm still waiting for a damn update to add features the PS3 had that never should've been taken out.

@Gamer83 We could look at it that way but I am trying to be optimistic. I want Sony to capitalize on this success and keep the good stuff coming. Shu Yoshida promised us a few things with regards to features and I just hope they don't end up forgetting to make those a reality now that they seem to have garnered so much goodwill this gen. They started out right this gen so the momentum is propelling the PS brand ahead but if they start forgetting what it was that catalyzed the PS4's success (listening to their consumers) it could end up really hurting the future of the console and any that come after it.

@-CraZed-

I wish I could be optimistic, I actually agree with you that Sony did a lot right leading into PS4's launch, at least early on. Then we hit October and the delays of Watch_Dogs and DriveClub, both of which should've been made public sooner. Sure, Sony has nothing to do with how Ubisoft handles its business so the WD delay, while disappointing, not much Sony can do, but the DriveClub thing is a mess. And it's just been delay, after delay, after delay since then and updates for PS4 that frankly should've added some features by now. I know it doesn't seem like it, but I actually do try to find positives, I'm just not seeing any, except... sales. And hey, great sales are great for Sony, but I don't see how that benefits any of us as gamers when there is a lot of messed up stuff going on at the same time that needs to be corrected. Being patient is one thing, but just bending over and taking it up the rear, which is what people are doing now, is another. I really believe that Sony could announce tomorrow a new update that adds all the policies to PS4 that MS originally planned for X1 and I'd be the only person here who finds anything wrong with that. But hey... PS4 is selling great.

All valid concerns. Just realize they are busy ramping up for a Japan launch in just over a week and remember that when we all got our launch PS3s it took quite a while for the system to get where it is today. I am sure it'll all start coming together by the holidays this year but there are bound to be bumps and delays throughout. I just hope they, as I am sure you do, stay on task and deliver even if they need to delay some things once in a while.
A lot going on for PS right now. So I think we have to cut em some slack

@Gamer83 if not in February as hype continues to build for Titanfall things will definitely change in March i expect it'll kick off at least a nice 3-month stretch where X1 will do plenty of catching up Agreed on that part

@-CraZed-

I can admit there's some stuff I maybe get too negative about. But a baseball game being delayed into May is a bit ridiculous. That's the one that got me today and really has me infuriated, even more than what happened with DriveClub. I know sports games are niche, some people like them but don't need to buy right away, others don't care at all, for me as a huge sports fan, it's a big deal, especially MLB which has been probably my favorite Sony franchise and now I'm told I can't even get that one on time and the reason is 'we're improving graphics.' A sports game releasing after the season starts is bad enough but it's not even a good ore creative reason. Tell me that the studio just simply doesn't have enough people there so it made more sense to focus on the PS3 version due to the huge userbase and Vita version since you already have experience on that console. Don't give me graphics, which on a year-one, cross-gen release are not going to be that great. It's a lame excuse. It's just another in a long list of delays, missed opportunities with updates. Maybe you're right and after the Japanese launch things will get better. But even still, should the Japanese launch effect an American studio making a cross-gen baseball game?

@Gamer83 Except the PS4 does have games, so I don't know what you're talking about. If most of the already released and impending games don't interest you, then that's your fault.

As for Sony San Diego it couldn't be any more obvious that they're pushing MLB back because it's cross-gen and want the PS4 version to actually resemble a PS4 game, not a game that "could have been done on PS3.

And it'll be pretty difficult for Titanfall to o much when it's on 2 other platforms, both of which have a larger install base than the One. Even if it did pull off a miracle, the PS4 would just pull ahead again.

@Gamer83 You wouldn't be the only one here who finds anything Wrong with that I'd be just as Angry at Sony as i was at MS

@BornOfEvil

San Diego can try all it wants, the game is not going to look as good as it possibly can because it was likely designed with PS3 in mind. Still, it had plenty of time for this issue to be ironed out. It's a first party that specializes in baseball games and has known about PS4 for a while now. There is no excuse for this game to not make the April 1 release date, period. But with the exception of inFamous, I guess I should just expect every scheduled release at this point to arrive later than planned date because that's the way things are going now.

@rjejr Sony is only repeating what NPD is reporting.

It will be interesting to see what sort of upswing Titanfall gives XB1. There is no doubt it will sell some consoles, but with no single player, and also releasing on 360 and PC I am not yet convinced it will be the system seller to the extent they are hoping, but maybe it will. We will know soon enough.

@Ginkgo

The 360 version will pale in comparison and though PC versions are almost always better than console versions, they rarely effect sales of games that get pushed as console games and no doubt MS will hype this as an X1 game and may even be able to convince a fair number of consumers it's X1-only. Maybe the no single-player thing will hurt it, we'll have to see, I actually wouldn't mind if that's the case, I know FPS are mostly about the online multiplayer but if you're going to charge $60 you should try to throw a good, offline singleplayer campaign in there as well.

I work at toysrus in exeter in the uk, we've got stock of both ps4's and xboxones, just sat there, no ones buying them, but my collection is growing everyday, just added lego movie to it, got the day off tomorrow so that's what I'll be playing

remember that when we all got our launch PS3s it took quite a while for the system to get where it is today.

That's because the PS3 launch was a mess with people coming out and saying Sony should scrap the PS3 and start again, even EA wanted to drop the PS3. And to add to that fact the PS3 was a nightmare to develop for, the reason for some of the delays is logic. DriveClub dev's are obviously a 1st party team so that means thay''ve only been working on the PS3 for the past 8 years, now considering the PS4 is like a PC development wise obviously a lot changes in 8 years again development wise. So it's fair to say thay had some catching up to do, and these will not be the only dev's. Add to that thay''ve been working on dev kits which are far from our PS4's. It's also probably why titanfall is native 792p which looks like a 360 game with 6Vs6 multiplayer, I mean come-on 792p not only that COD has more player which is a last gen game. It's the next lot of games you should be worrying about, these games thay hardly know the hardware.

@Gamer83 if sony was ever stupid enough to put all those drm policies on ps4, no matter my love for the playstation brand i would be taking it straight down to cex and getting a xb1

but i doubt sony are that dumb not after the backlash ms got for it

@FullbringIchigo

I'm also pretty sure Sony isn't that stupid. It was more of a tongue-in-cheek comment on my part. There would obviously be a lot people upset. There's also a group though that comes to the defense of Sony over everything.

@get2sammyb

There's always people who wait for a certain game to come out before buying a console. The 360 actually didn't really take off until the original Gears of War released. There were other circumstances as well like PS3 being $600 which I think turned some people to the 360 but the main thing was Gears. I think Titanfall could easily have the same impact but we won't know for sure until March. If it doesn't, I'll be interested to see how MS reacts because with the recent talk, it seems there's a real possibility that the Halo game coming out this year won't in fact be a new one but a remake of Halo 2. That could be a big system seller but it's also possible it could fall flat. I don't think MS wants to bet 2014 on that kind of game so it needs Titanfall to sell some Xbox Ones and it will do everything possible to make sure that happens.

@Gamer83 true but not just sony, ms also has their group and nintendo too

I play my playstation, my nintendo, my pc and while I own a 360 I was never a fan of microsoft's policy of locking everything behind a paywall hence why I only get exclusives on that but if they mess up I say it, I don't blindly follow a brand like a lot of people seem to, I just want to play games you see I don't really care what system I'm putting the game in as long as I'm playing a game I like and having fun that's all that matters to me and I will be getting a xb1 at some point I just don't need it yet

fanboys are ruining the fun for everyone else with their stupid "console war"

@FullbringIchigo

It's not even the 'console war' that bothers me because I just laugh it off when people argue 'my plastic is better than your plastic,' what I can't stand about the fanboys is the constant patting on the back of their corporate mother. It encourages these companies to do stupid sh*t. Like for example, delaying every damn first party game it has. There are people defending the fact that Sony can't get a baseball game for PS4 out before May, that is utterly ridiculous but fanboys will be fanboys and I guess I just need to accept the fact that delays will continue for the next three years at least since it's clear the PS4 is not the easy system to program for that Sony claimed it was. Sony San Diego is not an incompetent studio, so when it can't get the PS4 version of MLB The Show out on time there is a serious problem but nobody wants to acknowledge it they just want to say 'delays are good.' Yeah, not getting games out on time, especially when there isn't much to play on the console, is a good thing...

@Gamer83 I also think part of the problem for some of the delays are the fact they are cross platform games made for both ps3 and ps4 and trying to develop both may be causing problems

I don't think the ps4 is hard to develop for but the ps3 can be and maybe that's what's holding them up making it for both systems as they are incompatible with each other (according to sony they are anyway)

@FullbringIchigo

Doesn't explain DriveClub though. I'm on record saying I believe Evolution is the problem there but the more delays I see, the more I wonder.

@Gamer83 don't know about drive club not sure what happened there but I still have GT6 and Forza 4 to keep me busy

@FullbringIchigo

GT 6 which should've been a PS4 launch game but I won't get into that again, I'll just get frustrated. Hopefully Thief and inFamous stay on track so I can stop lamenting delays and get back to playing games on PS4.

@Gamer83 next ps4 game I'm getting is Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeroes

@FullbringIchigo

I'm still unsure about that one. Haven't cancelled the pre-order yet but won't pick it up until reviews roll in. All I know is the main mission apparently takes 2 hours tops, now if we can get another 3 or so out of the side stuff, that's cool, but still want to read a fair number of reviews first.

Do i read 2:1 in the US for PS4 in January? Its incredible as I would expect worldwide to be even more in the PS4 advantage

@Gamer83 apparently it's only 2 hours if you only do the main mission one way but as it's open world if you do the side missions and try full stealth and not getting seen at all it significantly increases the time

@FullbringIchigo

Yeah, I figure it being open world will add some more play time to it. I'm not as hyped as I was before the whole two-hour stuff came about but some positive reviews could change that. I am still a big fan of the series even if I am as unsure of the new direction as I am intrigued by the possibilities.

@Gamer83 I think Sony needed to show games at last year's PS4 reveal, and judging by the lack of gameplay they showed of DriveClub and Second Son, Sony new those games were never going to be ready for PS4's release. But said they were to increase pre-orders. And after E3 (and 1 million pre-orders later) Sony stated that Second Son and DriveClub were now launch window. (I was always going to get a PS4 for Killzone) So maybe now Sony has learnt by this and not put a release date on Uncharted and The Order. And now they have had to push back MLB must annoy Sony and it's PS4 baseball fans.