Xbox founder: PS4 wins the console war 'by a nose'

Jacob Demmitt: The man who fought Microsoft’s (Nasdaq: MSFT) first “console war” says it looks like his former company lost the most recent battle to arch rival Sony.

Ed Fries, who led the team that created the first Xbox in 2001, said things seem to be slowing down in this installment of the high-stakes sales battle between the Xbox and PlayStation franchises.

And the winner is: “I think it’s PS4 by a nose,” he said.

[Transistor]

It's 2:1 and growing. The PS4 has control of every region worldwide. The PS4 is winning by a lot in a bunch of departments, not just sales.

[StrayaKNT]

Id say sales only as the Xbox is dominating when it comes to games and features imo..

[-Foxtrot]

Only to gain sales. Lets be honest if roles were reversed I don't think MS would have this game focused approach.

[Transistor]

You're allowed to feel that way. But on the games issue, numerically you're wrong and exclusive or multiplaform software is consumed at a much higher rate on PS4. Digital or physical.

As for features, they're features. I'm not going to heavily debates features. I think Share Play is the best feature on either, you probably have a little feature you enjoy. Shocking.

[MasterCornholio]

Actually people are buying PS4s due to the system dominating in games

No one is buying a PS4 to watch TV or to use Netflix.

[Gazondaily]

Because otherwise, focusing on gaming comes from the goodness of the hearts of these corporations ...

Right lol.

Price was the primary reason at the start. Then the power. Once that momentum was gained then it was always very difficult for MS to catch up, let alone with all the damage the disastrous launch did.

Still, MS have done extremely well evolving the X1 console and solidifying it as a gaming console first whilst simultaneously supporting it with other features.

[Rarefaction]

Listwar.com
Just put this here

Ps4 has way more decent games

[Izalith]

@Aussiegamer1: Which titles you say? Have X1 in my setup but havent been on it for 4 months straight because of zero x1 only titles the first 5 months into this year.

[Stogz]

Well since all I see from you is fanboy nonsense, it's not exactly a surprise to read this from you...

[emilijo777]

Bloodborne higher rated than any xbox one exclusives including indies like ori which is on pc also

[Rock-Lee]

What games and features then....? PS4 has more (and better) exclusives and a kick-ass lineup waiting. And features? PS4 has PLEX, Spotify, Share Play (PS exclusive feature!) streaming etc. And now they even have TV via Vue in some regions, expanding to more. Latest feature for X1 is the ability to stream your game to your PC. Ahum... Remote Play sinds launch on PS4 anyone...?

PS4 is outnumbering in sales, better games and they even caught up with the same features and then some! (Spotify is PS Exclusive, so is Share Play)

[kraenk12]

I'll just leave this here. Btw loads if titles are still missing on the ps4 site.

http://www11.pic-upload.de/...

[Silly gameAr]

Features? No offense, but shareplay beats ANY feature that the X1 has come out with, and games? Well, that's a matter of opinion.

[IGiveHugs2NakedWomen]

Games, hardware, and continuous support are the main reasons the PS4 is selling so well.

Games: PS4 already has the largest and most diverse library between the two consoles

Hardware: This is no secret as it is widely known that the PS4's hardware, specifically, it's GPU and memory are specifically designed to render and run graphically intensive games.

Continuous support: Sony's software support for the PS4 is unmatched with it's first/second party studios, support for independent developers, and with Project Morpheus being released next year, the PS4 will continue to offer new and immersive gaming experiences for gamers worldwide.

@Ferage

Much of what you're saying is a matter of personal taste. Windows 10 is only releasing on PC this summer and HoloLens will cost significantly more than the Xbox One, essentially, pricing itself out of the average gamer's price range.

"HoloLens will cost "significantly more" than the Xbox One, reports New York Times"

http://www.winbeta.org/news...

Last holiday season the Xbox One outsold the PS4 in the UK and North America only, worldwide, not so much. Just to put things into perspective.

[morganfell]

If a horse race is one lap and the fastest horse running twice as fast crosses the finish line before other horses complete half a lap would the announcer say he wins by a nose?

[Army_of_Darkness]

Winning by a nose?? Lol! More like the leg of a 7 foot basketball player.

[Transistor]

Haha. Just saw these on NeoGaf, these are hilarious.

http://a.pomf.se/yvient.jpg

http://a.pomf.se/mjwqyi.jpg

http://abload.de/img/byanos...

http://i.imgur.com/4lyBMdD....

http://i.imgur.com/AbVkQiU....

Wow. Just wow.

[Ben Dover]

Which games AussieGamer? Can you list them? Oh you can't? Well isn't that a shame ..

[Computersaysno]

Only by a nose? Was it this nose?

http://www.conservationinst...

[Dir_en_grey]

Microsoft has always been known to have a very long nose... sometimes it's fans too.

[subtenko]

By a nose? XD PS4 making Xbox One look like a fat kid out of breath 1 lap behind LOL!!! :,D

[S2Killinit]

@aussiegamer
Xbox "dominating" games is approaching falsity at this point, even if you are argueing that in your opinion thats the case, because your statement is a misrepresentation due to the fact that PS4 has such a huge advantage in exclusive content. Its not so much a matter of opinion anymore. You could still say "i prefer xbone's games" because that can be due to a single game. But saying they "dominate" is to completely deny reality.

[dantesparda]

@Aussie

And in most peoples opinion the PS4 is way more preferable to the X1 hence why its dominating it in sales worldwide. So most people disagree with you and think the PS4 has the better games. Not to mention graphics and controller, imo...

And I'll take shareplay over any "feature" X1 has.

[scientificreasoning]

?? PS4 has nearly 100 more games, more retail, more indies, and more games rated higher on metacritic. What features? Share play > Anything on X1 and ps3 OS is faster, better party chate, fasster installs, etc...

If x1 was dominating in games why is it getting outsold? Facts don't back up your nonsense.

www.listwars.com

[indyman7777]

@rarefaction I love it when someone puts listwar.com on here to combat these false myths.

[majedx9]

see this

http://www11.pic-upload.de/...

[Kingscorpion1981]

Hahaha that's the funniest thing I've heard all day :)

[jebabcock]

The X1 actually is very buggy, clunky, and poorly designed. Fanboys will look past all the pain points, but the X1 was a sloppy job. In fairness this is probably in part due to the 180s they were doing at the beginning. With all the constant updating the X1 does, I still feel the PS4 has by far the best console experience even when it comes to media. The X1 still can't even do screen transitions properly(when you hit the back button it is extremely tacky to show the previous screen, then blank out, then load for a time then finally show the previous screen again)...
Unfortunately MS focused too much on gimmicks to sell their console and not enough on proper aesthetics and making a coherent system.

That being said, I think windows 10 might be a game changer, not so much because of dx12, but because of some of their plans for gaming in general that are tied to 10 have huge implications. It also gives MS time to provide a proper well thought out design for the System. Hopefully they have taken advantage of this opportunity to do so.

[morganfell]

Maybe he meant this:

https://pandodaily.files.wo...

or

http://data1.whicdn.com/ima...

[iTechHeads]

PS4 has way more games dude.
Anyway I think the disagrees you got speak for themselves.

[SniperControl]

Bought my X1 last October, still looking to add to the free game i got with it, nothing has appealed to me at all so far.

[bluto34]

I agree

[kingPoS]

Um wait... features... games. Granted, the XBO does have DNLA capabilities, but all the same, so does the ps4 have shareplay. And the games, well- I won't be so blasé as to point you towards listwar.com, so I'll just tell you outright. I'm getting Batman & Until Dawn (I enjoyed Heavy Rain) come summer 2015.

Gateway MT6706 2008

[rainslacker]

If that's the case, then MS is in pretty big trouble when Sony finally does deliver the games like they always do.

Of course, the only people that I see saying the games are subpar on PS are Xbox fans such as yourself.

[morganfell]

VR is the next big wave. It isn't 3D or motion gaming and those that equate it as such have yet to try it. AR isnt useful for 99% of titles as it is a simple overlay and we already have this with Scaleform. As far as enhancing the gaming area any implementation that causes me to look away from the screen, you know, where the action lies, is a gimmick doomed to fail.

As regards non-gaming applications, people and companies should have learned by now. MS designed a console that wasnt gaming centric and it has cost them dearly.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

He thinks "by a nose" PS4 will win the supposed console war. That's not to bad considering MS had a disastrous reveal that dug themselves a hole that they nearly couldn't get out of.

@Fox That's interesting if MS had there way then Don would probably be around for longer, game focused for a 2 to 3 years then TV, apps crazy so yeah I can see that.

[Concertoine]

Lol like this guy should be talking, the original xbox sold 24 million and ended as the biggest commercial failure in gaming history under his guide. Only the ps3 comes close.

[OrangePowerz]

There are bigger commercial failures like a lot of the consoles in the 80s that had been priced ridiculous and sold barely any units. As much as I like my DC that one was a bigger failure killing off Segas console business.

The first Xbox didn't make them money, but that's to expect when you get into consoles. It allowed them to get into the business and put their brand on the map.

[Tony-A]

I saw the headline and all I thought was damn, that's a big ass nose.

[Transistor]

@Concertoine

You must have Nintendo blinders on, because the obvious answer is by far the Wii U.

By far.

[Concertoine]

@Transistor

In terms of units sold, Wii U is the worst selling mainstream console since the DC.

In terms of money lost, the original Xbox is the biggest commercial failure. Two very different things. MS' gaming division never made a penny from 2000-2007. This was due in part to a bad contract with Nvidia that inadvertantly prevented them from dropping production costs significantly.

Whereas OrangePowers replied fairly logically (although without much financial data going back that far with obscure companies, it is debatable, and Sega never lost the money MS did on the DC, they just couldnt handle the losses), you made yourself look like a fool counting unit sales instead of profit.

[KnowledgeIsPower]

2:1 gets thrown around a lot, i would say its more like 22.3-15M for PS4, still a wide margin though but if it was 2:1 it would be shouted from the rooftops by Sony already

[CaptainObvious878]

Unfortunately, MS has chosen not to release any kind of accurate numbers for a while.

The last time we heard anything was back in October of last year I believe and their words were "we're close to SHIPPING 10 million consoles", which could mean anything.

I could be wrong, but I don't it's anywhere near 15 mil. I'm guessing more like 12 mil sold to consumers.

[majiebeast]

Its not. at most XB1 has sold 12.5mil they are nowhere close to 15mil.

[BecauseImBatman]

@CaptainObvious878
@majiebeast
@Big-finger

Ye people who think the Xbox One is sitting 12m make me laugh. When considering November and December NPD showed Xb1 sold at least 3m in North America alone, that's excluding the rest of the world who also celebrate the holidays. So if they announced 10m in October, sold really well over the holiday season and then you take into account the last 4 months the Xbox One is easily sitting at 15-16 million sold. MS announced 22m Xboxs sold from the start of 2014, you really gonna make out the 360 has almost 50% of those sales when it was lucky to sell 10m in one year last generation. You people really need to use some common sense... PS4 is killing it in sales but that doesn't mean Xbox One is selling terribly.

Why would MS need to say something they've already said they've sold 22.3m xboxs since 2014 (that includes 360 cause they're still supporting it unlike Sony who pretty much dropped PS3 support thats why we don't get any numbers on PS3 sales cause there probably so bad.) VGchartz is pro MS lol you must be kidding...

[OrangePowerz]

@Batman

Since the "almost 10 million" was shipped there are some things to take into account. Close to 10 milliin can mean a lot it could mean 9.9 million or 9 million etc. You also need to take into account that retailers had plenty of stock already. Let's say the retailers in the US would have had already 2 million units in stock that would mean that those 2 million would be already included in the "almost 10 million".

Really they put X1 and 360 together because they still support it? Sure of course that's the reason and not to make the numbers look better without having to say how many X1 consoles they actually sold.

And both PS3 and 360 get around the same support, third party multiplatform games are being released on them but neither MS or Sony makes any games for them.

[avengers1978]

@batman. In October MS said they were close to shipping 10 million XB1(not selling). So you're saying that XB1 has sold 6 million consoles in 6 months, meaning they probably shipped closer to 7 million, and you don't think MS would be talking that up in a huge way. I mean that's an average of a million sold a month by your count.

Face it its 23 million PS4s to 12 million XB1s

[BecauseImBatman]

@OrangePowerz
@avengers1978

Shipped, sold to consumer... It's the same thing to MS and Sony. There is no concrete, accurate way to gauge sold to customer. Pretend Sony don't make there numbers look better than they actually are... just like any company ever. They sold SOE to make there losses looks better, and they've been sued over marketing issues before...

You seriously gonna tell me 360 sold (or "shipped" as you people need to say) 10 million since start of 2014 then wheres all the articles about how well the 360 is still selling and guess what all the revenue goes to the same division. So either way MS are making money

http://www.polygon.com/2015...

Btw high shipped numbers means retail are buying them a lot so they must be selling pretty well if they need so many consoles. Shipped equates to sales whatever way you wanna spin it.

[S2Killinit]

Actually every month PS4 is outselling xbox 3 to 1 worldwide but somehow VGchartz still has the total sales at around 2 to 1.

[scientificreasoning]

X1 has not even shipped 5 million lolo, you cannot make up numbers and expect to be tyaken serious. X1 is lucky to be at 13 shipped 12 mill sold right now.

[DigitalRaptor]

@ You'reNotBatman

"There is no concrete, accurate way to gauge sold to customer"

Come back to this conversation when you know what you're talking about. You obviously don't have a clue. Shipped and sold are not the same thing to these companies, because if they were they wouldn't need to differentiate them in their reports.

These companies can accurately and concretely gauge sold through numbers, when store mangers contact their suppliers to order in more stock.

So to make this easier for you to digest... what happens when a store sells out of allocated PS4 stock? They order in some more, and that stock data is sent to Sony for their own bookkeeping. Sony ships out more stock to the stores that have sold out of their allocation. The cycle continues.

This is standard stuff that has been happening for as long as that data is important to these companies, which is decades. That specific data is accurate and Sony has no need to make up numbers as it's illegal to do so when their shareholders and partners are reliant on accurate information.

It's simple maths and simple logic. It's your loss to ignore reality.

[rainslacker]

Sony releases units sold about once a quarter. They don't make a huge deal about it, they either use a quarterly report, or some short press release. They don't often compare it to their competitor. MS didn't do that much either when announcing their numbers except in a few NPD's once in a while, but they released them almost monthly.

[kraenk12]

The last weeks it was even 3:1 and I don't think this will change until the holidays.

[Xer0_SiN]

i guess its a really big nose then.

[BG11579]

Yea, must be Pinoquio's nose... ^^

[PS3and4_HAS_GAMES]

I wonder what 15 people disagreed and why lol. Let's face it Sony is putting the smack down on Microsoft's ass. That's a fact!!!!!

[assdan]

This just isn't true though.

[LackTrue4K]

"Microsoft sits on SONY's nose, and they say they love it when we lie about sales"

[GiroSoul]

I have a dream where console players who just stop arguing about which console is better and just appreciate the one(s) they have and live in a peaceful way. - MLK Jr.

[fr0sty]

Maybe won the war by Sarah Jessica Parker's nose...

[700p]

My prob is, what does it matter who is "winning". As long as both consoles keep selling and more games come to us then we are alllll winning.

[Jayszen]

I suspect "by a nose" in this case really means "by a landslide".

Your first comment is spot on - PS4 is winning on every front in every department. This is not fanboyism but just the truth. Microsoft has to acknowledge it and then try to do better as Sony did after faltering initially with the PS3.

[Magicite]

USA and UK are basically only places where xbox means something.

[rambi80]

Whose nose? Pinocchio?

[Gazondaily]

Ahaha brilliant

[KingPin]

maybe zlatan ibrahimovic...who nose?