Although Microsoft hasn’t been releasing official figures on Xbox console sales for several years, one analyst says that even with Xbox Game Pass, Redmond still only managed to half the (also limited!) sales of the PlayStation 5 compared to the Xbox Series.
We’ve already written that as of 30 September, 13.4 million PlayStation 5s had been shipped from Sony’s production lines to stores (and that’s official data). According to Ampere Analysis, the Xbox Series duo only managed to make about half of that, so they estimate that around 6.7 million units have made it somewhere. Piers Harding-Rolls, an analyst at Ampere, wrote, “Nintendo Switch has dominated global sell-through in 2021, but Q3 sales were closer between Nintendo’s family of devices and Sony’s PlayStation 5. In particular, Sony made substantial headway in Western markets where supply was improved, and demand was high. This culminated in the PlayStation 5 outselling the Switch in Europe by some distance. NPD also reported that in the US, the PS5 outsold the Switch for the first time in September.”
In the fourth quarter (October-December), the Switch could still be the frontrunner, as the new OLED model comes with an enormous inventory of Nintendo hardware. Hence, sales are not as constrained as the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series, so sales are not as slow. Meanwhile, PlayStation 4 sales are falling faster than expected (despite no price cuts after the PlayStation 5 launch!). “Sales in 2021 are weaker than we expected, and this has led us to review our forecasts for the platform. While not in the same category as the slowdown of Xbox One sales, it is less likely that the PlayStation 4 will emulate the feats of the PlayStation 2, which continued to sell strongly several years into the PlayStation 3 lifecycle,” Harding-Rolls added. (For instance, the PS2 sold nicely in Brazil for an extended period.)
The PlayStation 5’s patent for faceplates surfaced. It suggests Sony itself is planning to make custom covers and skins from scratch, and it confirms that the “blues” have not accidentally made legal threats to Platestation.com/Customize My Plates/CMP Shells (although they still sell pretty nice transparent plates) and then to Dbrand.
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