January – December 2015: Building Momentum
Months Won by PS4 in 2015: 10
PS4 Total Sales: 35 million
A fresh start, January should have been Microsoft’s chance to push on, buoyed by the successes of its previous two months. But without help from its $349 sale price, that imperative wasn’t to be realized. Instead, it would be Sony and PS4 that would retake the initiative and further consolidate its cumulative lead.
For February and March, Sony had a secret weapon in its exclusive title Bloodborne, which proved a critical and commercial hit. The “next generation” was desperately short of exclusives and Bloodborne delivered a big boost to reinforce PS4 as the pick of the two consoles.
Xbox One briefly wrestling the limelight away from PS4, ending the month as the better selling console in April. But for the next five months, the PS4 continued its unrelenting steamrollery. Sony announced 25 million cumulative units sold since launch, selling superbly well in both the US and UK. But why? Nobody was quite sure, with even Sony’s President, Shuhei Yoshida, at a loss for explaining what the primary driving force behind such sales was. Perhaps Sony had won over the minds of gamers ever since the Xbox One’s disastrous launch?
Only with the release of Halo 5 in October could Microsoft gain some ground back on Sony. But, yet again, the PS4 immediately hit back, winning the next two months in the all-important holiday season. According to NPD records, software sales for Call of Duty: Black Ops III were particularly impressive on Xbox One, but the margin wasn’t dramatic despite the game’s popularity on Microsoft’s platform. Sony’s decision to closely ally itself with the brand had been a shrewd one. In this generation, if exclusivity was unobtainable, winning affiliate rights had become a key play.
