The end has come for that fantastic Xbox One price cut that began before the holidays and lasted until Jan. 3. The price of the Microsoft console is now back to $399, a move that could turn out to be a bad one for the software company.
Since the launch of both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, the Sony console has been dominating sales worldwide. In the United States, the PS4 was the top-selling video game console every month for most of 2014 while the Xbox One struggled to keep up.
However, after the company slashed the price to $349.99 for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the Christmas holiday season, things began to look interestingly well for the console. It managed to outsell the PlayStation 4 in the United States and several other countries, along with becoming the top-selling video game console for November 2014.
It is safe to say that it all has a lot to do with the cheaper price, so now with the old price tag returning, we have reason to believe that Sony will return to its winning ways yet again.
At the moment, Sony has several video games lined up for the PlayStation 4 to be released in the first quarter of 2015, many of which are highly anticipated. The same can't be said for the Xbox One, as the most-wanted exclusives for the console won't come until later in the year.
There are several potentially impressive multiplatform games releasing in the early parts of this year, but we expect the majority to have better performance on the PlayStation 4, so again the Sony console has the higher advantage at the same $399 price tag.
Gamers who are going out to purchase a new console will be looking at why they should get this console over the other, and the aspect of games and performance will play a fundamental role in the decision making.
It would have been best for Microsoft to keep the price at $349.99, because then catching up to the more than 16 million PlayStation 4 video game consoles sold to consumers would have been easier. However, at $399 and failing to perform on par with the Sony console, we expect a similar sales massacre to 2014.
