Video game consoles are back and both the manufacturing leaders of the industry - Microsoft and Sony - are claiming the top spot and trying to convince everyone that they have outperformed the other.
According to research firm NPD Group, Microsoft was able to sell 908,000 units of Xbox One in December topping other video gaming consoles in the United States. Its predecessor, the Xbox 360 came in at third with 643,000 units sold during the same period.
"#NPD reports Xbox One #1 selling console in Dec, 360 sold well too. Big thanks to our fans for all the support!" tweeted Aaron Greenberg, chief of staff for devices and studios at Microsoft.
#NPD reports Xbox One #1 selling console in Dec, 360 sold well too. Big thanks to our fans for all the support!
— Aaron Greenberg (@aarongreenberg) January 16, 2014
Corporate vice president of marketing, strategy and business for Xbox, Yusuf Mehdi, emphasized the achievement of the company in a blog post.
"...we ushered in a new era of games and entertainment with Xbox One. Over 3 million Xbox One consoles were sold to consumers in 13 countries before the end of 2013. It's been incredible to see Xbox One selling at a record-setting pace for Xbox, and we were honored to see Xbox One become the fastest-selling console in the U.S. during our launch month in November," he wrote.
While Microsoft takes advantage and used the NPD figures for good corporate PR, Sony actually released its cumulative sales report for the PlayStation 4 on Jan. 7. It revealed that as of Dec. 28, Sony sold 4.2 million PS4 units.
"The momentum of the PS4 system keeps getting stronger and we couldn't be more thrilled gamers worldwide are enjoying the incredibly immersive gaming experiences along with deep social capabilities and entertainment provided by our network. After a remarkable launch, we look forward to bringing even more exciting content and continuing to explore the power of the PS4 system by adding new features and services, including PlayStation Now, in 2014," said Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. president and group CEO Andrew House in a statement.
Dan Race, senior director of corporate communications at Sony, backed up his chief executive.
"We sold every PS4 available at retail in the US and were out of stock in December due to overwhelming consumer demand. With more than 4.2 million PS4 systems sold worldwide, it's clear that the PS4's gaming and entertainment features are resonating with large audiences and we're doing our best to provide additional inventory in all of the 53 countries where it's available," Race said.
To put all debate to rest, Liam Callahan of NPD also clarified the figures in the latest report.
"Xbox One led consoles sales in December, while PS4's two-month total makes it the best selling console during the two-month launch window," Callahan said.
We can expect Microsoft and Sony to continue trading sales figure hooks and straights but it is good to see the video game console industry revive with hardware sales pegged at $1.37 billion or about 28 percent jump from figures posted in 2012, according to NPD. Software sales weren' so fortunate, for 2013 it dropped to $1.2 billion from $1.54 billion a year earlier.
