NPD January 2023: #1 MW2 #2 Dead Space #5 Fire Emblem #7 Forspoken #9 One Piece; PS5 #1 Units + Revenue (NSW #2) [CANADA Software Top 10]

[Bernd Lauert]

Have been there way before you even registered. You also talked about sales too for XSS that is a "little beast" when Xbox was a best selling console.

Imo, the Series S has been the only reason why Xbox even sold as much hardware as it did (still roughly on par with the first two years of the Xbox One). Without it, the install base would've been quite a bit smaller.

 

[1st_horseman]

Imo, the Series S has been the only reason why Xbox even sold as much hardware as it did (still roughly on par with the first two years of the Xbox One). Without it, the install base would've been quite a bit smaller.

Now it can be only worse. Imo., MS bet on wrong card since beginning. MS should prioritize XSX heavily.

 

[Lelouch0612]

Now it can be only worse. Imo., MS bet on wrong card since beginning. MS should prioritize XSX heavily.

The Series S saved MS during its first 1.5 year in the market. With the same chip wafer, they can make twice as much Series S than Series X.

Now, in 2023, they should repriorize the X but we shouldn't forget the S contributions until then.

 

[EdGalTBR]

Now it can be only worse. Imo., MS bet on wrong card since beginning. MS should prioritize XSX heavily.

Xbox Series S is not the problem. Lack of games in 2022 was. Series S bundled with a high demanded game, like CoD of EA Soccer, can do very well.

Xbox also has a very bad marketing.

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

I don't think we talk enough about the role that brand power plays in sales, Playstation is a very powerful brand and Xbox has struggled consistently for 2 decades trying to match it. Many people on Era are pointing out that Sony's first party output is superior and while thats true and Sonys first party has become pretty formidible i think we can all acknowledge that they aren't selling hundreds of millions of consoles on the back of 1st party content, especially now that many of them are and will be available on PC.

These platforms are 95-99% similar in hardware, features, price, and library, the main reason why one sells multiple times more than the other is because of the name on the front of the box. That's not to hand wave some of the failures at Xbox, to be brutally honest it's pretty embarrassing that they're having to spend orders of magnitude more than any company in history on studio acuisitions just to be competitive, but i do think at least some of their problems are out of their direct control.

 

[TripleA95]

I don't think we talk enough about the role that brand power plays in sales, Playstation is a very powerful brand and Xbox has struggled consistently for 2 decades trying to match it. Many people on Era are pointing out that Sony's first party output is superior and while thats true and Sonys first party has become pretty formidible i think we can all acknowledge that they aren't selling hundreds of millions of consoles on the back of 1st party content, especially now that many of them are and will be available on PC.

These platforms are 95-99% similar in hardware, features, price, and library, the main reason why one sells multiple times more than the other is because of the name on the front of the box. That's not to hand wave some of the failures at Xbox, to be brutally honest it's pretty embarrassing that they're having to spend orders of magnitude more than any company in history on studio acuisitions just to be competitive, but i do think at least some of their problems are out of their direct control.

I doesn’t mean that you can’t change the narrative around your brand. The 360 era is prove of that, just so they could destroy everything they worked for from 2005-2013 in a matter of months with that horrible Xbone reveal and they haven’t recovered since because all of their efforts have been lackluster to mediocre.

 

[Astral_lion02]

Since the rise of digital software NPD paints only a sketchy picture of the market, resulting from the fact that they have no digital data from important companies.

That they even release software "charts" with such fragmentary data is a bit odd. The charts would look completely different if it would include digital data from all games.

One of the biggest games of 2023 is TotK, its sales data will be a farce on NPD if its a voucher game (and vouchers returning to US). Because voucher games in EU and Japan have often 50-80% digital sales and for TotK it would be a big saving compared to the physical version, so only uninformed people (or people that only buy physical) would buy the game physical.

That's not NPD's fault if Nintendo don't want to share it's digital data.

I don't understand this focus on Nintendo.

It would be good if lack of Nintendo digital was the only issue.

 

[SSN]

I don't think we talk enough about the role that brand power plays in sales, Playstation is a very powerful brand and Xbox has struggled consistently for 2 decades trying to match it. Many people on Era are pointing out that Sony's first party output is superior and while thats true and Sonys first party has become pretty formidible i think we can all acknowledge that they aren't selling hundreds of millions of consoles on the back of 1st party content, especially now that many of them are and will be available on PC.

That is still MS's fault though. For the whole 360 gen, Xbox brand was way stronger than PS. Halo and Gears were way bigger than uncharted and God of War.
It's completely on them for messing up their brand during the XONE generation.

 

[Bernd Lauert]

Now it can be only worse. Imo., MS bet on wrong card since beginning. MS should prioritize XSX heavily.

The XSX chip is quite a bit bigger than the PS5s, and MS also needed a ton of XSX chips to put in server racks. Focusing on XSX alone would've been a mistake imo.

Xbox also has a very bad marketing.

This shouldn't be underestimated. Their marketing in Europe basically doesn't exist. I know several core gamers who don't know what Gamepass is, for example.

 

[fiendcode]

That's not NPD's fault if Nintendo don't want to share it's digital data.

I don't understand this focus on Nintendo.

It would be good if lack of Nintendo digital was the only issue.

Nintendo sticks out because they're the biggest publisher in the industry (Take 2 also imo as they're top 4) but it's honestly an issue with NPD's DPP in general. Limiting things to a selection of traditional, mainly packaged, publishers is going to limit insight and gives us a poor representation of the larger actual market. Strictly packaged would be better as it'd at least give us an accurate view of that part of the market, the mixed "partner" method that misses Nintendo/T2 and just leaves out countless other digital focused developers and publishers (Valve, Devolver, Tencent, Riot, etc) fundamentally just skews what the market really looks like. It sort of needs to be all or nothing and if NPD can't convince/buy the data directly they need to have been doing what they do for packaged and modeling/estimating digital market wide. They're lightyears behind mobile trackers in this regard and honestly it's hurt their relevance and value within the industry.

 

[allan-bh]

This shouldn't be underestimated. Their marketing in Europe basically doesn't exist. I know several core gamers who don't know what Gamepass is, for example.

If we think about, Xbox is basically a strong brand in english speaking countries (USA, Canada, UK and Australia) and marketing can have some to do with that.

Xbox is also strong in latin america countries like Mexico and Brazil but we can attribute that to the heavy influence US market has on LATAM.

 

[enpleinjour]

Xbox is also strong in latin america countries like Mexico and Brazil but we can attribute that to the heavy influence US market has on LATAM.

Not brazil

 

[Megiddo]

I mean 25-30% of the overall market (including Nintendo) is way more than Microsoft usually has in a country I'd say.

 

[enpleinjour]

I mean 25-30% of the overall market (including Nintendo) is way more than Microsoft usually has in a country I'd say.

It's pretty close to EU on the top end

 

[allan-bh]

Not brazil

Nah, Xbox is strong in Brazil, not as much as on 360 era when dominated PS3 but still a significant player.

Also I wouldn't read much about these numbers because grey market is a factor in Brazil. Nintendo for example isn't weak as these numbers show.

 

[Vikadozs]

Xbox is also strong in latin america countries like Mexico and Brazil but we can attribute that to the heavy influence US market has on LATAM.

And in xbox 360 days in México they were the only ones with official support here, the xbox magazine was also very popular and the brand was in a really good place, still is the default device for people to buy here.

 

[hroerekr]

Xbox needs an identity. They have many IPs that could move consoles, like Banjo, Conker, Blue Dragon, Fallout, Quake. They could make many high quality AA games, like Hi-Fi Rush and Psychonauts 2. They could remake older games, like Nintendo did with Metroid Prime and Sony did with Demon's Souls.

And they also need to work better on those GamePass deals with third party, like Atomic Heart and Wo Long. This could work better than Sony's marketing deals.

I find intriguing how they have so many great studios and IPs, but still can't leverage that towards their overall brand.

They need to put them in the spotlight, but is harder without new releases. BC is a great feature with Resolution Scale and FPS boost, but most games are still buried somewhere in the store. A relaunch could do wonders with remakes and remasters. In particular with brands that can attract PS and Nintendo players like Lost Odyssey, Conker, Banjo.
Sitting on IPs for too long has consequences.

 

[fiendcode]

It's pretty close to EU on the top end

Not with Nintendo included. This is apples/oranges.

 

[1st_horseman]

The Series S saved MS during its first 1.5 year in the market. With the same chip wafer, they can make twice as much Series S than Series X.

Now, in 2023, they should repriorize the X but we shouldn't forget the S contributions until then.

They've should prioritize XSX over XSS since beginning. 60:40 ratio or more in its first year and heavily since 2022 in XSX favor ( like Sony is doing from start for Disc version) Now they are paying the price for short term strategy. I'm betting that someone at MS seeing this, but looks like they don't care.

Xbox Series S is not the problem. Lack of games in 2022 was. Series S bundled with a high demanded game, like CoD of EA Soccer, can do very well.

Xbox also has a very bad marketing.

XSS is much bigger problem now than lack of games. XSS was already heavily devalued at the beginning 2022 in EU just for stock cleansing. Hell, last month in Austria in Graz at Gamestop XSS was priced at 150€ just to empty the warehouses. XSX is selling way better, though. You can build a house with XSS now. XSS is still selling at discount in US and it doesn't push sales.

The XSX chip is quite a bit bigger than the PS5s, and MS also needed a ton of XSX chips to put in server racks. Focusing on XSX alone would've been a mistake imo.

XSX upgrade for cloud ended year and a half ago

Microsoft Has Now Completed xCloud Server Upgrades to Xbox Series X Hardware

Xbox has confirmed that its Xbox Series X server blade upgrades have been completed, and users should see improvements very soon.

gamingbolt.com

Like i've said above, MS should prioritized XSX since beginning. Year later after launch much more heavily.
But looks like with new PS5 firmware, streaming for PS5 games is coming. But upgrading servers with PS5 probably wasn't a problem for Sony, huh?

 

[fiendcode]

Sony prioritizes the disc PS5 not because it's that much more popular but because it has far better margins for them. The digital PS5 was basically a PR move to hit $399 and then they severely understocked it.

Sony made similar moves before with PS3 and Vita models.

 

[Himura Kenshin]

Everyone talked about how "brilliant" a move the Series S was, put perhaps the most "brilliant" move was the PS5 DE for the exact reason of the $399 PR. It's my belief Sony wanted to go only $50 less for the DE, but went with $399 after the reveal of the Series S' price. Everyone was waiting on the PS5 price reveal with some saying "arrogant" Sony might pull a PS3 $599 again. Sony didn't announce their prices until after Microsoft did and I think there's a reason for that.

Also, everyone knew about the existence of the Series S. Worst kept secret in gaming. No one knew about the existence of the PS5 DE until the PS5 showcase reveal, most likely due to the fact that it's the same specs and basically the same manufacturing - unlike XBS - so much easier to keep things under wraps. For example, developers weren't optimizing for two different specs, so no developer had to know anything about a separate SKU.

I think Microsoft were prepared to severely undercut PS5 with the S, but they weren't prepared for a $100 cheaper version.

ALL that said, I don't believe the Series S was a mistake and I believe it helped them a lot early on if the report about them being able to get more out of the door due to the smaller wafers are true. If there was a mistake, it's perhaps sticking with it too long and not shifting manufacturing to producing more of the X models. But in their defense, I think it's hard to make that judgement of when the S is losing favor versus where if they had the X they'd be in better shape. The idea telling production to make 500 Series X models as opposed to 1000 Series S models (made up wafer ratio, but you get the idea) probably still doesn't sound great to them, regardless of whether it's what they should be doing or not.

 

[allan-bh]

Series S was and still is a great option, this console is perfect for people looking for a bargain. It's true that it didn't drive much sales for the last holiday, but with a better first party lineup it can push Xbox Series beyound since Series X is expensive.

What Microsoft needs is adjust their production, it's necessary improve Series X supply, the core gamer don't want the half next gen experience Series S offers.

 

[EdGalTBR]

Series S was and still is a great option, this console is perfect for people looking for a bargain. It's true that it didn't drive much sales for the last holiday, but with a better first party lineup it can push Xbox Series beyound since Series X is expensive.

What Microsoft needs is adjust their production, it's necessary improve Series X supply, the core gamer don't want the half next gen experience Series S offers.

They also need a U$399,90 Digital Xbox Series X to match PS5 Digital.

And Series S should get an official price cut to U$249,90 + 1TB SSD + Black version to revigorate sales.

 

[Lelouch0612]

The S was never meant as a SKU that would carry the platform alone, it was made to generate incremental demand.

I believe it succeeded in that regard given the number of new Xbox owners through that SKU.

Now, given its impulse buy price it will shine when:

- there's an impulse buy game
- it is the Holiday shopping season

We don't know the number of Xbox sold in December but given Sony's PR that puts a hard cap on PS5 sold, it could be a good amount despite no Holiday game.

 

[kimbo99]

This shouldn't be underestimated. Their marketing in Europe basically doesn't exist. I know several core gamers who don't know what Gamepass is, for example.

During the WC and during football matches on UK feeds, I consistently see Sony commercials, and a few Switch commercials. Never seen an Xbox commercial and I watch football pretty religiously from UK feeds.

 

[gtj1982]

If the $399 PS5 DE was a PR move then what was the XSX? Would anyone call it a PR move to claim the world’s most powerful console when the XSS is clearly the primary SKU. And what’s the PR benefit when everyone was still willing to pay $499 or more for the disc edition PS5?

 

[wolftendo]

What do you think is Forspoken's realistic sales numbers? 1M+ WW so far, 3M LTD?

 

[1st_horseman]

What do you think is Forspoken's realistic sales numbers? 1M+ WW so far, 3M LTD?

Really sold at least a million? It would be a surprise in my eyes.

 

[wolftendo]

Really sold at least a million?

I might have been too optimistic lol

 

[nextgeneration]

What do you think is Forspoken's realistic sales numbers? 1M+ WW so far, 3M LTD?

I don't think one million is doable at this point, but who knows. Sales for the game have already fallen off a cliff on Steam.

Global Steam Weekly best sellers rankings (by revenue):

1/10-1/17 - #86
1/17-1/24 - #29
1/24-1/31 - #22 (game released on 1/24)
1/31-2/7 - out of top 100
As I'm typing this, it's currently sitting at #355 on Steam.

It's not a good sign when a game drops out of the top 100 entirely in just its 2nd week of release.

Let's see how sales hold up on PS5 in February. In January, it was the 7th most downloaded on the US/Canada PS store, and it was 5th most downloaded on the EU PS Store. Will the game have better legs on console or will sales fall off precipitously like on Steam in February?

 

[Josh5890]

That is still MS's fault though. For the whole 360 gen, Xbox brand was way stronger than PS. Halo and Gears were way bigger than uncharted and God of War.
It's completely on them for messing up their brand during the XONE generation.

It has been a while, but Xbox was THE gaming brand back in PS360 generation. In the late 2000's and early 2010's, when you thought of Call of Duty, Madden, and NBA 2K, you thought that they were Xbox 360 games. It didn't matter whether those games were on the PS3 or not, tv commercials ended with the 360 logo. Grand Theft Auto IV launched at a 2:1 ratio in favor of Xbox 360. Heck, most of EVO was played on 360's during that time.

Two crowds that Sony went out of their way to court at the beginning of the PS4 days were the COD and e-sports crowds and that continues to pay dividends to this day.

And that doesn't even factor in how much stronger the Xbox exclusives were like you said, especially during the early 360 days. That was the time of peak Halo. Forza was giving Gran Turismo a serious run for its money. Fable and Gears were hot items as well. Things started to shift towards the end of the generation as Sony's first party offerings started to become more popular.

The Xbox brand continues to suffer for the sins committed during the early Xbox One days.

 

[MegaXZero]

If the $399 PS5 DE was a PR move then what was the XSX? Would anyone call it a PR move to claim the world’s most powerful console when the XSS is clearly the primary SKU. And what’s the PR benefit when everyone was still willing to pay $499 or more for the disc edition PS5?

I believe the XSX was the primary sku at the beginning, but due to the pandemic they shifted to the easier to make XSS which was flying off the shelves.

The reality is they should have shifted back once the pandemic ended but like most companies didn’t completely come to terms with the boost.

 

[gibordep]

The problem of Xbox is not the Series S, it's the lack of FP software. The series S with a stream of great first Party software would be a great move, and bring many to Xbox ecosystem.

 

[EdGalTBR]

U$500,00 Xbox Series X and U$300,00 Xbox Series S may have a tough fight against a fully available U$400,00 Playstation 5 Digital.

Microsoft must do something about it.

 

[Xevross]

I'm still not a fan of calling the Series S a brilliant move. Without the pandemic happening, meeting demand would never have been an issue for xbox and we would all be talking about how low demand for Series S and how its a bit of a disappointment, especially after the November numbers. The pandemic totally saved Microsoft's blushes on the Series S. Yes, it was a smart choice to make more Series S during the pandemic, so I will give Microsoft credit for that. And perhaps if Series S makes impulse buy territory and pulls some good holiday numbers my opinion on it will improve.

Anyway, its not like Series S is dragging the whole ship down or anything, they now have Series X in good demand too so its kind of a moot point. Xbox just need to generate more demand for their platform as a whole.

 

[gtj1982]

I believe the XSX was the primary sku at the beginning, but due to the pandemic they shifted to the easier to make XSS which was flying off the shelves.

The reality is they should have shifted back once the pandemic ended but like most companies didn’t completely come to terms with the boost.

So it was the main sku for launch when their whole PR was based around teraflops and the product ratio then quickly changed to favor the XSS after launch?

 

[MegaXZero]

So it was the main sku for launch when their whole PR was based around teraflops and the product ratio then quickly changed to favor the XSS after launch?

Well pandemic, chip shortage, and the following inflation issues does change plans. I'm not sure SIE planned to bundle all their first party games with the consoles like this, but revenue needed help.

 

[1st_horseman]

I believe the XSX was the primary sku at the beginning, but due to the pandemic they shifted to the easier to make XSS which was flying off the shelves.

The reality is they should have shifted back once the pandemic ended but like most companies didn’t completely come to terms with the boost.

So it was the main sku for launch when their whole PR was based around teraflops and the product ratio then quickly changed to favor the XSS after launch?

Well pandemic, chip shortage, and the following inflation issues does change plans. I'm not sure SIE planned to bundle all their first party games with the consoles like this, but revenue needed help.

A month before XS launch, Phil Spencer already prioritize XSS. So, probably a hint that they started to manufacturing more XSS than XSX

Phil Spencer thinks Xbox Series S will end up outselling Xbox Series X | VGC

Xbox boss says “price really matters” in the long-run…

www.videogameschronicle.com

 

[MegaXZero]

A month before XS launch, Phil Spencer already prioritize XSS :

Phil Spencer thinks Xbox Series S will end up outselling Xbox Series X | VGC

Xbox boss says “price really matters” in the long-run…

www.videogameschronicle.com

That's not prioritizing, that's speculating about late life demand. In fact, he specifically says they expected early adopters to favor Series X, thus that would be the main sku at launch.

 

[1st_horseman]

That's not prioritizing, that's speculating about late life demand. In fact, he specifically says they expected early adopters to favor Series X, thus that would be the main sku at launch.

That changed very quickly after launch in favor of XSS.

 

[MegaXZero]

That changed very quickly after launch in favor of XSS.

Yes because of the chip shortage that rocked both consoles. Switching to XSS helped them push out consoles faster.

 

[allan-bh]

Phil Spencer prediction had totally sense. Early adopters tend to be core players that want the high end machine. People that enters later in the gen are more casual and price sensitive, thus tend to favours Series S.

Shortages changed the logic.

 

[SSN]

It has been a while, but Xbox was THE gaming brand back in PS360 generation. In the late 2000's and early 2010's, when you thought of Call of Duty, Madden, and NBA 2K, you thought that they were Xbox 360 games. It didn't matter whether those games were on the PS3 or not, tv commercials ended with the 360 logo. Grand Theft Auto IV launched at a 2:1 ratio in favor of Xbox 360. Heck, most of EVO was played on 360's during that time.

Two crowds that Sony went out of their way to court at the beginning of the PS4 days were the COD and e-sports crowds and that continues to pay dividends to this day.

And that doesn't even factor in how much stronger the Xbox exclusives were like you said, especially during the early 360 days. That was the time of peak Halo. Forza was giving Gran Turismo a serious run for its money. Fable and Gears were hot items as well. Things started to shift towards the end of the generation as Sony's first party offerings started to become more popular.

The Xbox brand continues to suffer for the sins committed during the early Xbox One days.

Well said. People always seem to forget this.

 

[SquidEnthusiast]

The entire industry shift comes down to the always online fiasco from E3 2013. Microsoft overplayed their hand and tried to basically tell everyone to sit down, shut up, and just accept the way things were gonna be and basically just handed Sony their market share for free. The industry would remain much more competitive between the two if they hadn't had that one disastrous E3.

 

[SSN]

The entire industry shift comes down to the always online fiasco from E3 2013. Microsoft overplayed their hand and tried to basically tell everyone to sit down, shut up, and just accept the way things were gonna be and basically just handed Sony their market share for free. The industry would remain much more competitive between the two if they hadn't had that one disastrous E3.

IDK. IMO, the importance of E3 2013 is always overplayed in the downfall of Xbox. They backtracked it quickly anyway and were still competitive with PS4 during the launch period, despite XONE being costlier.

I think the problem comes down to the software. If Halo 5 and Gears 4 would have been just as commercially successful as their predecessors, Xbox would be in a much better place right now.

 

[Garlic]

I don't think we talk enough about the role that brand power plays in sales, Playstation is a very powerful brand and Xbox has struggled consistently for 2 decades trying to match it. Many people on Era are pointing out that Sony's first party output is superior and while thats true and Sonys first party has become pretty formidible i think we can all acknowledge that they aren't selling hundreds of millions of consoles on the back of 1st party content, especially now that many of them are and will be available on PC.

These platforms are 95-99% similar in hardware, features, price, and library, the main reason why one sells multiple times more than the other is because of the name on the front of the box. That's not to hand wave some of the failures at Xbox, to be brutally honest it's pretty embarrassing that they're having to spend orders of magnitude more than any company in history on studio acuisitions just to be competitive, but i do think at least some of their problems are out of their direct control.

The Xbox brand is strong -- in North America. The complete failure of MS to establish the brand in Asia and Europe has always been their biggest weakness.

 

[Welfare]

The entire industry shift comes down to the always online fiasco from E3 2013. Microsoft overplayed their hand and tried to basically tell everyone to sit down, shut up, and just accept the way things were gonna be and basically just handed Sony their market share for free. The industry would remain much more competitive between the two if they hadn't had that one disastrous E3.

Xbox One launching at $499 with forced Kinect killed it. Straight up Xbox continuing that dumb as fuck decision cost them the gen in the US. XB1 even at $499 sold very well at launch but not sell out status like the $399 PS4.

Had XB1 launched at $399 I believe they would be in a much better position after 2014. US sales would've been closer compared to the gap in the 7th gen but in that 2013 and 2014 time frame a $399 XB1 and $399 PS4 should've been an XB1 advantage, but months like September and October 2014 would still go PS4 due to Destiny marketing. Holiday 2014 is probably a lot closer as well since I doubt Xbox would drastically cut price if they were actually in the lead. They would have COD and Ass Creed marketing to help push units.

Those first 6 to 9 months of 8th gen set the tone and buying interest for the rest of the generation.

 

[kazuyamishima]

There were more problems regarding the Xbox One not reaching X360 levels aside of launch price and the whole E3 2013 fiasco that continue till today and they haven’t fixed.

 

[Uniomni]

I don't think we talk enough about the role that brand power plays in sales, Playstation is a very powerful brand and Xbox has struggled consistently for 2 decades trying to match it. Many people on Era are pointing out that Sony's first party output is superior and while thats true and Sonys first party has become pretty formidible i think we can all acknowledge that they aren't selling hundreds of millions of consoles on the back of 1st party content, especially now that many of them are and will be available on PC.

These platforms are 95-99% similar in hardware, features, price, and library, the main reason why one sells multiple times more than the other is because of the name on the front of the box. That's not to hand wave some of the failures at Xbox, to be brutally honest it's pretty embarrassing that they're having to spend orders of magnitude more than any company in history on studio acuisitions just to be competitive, but i do think at least some of their problems are out of their direct control.

Cannot agree tbh.

Brand does matter but even Nintendo's brand was in the dogpit 8 years ago. WiiU was a massive flop, the 3DS was successful but clearly wasn't the second coming of the DS it needed to be.

Then came the Switch, where many expected it to top out around 40 million sold, and that was an optimistic outcome.

But then it launched with Botw, and then MK8D, then Splatoon 2, then Odyssey, and then Xenoblade 2, and Indies in between these titles.

Brand does play a part yes.

But brand will always submit to "that looks crazy fun/cool and I gotta play it".

Microsoft's problem is that they haven't been able to really put their finger on the gotta have it aspect of software offerings.
Microsoft's good fortune is that with the biggest first party portfolio out there, now they have more chances of discovering that next title.

Imo it's just a matter of time.

 

[allan-bh]

The entire industry shift comes down to the always online fiasco from E3 2013. Microsoft overplayed their hand and tried to basically tell everyone to sit down, shut up, and just accept the way things were gonna be and basically just handed Sony their market share for free. The industry would remain much more competitive between the two if they hadn't had that one disastrous E3.

Always on was the smallest problem since they're backdown before launch.

What become tragic for Xbox One was being $100 more expensive and less powerful, what imediatly made enthusiasts see the PS4 as a better option, plus when lauch comes we had situations like Call of Duty Ghosts being 1080p on PS4 and 720p on One, what reinforced for several people that PS4 was a no brainer choice.

Microsoft dropped Kinect in june 2014 for match PS4 price, but still had to deal with the fact of having a weaker machine and PS4 in the minds of consumers as the best console.

The project of Xbox One was a huge mistake, they designed an all-in-one entertainment system with choices that weren't the best for a console. Sony played simple, made a video game and easily won.