The numbers just keep rolling in. While The 'Murica States really love a big black American box, the rest of the world seems to prefer the small black box from Japan. The stats from market research group GFK has revealed that the PlayStation 4 has outsold the Xbox One two-to-one in France for the end of 2013.
iGame Responsibly picked up the news from French gaming blog Gameblog.fr. They report that the PlayStation 4 has managed to move an impressive 239,998 units in the country that can't win a war unless they're fighting themselves. The Xbox One, alternatively, only managed to shift 126,201 units. It's not an exact double figure but it's roughly just a little more than half the stock keeping units of Sony's PlayStation 4.
A figure of the sales charts was released for those of you with numerophobia, as it tends to really creep out during monthly market stats released or the console wars.
All right so let's recap this here: In every country where the Xbox One and PS4 is sold (outside of America), the Xbox One seems to be getting trounced in sales, sometimes by a near (or over) two-to-one margin. In the UK the PS4 outsold the the Xbox One by 166,000 units. The gap between the two isn't completely remarkable, as the PS4 moved 530,000 units before 2013 ended and the Xbox One moved 364,000 units before 2013 came to a close. That's not too surprising, as a lot of Brits feel more comfortable in front of the NSA spybox after getting their teeth fixed.
In Germany, the PS4 outsold the Xbox One by 150,000 units and by two-and-half times as many SKUs as the Xbox One. Yes, the PS4 moved 250,000 units where-as the Xbox One only moved 100,000 units in Germany. Apparently many of the Germans are still angry that the Americans opened up a can of Stone Cold Steve Austin's whoopass on them during World War II, and have decided to show their former allies some love by buying Japanese instead. It's okay, we all understand that losing a war will render many years of unforgivable butthurt and immeasurable amounts of saltiness. We call that national pride.
Unfortunately, both consoles have yet to drop in some of the more key-markets of Asia... such as Japan. It seems like some kind of unwarranted sin to release a game console in most other major territories save for Japan. They are, after all, the Phoenix Fathers of home console entertainment. They deserve more respect than that.
On the upside, the PlayStation 4 will be releasing in Japan in February. They'll definitely end up giving the Wii U a big run for the money assuming they have accompanying software to match the promotional momentum they gained from all the anti-Microsoft marketing throughout 2013. It shouldn't be too hard for Sony to win over the home country against the Xbox One given that Microsoft has never fared well in far east Asia.
However, the real wild card will be China... you're looking at a billion potential untapped consumers in that market. With the ban lifted and consoles primed and ready to go head-to-head in the great People's Republic, the major lead garnered by the PS4 could be dissolved overnight if Microsoft has a proper campaign and decent software line-up to win over the Chinese people (assuming they actually plan to do so). Heck, I'm sure the Chinese will also love the NSA Spybox, although they would probably have to rename it to the MSS Spybox.
(Main image courtesy of Gameblog.fr)
