Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter recently unveiled some more of his great insight and opinions on the video game industry regarding the sales of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. According to the Pach-Man, the PS4 may have sold less and the Xbox One may have sold more had they been priced the same.
As you can see in the video over on Gametrailers, which we've also embedded below.
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The Pach-Man doesn't waste any time getting into the flaming question that will surely put some grilled butthurt in the comment section of many gaming sites, as someone asks if the Xbox One would have fared better out of the gate with a cheaper price, to which Pachter responded with the following...
“Demand would have been higher for the Xbox One than it was, and demand for the PS4 would have been about the same – maybe slightly lower, because some people might have migrated over.“I think supply for both consoles would have been about the same. So my guess is the Xbox One would have sold a couple hundred-thousand more and the PS4 would have sold a couple hundred-thousand less. Sony still would have outsold them because they had more supply. And based on what I saw at retail over that six week period [PS4 units] really weren't in stock for very long, when they were in stock.
This is true – about the stock of the PS4. In fact, even now, we recently reported on the PlayStation 4 still running strong on the pro-consumer hype generated from Microsoft's anti-consumer measures from last year that has Sony claiming – and being backed up with actual facts – that the console's consumer demand may keep supply dwindled up until April of this year.
But not to get side-tracked with Sony curb-stomping Microsoft into the ground like that popular Attack on Titan gif (just Google it), Pach-Man goes on about the hypothetical availability of both consoles if they had been priced the same, saying...
“Typically, any place I saw that had either console was sold out the next day. They would get some more a few days later, but they were sold out the next day each time.“I didn't see supply and demand balance come into play until about mid-January – about the 15th was the first time I observed consoles kind of in stock, everywhere. So I think they would have sold what they shipped, which was about 3 million to 4 million units. Maybe Microsoft would have sold 3.2 [million] and Sony would have sold 4.0 [million] instead”.
Just for a bit of historical reference: during that period, the Xbox One only sold 3 million and the PS4 moved 4.2 million.
Now for those of you curious as to why the Xbox One costs more, you can check it out in this production guide breakdown. The system totals $471, with $75 going toward the Kinect and the custom Jaguar APU costing the most at $110. Funnily enough, the Xbox One's APU is more expensive and less powerful than the PS4's Jaguar-equivalent APU, which cost Sony an even $100 to produce. With a lack of any built-in peripherals coming with the system, Sony managed to keep production lean and mean at $381. Neither company is really profiting from console sales, but they're mostly just breaking even, even though their cost of production is under the SRP.
With all that said, Sony's lower production costs and cheaper consumer price means that it will always be a step ahead of the Xbox One, and to that, Pachter noted for 2014...
“They're gonna sell more PS4s this year because it is cheaper”.
Plain and simple, it looks like Microsoft will just have to bite the red bullet for 2014. However, they should take the opportunity to do what Nintendo did in the latter half of 2013: acquire as many indie exclusives as possible; ease up on the publishing restrictions as much as possible and provide as many incentives as possible to secure all the talent possible for a strong 2015 software rollout.
Microsoft has no chance of beating Sony on the power-game front with all their sub-1080p games and they should just give that up. They can, however, win with software, assuming they hunker down like Nintendo and focus solely on quality products.
Anyway, Pachter makes it known that these are just his opinions on what could have been possible. We'll never know how the face-off would have transpired last November if both the Xbox One and PS4 were equally priced, but it's an interesting thing to think about.
While you can't change the past, you can at least enjoy the tunes of Roy Buchanan... he's a lot like Stevie Ray Vaughn. Thanks for the suggestion Pach-Man!
