Global sales of Xbox One total just over 3 million units

Following PlayStation sales report by Sony earlier on Wednesday, Microsoft Corp. also announced cumulative global shipments results for its Xbox One game system in 2013. Quite expectedly, the software giant sold less of its new-generation consoles than its arch-rival due to a number of reasons.

Over three million Xbox One consoles were sold to consumers in 13 countries before the end of 2013, revealed Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of marketing, strategy and business of Xbox division at Microsoft. While for Microsoft the Xbox One is unquestionably the fastest selling game console, its sales are considerably below those of Sony, who sold through over 4.2 million PlayStation 4 systems as of late December, 2013.

Two main reasons why Xbox One is substantially behind its arch-rival PlayStation 4 in terms of global shipments are well-known: the device is only available on 13 markets, as opposed to PS4 that is available in 53 countries and territories; Microsoft’s latest game console is also $100 (£80 in case of the U.K.) more expensive than Sony’s system. Microsoft Xbox One was also available for a shorter period of time in the U.S. compared to the PS4; but the latter was available for a shorter period of time in Europe compared to the former.

Microsoft has never released any official sales targets for its Xbox One, hence, we do not know whether shipments meet the company’s internal goals or not. Publicly, the Redmond, Washington-based software developer seems to be happy with what it has achieved so far.

“With Xbox One we saw the most epic launch for Xbox by all measures. We are humbled and grateful for your loyalty and delighted by the millions of hours of gameplay and entertainment enjoyed on Xbox,” said Mr. Mehdi.

KitGuru Says: It will be interesting to see how sales of the PS4 and the XOne compare once both systems are available worldwide. While it is safe to expect the PlayStation 4 to be more successful in Japan, the Xbox One will be traditionally strong in the U.S., especially once Microsoft rolls-out all of its promised multimedia services in the country. Still, the PS4 has lower price and this factor may be very important.

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