Sony’s PlayStation 4 has seen unprecedented success since it launched a week ahead of arch-rival Microsoft’s Xbox One in November of last year. Recent official sales figures from Sony reveal the PS4 has sold 13.5 million units worldwide. For those who thought the console war is already over, the latest stats from Microsoft may come as a surprise. According Xbox Wire, the Xbox One is closing in on 10 million units sold.
Much of the success seems to stem from bundle releases of the Xbox One with triple-A titles like ‘Sunset Overdrive’, ‘Assassin’s Creed Unity’ and ‘Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’. The Seattle-based software giant is clearly not giving up on the Xbox One and if the latest numbers are anything to go by, they just need to keep pushing.
The recently released Xbox exclusives ‘Halo: Master Chief Collection’ and ‘Forza Horizon 2’ scored 89/100 and 86/100 on Metacritic respectively. ‘Titanfall’ was another highly-rated exclusive title to release on the Xbox this year. Future exclusives ‘Halo 5: Guardians’ and ‘Quantum Break’ could even possibly give Xbox the lead over its Sony counterpart.
Competition is healthy, and to see Xbox One catching up to the PS4 proves that the battle is far from over. Hopefully, this shift in tactic will encourage Sony to dish out better exclusives. The PS4 has relied heavily on third-party titles since it launched including: ‘Battlefield 4’, ‘Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag’, ‘Need for Speed Rivals’, ‘Destiny’ and ‘FIFA 15’.
Their major exclusives so far, ‘The Last of Us Remastered’ and ‘inFamous Second Son’ are among the few exclusive titles to come out on the PS4. Their latest racer ‘DriveClub’ received mixed reviews scoring just 70/100 on Metacritic. The promised PlayStation Plus edition of ‘Driveclub’ is nowhere to be found. However, upcoming PS4 exclusives including ‘Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End’, ‘Bloodborne’ and ‘The Order 1886’ look promising and should be enough for Sony to hold its own.
As far as the ‘Console War’ is concerned, things are just starting to heat up!