PS4 Sold 1.25 Million Units During November 2013 in the US, Xbox One at 750,000

Posted on December 11, 2013 by afterdarkgaming

ps4

Wedbush Securities, who is usually very close when it comes to NPD predictions, is estimating (via GI.Biz) that the PlayStation 4 sold 1.25 million consoles during the month of November, while the Xbox One was at 750,000. As well, they believe the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii U will be down 44%, 28%, and 65%, respectively, when compared to last year.

Even with the PS4 and Xbox One introduction, Michael Pachter of Wedbush thinks that console and handheld sales were down 13% overall to $1.25 billion.

When it comes to software sales in November 2013, it’s expected they will be down 13% as well, with “far weaker-than-expected debuts” for Battlefield 4 and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag attributing to this. As well, Pachter believes Call of Duty: Ghosts’ sales were down due to the low reviews and PS4 and Xbox One launches.

The NPD should be releasing their official November 2013 US retail sales report Thursday night.

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Xbox One beats PS4 sales at Walmart, Target.

Posted on December 2, 2013 by afterdarkgaming

InfoScout finds Microsoft systems take 61% share of console sales at retailers on Black Friday.

The Xbox One was the best-selling game hardware at Walmart and Target on Black Friday, according to retail research firm InfoScout. According to a post on the company blog, Microsoft’s new console accounted for 31 percent of console sales at the retailers on Friday, outpacing the PlayStation 4’s 15 percent share, which was only enough to make it the fourth best-selling system of the day.

The Xbox 360, bolstered by a $99 sale price at Walmart, was the second-best-seller of Black Friday, accounting for 30 percent of systems sold. The PS3, which was less heavily discounted at $149, was third with a 15 percent share of consoles sold. Nintendo brought up the rear, with the Wii U accounting for just 6 percent of sales, while the original Wii scraped out a 1 percent share.

InfoScout attributed much of the Xbox family’s success to supply constraints on the PS4 and the deeply discounted Xbox 360 price. According to a survey of Black Friday receipts from 5,000 InfoScout panelists, the Xbox One was the sixth best-selling item at Walmart, behind a trio of TVs, an HP laptop, and a $300 16GB Apple iPad Mini, which ordinarily sells for $320.

PS4 beats Xbox One to become UK’s fastest ever selling console

Posted on December 2, 2013 by afterdarkgaming

Sony’s console sold more than a million consoles during its US launch, and has now beaten records in the UK.

Sony has duplicated their successful launch of the PS4 in North America by becoming the UK’s fastest ever selling console.

The PS4’s sales figures have beaten both the PS3’s, the Xbox 360’s, and the previous record holder – Sony’s PSP. This handheld console managed to sell 185,000 units in the same time period during its 2005 release.

Most importantly for Sony though, the PS4 outsold the Xbox One, clearing more than 250,000 units within the first 48 hours of launch and easily beating the Xbox One’s sales of around 150,000 consoles in the same time period.

Industry news-site MCV reported the figures, also noting that this means both Microsoft and Sony’s consoles have sold more in two days than Nintendo’s Wii U has sold in a year since its launch in November 2012.

However, in the US the Xbox One may be taking the lead, becoming the best-selling console during the country’s annual Black Friday sales event. Analysts InfoScout reported that both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One outsold the PS3 and PS4, with Microsoft’s consoles collecting 61% of console sales on the day in comparison with Sony’s 30 per cent.

InfoScout also noted though that this may be due to limited availability for the PS4 in the US, as well as retail giant Walmart’s decision to discount the Xbox 360 to just $99.

In terms of games sold, Call of Duty: Ghosts seems to be convincing audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. InfoScout’s data showed the latest instalment in the CoD franchise easily outpacing the competition (though didn’t give specific numbers) whilst the UK’s all-platform top 10 also put Ghosts in the number one spot.

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Xbox One running US 60Hz refresh rate causes severe “jittering” for UK TV watchers

Posted on November 28, 2013 by afterdarkgaming

Xbox One owners in the UK trying to watch TV through their new consoles are seeing juddering picture problems bad enough that some are calling it “unwatchable”.

One of the most heavily advertised features of Microsoft’s next generation console, the media passthrough abilities means that TV and video signals from other set-top boxes provided by Sky, Virgin and Freeview TV services can be fed through the console to the television – thus removing the need to switch inputs when going from gaming to TV viewing.

But UK owners who have got their hands on the new device say they have problems. “It’s really bad on sport. Unwatchable. Perhaps the reason no Sky support at launch? Disappointed,” complained a user called Damatris on the official Xbox user forums.

Defaulting to the US television standard

The cause appears to be the difference in refresh rates between UK and US TV sets and services. In the UK, the TV broadcast standard is 50Hz, or 50 frames per second (FPS), which most television set top boxes including Sky, Virgin and Freeview services output. In the US, the standard is 60Hz or 60FPS, and by default the Xbox One is set to the US, not UK standard.

“Assuming the reports are true, this represents a significant issue Microsoft has to address,” Richard Leadbetter of visual testing company Digital Foundry told Eurogamer. “Displaying 50Hz video at 60Hz means that every sixth frame will be a duplicate, resulting in noticeable judder on a lot of material – scrolling text on news channels, fast pans in TV and movies, and the left to right sweep of the camera in football matches.”

Microsoft said that it is aware of the issue, but did not have a comment at the time of publication.

No easy solutions

Leadbetter said that there are no easy solutions to the difference between 50 and 60Hz, and that altering a 50Hz picture to match a 60Hz refresh rate would likely have a detrimental impact on image quality. It is unknown how Microsoft is going to deal with the issue.

A work around has been discovered by a HDTVtest user and verified by gaming site CVG, which involves tricking the Xbox One into outputting video at 50Hz rather than 60Hz. However, this forces the console to use 50Hz all the time – which could cause issues for games that should be played and output at 60Hz.

“This is a major disappointment as the Xbox’s main selling point is its TV / media capabilities, but the reality is it’s broken and doesn’t work,” complained Potty Monster.

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