NEW YORK: Microsoft saMSFT -1.03%id it is bringing back a $50 price cut in the U.S. that it said helped make Xbox One the best-selling videogame console over the holidays.
When Microsoft launched the Xbox One in late 2013, the console included the Kinect motion-control system and carried a beefy $499 price tag. Sales lagged behind those of Sony 6758.TO -4.48%’s PlayStation 4, which launched around the same time and was a lighter $399 hit to the wallet.
Microsoft eventually stopped bundling Kinect, which put the Xbox One’s cost on par with the PS4, and later slashed $50 more, driving the cost down to $349 in time for Black Friday.
The Xbox One beat out sales of the PS4 and Nintendo 7974.TO -1.24%’s $299 Wii U in the U.S. in November and December, Microsoft said, though it declined to say how many of the consoles it sold. In November, it said it had sold more than 10 million Xbox One machines in total world-wide.
Sony recently said it sold 4.1 million PS4 consoles during the holidays, bringing its world-wide total to more than 18.5 million units — making it the best-selling of the new consoles since launch. (They each report the data differently. Microsoft reports sales into retailers, while Sony reports sales through to the consumer.) Both Sony and Microsoft are about to extend their arms race to China, where sales previously weren’t allowed.
Nintendo’s Wii U, meanwhile, is a distant third — it said in October it had sold 7.29 million units since its launch, which came a year before its rivals — though it has shown signs of life lately thanks to new releases of popular game titles. It said Thursday that Wii U had its strongest month ever, with hardware sales in December up more than 29% from a year earlier.
Overall, videogame hardware sales fell 4% to $1.31 billion in the five-week period beginning with Black Friday, compared with a year earlier, market researcher NPD says. That data includes past-generation systems. Sales of the newest consoles were up, though, driven in part by popular bundles with software.
In bringing back the $50 price cut, available Friday after about a two-week hiatus, Microsoft is gunning for the cost-conscious gamer. Consumers have shown they will gravitate to less-expensive options — sales of the prior-generation PS4 and Xbox 360 continued to chug along even after the fancier new consoles launched. In touting its successful holiday Thursday, Microsoft said sales of the Xbox One outpaced those of Xbox 360 by 50%.
