Xbox One sales more than doubled since the Kinect was dropped

It seems like Microsoft’s gamble is already starting to pay off. Last month the company launched a Kinect-less version of the Xbox One for only $400, which put it on par in terms of price with the PS4. Ever since the Kinect was dropped sales have more than double in the US according to “internal data based on retail calendar and sold through numbers.” This coincides with previous reports coming from retailers who claimed that consoles were “flying of the shelves” ever since the price cut. “Since the new Xbox One offering launched on June 9, we’ve seen sales of Xbox One more than double in the US, compared to sales in May,” Microsoft said in a statement yesterday.

We’ve reported last month that Sony was still way ahead in terms of sales and was leading for the fifth consecutive month. However, those were the figures for the month of May, so before the release of the Kinect-less Xbox One. Things might have changed a lot since then from what Microsoft is saying, but it’s almost certain that their console is still lagging behind quite a bit. Neither company seems willing to reveal any more figures for the moment so the latest official numbers we know are those announced in April. Back then, Sony reported that they already sold more than seven million PS4s while Microsoft was only able to sell five million Xbox One units.

A fairly recent report was claiming that Sony can now account for more than nine million units sold already, but this was not confirmed by the company so we’ll have to treat it as a rumor for now. Meanwhile, Microsoft seems to be doing rather well lately, even more so than its rival I dare say. The removal of the Kinect sensor comes with a slight increase increase in performance so it was definitely a good decision. Also, lasts month’s update added external storage support to the Xbox One, a feature that was highly demanded by users and again, a very good move by Microsoft to listen to their fans. It’s decisions like these that help a lot with the sales, besides from the price cut of course.

If they can keep it up we’re certain to see a much more interesting and even Xbox One vs PS4 battle in the near future. EA predicted earlier that we were going to see a great fight between the two this Holiday and it’s starting to look like they were right.