Microsoft has made a few bad decisions with the Xbox One in the months following its launch, which lead rival PS4 to gain a considerable lead in terms of sales. Realizing their mistake, the Redmond-based company then tried to make up for it by removing the Kinect, releasing monthly updates, and announcing various promotions. One such promotion was the temporary $50 price cut that ended earlier this month. The deal was definitely very effective and helped them sell millions of consoles, which is why Microsoft is again reverting the Xbox One back to the promotional price of only $350, down from the usual $400. The company says that this is a “new promotion” but strangely enough, didn’t mention how long customers can expect it to last.
Many people are speculating that $350 will in fact be the permanent price tag for the console moving forward, which would definitely be a wise move if you ask me. Last year, the PS4 outsold the Xbox One for ten consecutive months until Microsoft got fed up with it and decided to take tried-and-true ‘extreme measures’ by making their product cheaper than that of their rival’s. Needless to say, everything worked like a charm because in November the Xbox One was finally able to sell more units than the PS4, thus breaking the ten-month winning streak. Just yesterday, Microsoft announced that December also ended with sales swinging in their favor.
Meanwhile, the Xbox One may have won the last two monthly battles last year, but the yearly war was undoubtedly won by the PS4. Shortly after Microsoft spoke of their victories and the new price cut, Sony essentially came to ruin their fun by proudly announcing that the PS4 was the best selling console of 2014 both in the US and worldwide. It’s becoming increasingly hard to predict how the situation will evolve this year seeing as how both consoles will be able to offer a number of very good exclusive titles in the months to follow. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.