Xbox One managed to bring 2014 to a close by shifting more consoles than the PlayStation 4 for the second month in a row.
Microsoft also highlighted that the Xbox One had sold fifty percent more consoles during November and December than it had with their previous console, the Xbox 360, at the same point in that machineā€™s life cycle.
However, the PlayStation 4 did come out on top overall; there were more PlayStation 4 console sales throughout 2014, both in the U.S. and worldwide.
Microsoftā€™s Phil Spencer has weighed in on the festive period, saying “This is a great holiday for Xbox, [we] really appreciate how our fans showed up. We had a great offering of games, we had a great Xbox at a nice price. It was amazing to see the support that we received.” He also took the time to discuss how 2015 is looking for both the console and gaming on Microsoft products as a whole.
“2015 is shaping up to be an amazing year for us. Studios are working incredibly hard to bring exclusive games, starting soon with Ori [and the Blind Forest]… Thereā€™s an amazing list of games, I think itā€™s just going to be a great year for gamers… Iā€™m excited to be… talking about Windows 10 and the great work that weā€™re doing there. For the Xbox team, this is the beginning of our discussion with fans about the work that weā€™re doing to bring gaming to the Windows 10 operating system. Itā€™s really nice to finally get to be able to talk about this, weā€™ll continue the conversation throughout the year. We will remain committed to gaming on console, but we know that we have fans and gamers that also play on PC and phone, and itā€™s important that we build out the features that we have, learning from what weā€™ve done on console, and helping make Windows 10 the best operating system weā€™ve ever created for gamers on PC.”
You can view Phil Spencerā€™s full video discussion below.
Nintendo also saw its largest month ever for first-party 3DS sales, thanks to two hit games from last year, Super Smash Bros. and Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. We were big of fans of both games, and it seems the general public were too, with the games selling 2 million and 2.6 million respectively. You can read our Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire review here.
Nintendo also reported an increase in sales for the Wii U, with Mario Kart 8 selling 1.7 million copies and the console version of Super Smash Bros. selling 1.3 million across the whole of 2014. Their Amiibo figurines have been selling surprisingly well, too, with just shy of 2.6 million being sold in the U.S. alone. With each individual figurine being sold at $12.99 a pop, that makes for a total sale worth just almost $33.8 million.
