Welcome to Critically Sane’s Question of the Week, where we do our best to answer an inquiry posed to us by the community. Have your own question? Tweet it to us @criticallysane or put it in the comments below! This week’s question comes to us from @MrTooFresh
How many months do you think it will take for the Xbox One and PS4 to surpass the WiiU in worldwide sales?
Seven. Mark it down. Seven months and the Xbox One and Playstation 4 will have surpassed the WiiU in worldwide sales. Why seven months? I like Bungie, they like the number seven and Destiny releases sometime next Spring so using that illogical thought process it actually seems logical right?
Seriously though, while I do think the Xbox One and PS4 will eventually surpass the WiiU in worldwide sales it isn’t going to happen in 2013. Both systems are sure to sell well out of the gate and there is a strong chance that it may be difficult to find one of the shiny new devices in the wild this holiday season but they won’t surpass the WiiU’s total sales of 3.5 million units. But why not?
Early adopters are going to buy the systems for no other reason than to say they have the new systems. Call it techno-lust or whathaveyou but regular consumers are going to need a reason to drop $400 or $500 and right now that reason, the software, doesn’t really exist. But it is coming.
The two most talked about games for PS4 and Xbox One are Infamous: Second Son and Titanfall respectively. Both are supposedly coming in the first half of 2014 and both, with the aforementioned Destiny from Bungie, will propel these new systems to strong sales. But will it be enough to surpass the WiiU?
The WiiU has a strong software lineup coming this holiday season, anchored by its flagship franchise Mario, and that is sure to move more unit. Even with Mario arriving with the cavalry, on the day the Xbox One launches no less, I don’t think it is going to hold off the newcomers for long.
And so seven months, as arbitrary as it may seem. sounds just about right. By E3 2014 the WiiU will be in the cellar in terms of worldwide sales and the Playstation 4 and Xbox One will have firmly brought us into the true next generation of console gaming. But that doesn’t mean that all will be right with the industry, in fact I think this generation could be slower to build than past ones by a large margin and that could be scary for all parties involved, including us the consumers. But that is a question for another day.
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