medussa said:
no console will win with a >200k gap |
If PS4 wins NPD narrowly it will only be crow-flavoured hors-d'oeuvres being served rather than a full 5 course crow banquet.
What are the implications of a Xb one win? November was a month that should have been PS4's 2 big name special edition bundles and the first time PS4 put in an appearance at $299. What did Xb one have? Perhaps some Halo 5 carry over, but with a somewhat disappointing start and low historical sales for a numbered Halo game this would not be a significant factor for November. The Gears $299 bundle, with gift card at some retailers, was the huge driver for black friday. It's hard to credit Fallout 4 with much of a hardware advantage over PS4 when PS4 ended up selling more of FO4 than Xb one. I suspect VGC giving Xb one a near 30K advantage that week was a bit high, but not significant enough to put PS4 into a winning position for the month.
So the reality is PS4 held all the aces, theoretically, in November and it's possible a Xb one win in November has somewhat longer term implications for the console race in North America than just who wins holiday 2015. It could signal a market shift back to Xbox. We won't know for a few months yet if November 2015 actually is the start of a turning point in the USA, but Xb one winning November narrowly should not be written off as just a tight month.
Even if there is a long term shift the USA is going to be a tight market for the whole generation. Neither Sony or MS will be able to afford to rest on their laurels and assume they have the USA locked in. Well MS can't start thinking that yet anyway since they still need to string together several months in a row of winning NPD before they can start claiming to be the leading console in the USA.
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