When it comes to the Xbox brand, Microsoft has a problem, and strangely, that problem revolves more around outside forces than its own console. Analyzing the limited data available makes it clear that Xbox One is selling healthily for Microsoft. Xbox One sales are steadily outpacing the Xbox 360's nearly a year into their respective races. It also has a fairly strong library of games that doesn't seem all that different from other consoles' oft-underwhelming year one slates. Hardware sales and games aren't holding Xbox One back.

No, Microsoft's big problem is Sony's PlayStation 4. For as well as Xbox One is selling, PlayStation 4 consistently does better. In fact, its sales have been historically high since its release in late 2013. For nine consecutive months, PS4 has outsold Xbox One in the United States, sometimes by a small percentage, and other times by a big margin. Even Titanfall, Xbox One's anticipated tour de force, couldn't stop the PS4 from outselling it the month the game launched. Optically, everything is pointing in PS4's direction. Xbox One's seeming difficulty in keeping up with PS4 on a technical level isn't helping to change the optical problems in a more literal sense, either.

But Microsoft has new tricks up its sleeve. Sunset Overdrive, a game that, if history was any indication, should have and would have been a PlayStation 4-exclusive (what with Insomniac's nearly two decade history of making PlayStation exclusives), is coming exclusively to Xbox One in a couple of short weeks. And then there's Halo: Master Chief Collection, a guaranteed multi-million seller that will finally connect Xbox's core audience with its favorite franchise. It's a game that will undoubtedly push hardware off the shelf. (Also, stand-alone retail versions of Destiny actually sold best on Xbox One, though these numbers don't include the cascade of PS4 Destiny bundles that were sold.)

It's true that one of the most remarkable things about PlayStation 4's stellar performance is the fact that it all happened with a dearth of incredible triple-A exclusives (though, in my humble opinion, the smaller games and indies have been more than worth the price of admission). Knack, Killzone: Shadow Fall, Infamous: Second Son, Driveclub, and a few others have launched, but nothing (save Resogun, of course!) has truly set the world on fire. It's also true that PlayStation 4 is about to receive a deluge of exclusives in 2015 that people have been clamoring for, like The Order: 1886, Bloodborne, and the biggest one of them all, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. If PS4s are selling now, "when there are no games," then it's safe to project strong sales through 2015.

There's no doubt that Xbox One's introduction and rollout were terrible. Disastrous, even. The fact that Microsoft revealed Xbox One to the world in such a blundering fashion at the same time Sony was hitting all of the right notes with PlayStation 4 made Microsoft's series of bad decisions even worse. It was especially confusing considering this was Microsoft's race to lose. For as well as Sony handled the PS4 pre-launch, Microsoft has no one to blame about negative consumer perception but itself. Its errors were completely unforced.But Xbox One isn't without its own slate of tantalizing exclusives -- long-term or timed -- that could slowly build into a roster worthy of consideration from those still sitting on the fence. Ori and the Blind Forest, Crackdown, Inside, Halo 5, Below, and others will be buttressed by strong third-party support in 2015, creating a landscape more welcoming to prospective players. There's no reason why, on paper, that lineup can't stand toe-to-toe with what PlayStation 4 will have to offer, even if PS4 is likely to continue enjoying a sales advantage moving forward.

But let us not forget history. PlayStation 3's rollout was also terrible, arguably just as bad as Xbox One's, with a horrendous price point backed-up by few notable games and a ton of classic Sony golden era bravado. But Sony turned the ship around. It took time, it took effort, it took patience, and it took money, but PS3 and Xbox 360 are at general sales parity today, a stunning feat considering Xbox 360 came out a full calendar year earlier and had already begun establishing itself on the market by the time PS3 launched in 2006. Don't let the revisionist historians fool you: there were plenty of people writing PS3's eulogy in 2007, and even 2008, just as there have been some people confusingly writing Xbox One's eulogy this year.

Either way, it's time for the bickering to end. Xbox One may not be anywhere near PS4's level of success today, but that doesn't mean it isn't doing well in its own right, and that doesn't mean that it doesn't have a clear path towards even greater success in the future.Why couldn't Microsoft -- a company flush with money -- increase the rate of Xbox One's success, and then sustain it, even if it may never catch up with or surpass PlayStation 4 in global sales? Just think about what Microsoft managed to do with Xbox 360 against equally staunch (albeit bumbling) opposition? One console doing well doesn't necessarily preclude other consoles from also performing strongly, and with the competition between Sony and Microsoft at an all-time high, every gamer benefits from these two companies battling one another. After all, through competition comes better products, a story as old as capitalism itself.

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/10/22/xbox-one-could-hit-its-stride-in-2015

well it depends because lets see
division marketing witcher marketing
quantum halo 5
itll do worse the first half then explode 2nd half due to tr halo and quantum

Thats not how MS thinks, anything but a win is a failure.  They had a plan layed out with the original xbox, 360 did its part and took big market share and placed the xbox on a path to 1,  X1 pissed it all away.   Anything less then 360 numbers is a massive failure.  

Xbox Super Secret 2015

Xbox One sales are steadily outpacing the Xbox 360's nearly a year into their respective races.

Hasn't it been tracking well below the 360 during 2014?


With the competition between Sony and Microsoft at an all-time high, every gamer benefits from these two companies battling one another. After all, through competition comes better products, a story as old as capitalism itself.

That depends. Is MS going to create a big line of first party games the way Sony did for the ps3. Or is the cornered animal going to lash out and buy (timed) exclusives instead.

Once again, the "it's doing better than 360 in the same time frame" rears it's ugly head. The Xbone has sold 2.8M units since launch. Pretty positive the 360 sold more than that in its first January to October (edit: 360 did 3.74M from Dec 31, 2005 to Oct 14, 2006). Stop leaning on the Xbone's strong launch to make sales look better than they are, because clearly that launch momentum didn't carry into 2014. 360 did 1.17M at launch and got to 4.92M in the proceeding 10 months. Xbone did 3M at launch and got to 5.8M in the proceeding 10 months. 

Xbox 360 had a weaker launch due to the underwhelming Xbox. Xbone had a good launch due to the really popular 360. So, it's really an apples to oranges comparison, but the fact remains that post-launch, 360 sales were good and Xbone sales have been abysmal. So stop saying it's "doing better than 360". It's not.

Yes.

Considerign the Xbox 360 was still supply constrained at this time in it's lifecycle and the Xbox one is freely avaialble....  That just means the gap would be wider.

They are missing a huge piece. The market has moved to PS4, and it is snowballing. Also they left out the point about multiplats being the key and the PS4 has the best version of each of those.

Wheres that '...will save the xbox one' chalkboard, add sunset, halo mcc and 2015 to it. then cross it off

As I understand it, from VGChartz estimates, this is patently wrong. The Xbox One crushed the 360 on launch but has been outsold by the 360 pretty consistently since then.

ETA: what protendo said.